Cheesecake madness.

How madness unfolds:

Wednesday: Wake up at 3am thinking about cheesecake.
Thursday: Buy a food processor for the soul purpose of making a more consistent cheesecake base.
Friday: Spend day thinking about how to make cheesecake then making said cheesecake.
Saturday: Eat cheesecake.
Sunday: Eat leftover, slightly more dense and therefore more delicious cheesecake.

An amateur cook, the recipe below is a mish-mash of recipes I’ve read with a few of my own ingredients and methods thrown in. If you try it, let me know about your results!

My experience with the cake:

• The longer it rests, the better- I let it rest for about 12 hours but the gelatine worked best after a day and the cheesecake became very dense
• I suck at transferring cakes (spot the finger digs and accidental bumps!) but the good thing about this cake is that crumbs hide all! If you dent your the cake on the side, run a knife around it. If you stick a finger into the top, Oreo crumbs will save it! 

Leftover batter? Miniature cheesecakes!

No-Bake Oreo Mocha Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients:

Base:

• 20 Oreo Cookies
• 70g Butter

Filling:

• 3 blocks of cream cheese (750 g)
• ½ cup of caster sugar
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 heaped tablespoons of cooking cocoa
• 2 tablespoons fresh ground coffee
• 2 tablespoons of edible gelatine powder
• 60 mL boiling water
• 1 cup cooking cream

To Decorate (optional):

• 8 whole Oreo Cookies

Bring all ingredients to room temperature before starting

Base Method:

1. Separate the Oreo cookie biscuit from the cream, blitzing them in a food processor until rough crumbs form. Optional: Set aside 2 tablespoons aside for decoration of the cheesecake.
2. Cube the butter, blitzing it in with the cookie crumbs until it can be easily clumped together in your fist.
3. Line the base of a 23cm springform tin and press the mixture into the base, storing in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

Filling method:

1. Whip the cream until thick and stiff
2. Cube the cream cheese then beat until smooth. When it’s smooth, beat in the sugar and condensed milk.
3. Fold in the whipped cream, cocoa and ground coffee
4. Dissolve the gelatine powder into the warm water, making sure to keep stirring it, otherwise it will clump up. Drizzle it around your filling mixture as you continue to beat it.
5. Pour on top of biscuit base, using a rubber spatula to spread it all the way to the sides of the tin, otherwise you will end up with air pockets
6. Refrigerate for half an hour then sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs and wedge in the whole Oreo cookies evenly around the sides- I put in 2 at a time (opposite each other) so that I could get an even, symmetrical look
7. Let the cake rest for a day in the fridge (12 – 24 hours)
8. Transfer the cheesecake onto a large plate and serve!