Oreo flavored black chocolate cheesecake swirled into creamy vanilla cheesecake on an Oreo crust and you’ve got Oreo Swirled Cheesecake.

I’ve been working on this recipe since before Thanksgiving. I’ve been wanting to use my black cocoa for a cheesecake recipe for a while. Many cheesecake recipes incorporate Oreos but I wanted a cheesecake that tasted like one.

Black cocoa is what gives Oreo cookies their distinctive flavor. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. Beware though. A little black cocoa goes a LONG way.

I discovered this in my first attempts. Oreo swirled cheesecake starts with one batch of cheesecake batter. You divide the batter and add black cocoa to part of it. In my first attempt, I divided the batter in half and alternated pouring vanilla batter and chocolate onto the crust. (Just like you would for a swirled cake).

What I didn’t realize was that the black cocoa makes the chocolate batter much more dense than the vanilla batter. So the chocolate swirls sank through the vanilla ones and gave me a pretty uniformly chocolate cheesecake. I also didn’t have enough batter for the pan so the cheesecake was a bit flat.

In this attempt, I increased the batter volume by one third. I only added cocoa to two cups of the batter and I put about half of the vanilla batter in the pan before I layered about half the chocolate on top. Then another layer of vanilla and then the last of the chocolate. You can see by the curved line that the middle chocolate layer still sunk. To get the decorative top I spooned the chocolate batter in lines on the top and then ran a knife through them.

This version is more like a double stuff Oreo – more vanilla than chocolate. Double stuff Oreos are my favorite. When I was a kid, I used to give the cookies to the dog after I ate the filling. If you want more chocolate, add 1 tablespoon black cocoa per cup of vanilla batter to make more chocolate batter.

Yield: 8 - 12 servings

Oreo Swirled Cheesecake

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 55 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 24 Oreos
• 3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
• 3 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups plain yogurt
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ½ - 1 tablespoon vanilla (adjust to your taste)
• 2 tablespoons black cocoa

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pulverize Oreos in a food processor. Press cookie crumbs into the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan. Use the back of a spoon to press the cookie crumbs into a solid. Bake for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 300°F.
2. Put all remaining ingredients except cocoa in a mixer. Mix on high for 5 minutes or until smooth.
3. Put 2 cups of the batter in a new bowl and mix in the cocoa.
4. Use a large sheet of aluminum foil to cover the outside of the springform pan. Repeat with a second sheet of aluminum foil.
5. Spoon about half of the vanilla batter on top of the crust. Then spoon about half to two-thirds of the chocolate batter on top of the vanilla batter. Cover with the remaining vanilla batter. Then swirl the remaining chocolate batter on the vanilla batter. If you want a decorative look, spoon the chocolate batter in lines and then use a knife to cut across the lines.
6. Place the pan in a larger pan (I use a cast iron skillet) and place in the oven. Use a measuring cup to fill the outer pan with water.
7. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes until the center is still jiggly but the outer inch is solid.

Notes

To make the cheesecake easier to remove from the pan, I lined the bottom with parchment paper. I cut a square of parchment larger than the bottom and closed the springform pan around it.

If you like more chocolate, you can make more chocolate batter from the vanilla batter. Use 1 tablespoon cocoa for each cup of vanilla batter.