Baked Chocolate Cheesecake

Calling all chocolate lovers, this ultimate chocolate cheesecake with chocolate cookie crust, creamy chocolate filling and chocolate ganache topping is for you. Yes, it’s baked but I promise it’s incredibly easy and delicious.

• Quick and easy to make.
• Amazing creamy, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
• No water bath required – so simple.
• Loaded with chocolate flavour.
• A lovely balance of sweetness and tang.
• Make ahead and freezer friendly.

This is truly the best ever chocolate cheesecake and everyone will be asking for the recipe. With triple chocolate flavour from the crust, filling and topping it can even be made in advance and frozen for up to 2 months, so you can get prepared now for Christmas! Or for any upcoming party.

You can even turn it into this stunning black forest cheesecake.

An easy baked cheesecake recipe

Don’t let the ‘baked’ part scare you – it’s totally simple. I’ve made both baked cheesecakes like this easy baked cherry cheesecake and no-bake cheesecakes like my dulce de leche white chocolate cheesecake. While the ingredients and process are slightly different, a baked cheesecake takes no more effort to make than a no-bake cheesecake. It also doesn’t take any longer. A no-bake cheesecake has making and setting time, while a baked cheesecake has a similar make, bake and cool time.

The texture of a baked cheesecake is a little denser where no bake cheesecakes tend to have a fluffier texture (due to the addition of whipped cream). Both are truly wonderful and both will melt in your mouth. I’ve developed my baked cheesecake recipes to be really easy so you don’t need to worry about water baths or wrapping the tin in foil.

Ingredients you’ll need

You will likely have a lot of what you need on hand, if not all. We always have these ingredients in our pantry and fridge so I can literally make this baked chocolate cheesecake on a whim.

Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.

• Oreos: The cheesecake cookie crust is made with original Oreos (no extra stuffed ones). If you don’t like oreos, you can use plain chocolate cookies / biscuits, digestive biscuits, chocolate wafers or graham crackers. If using a cookie without cream, I find you need roughly another 2 tablespoons (28g) of butter.
• Butter: You’ll need unsalted butter for the cookie crust.
• Chocolate: Since this is where your chocolate flavour is coming from, don’t skimp. Get a good quality 70% dark chocolate (bittersweet chocolate). Even if you don’t like eating dark chocolate it is the perfect bitterness to counteract the sweetness and the cheesecake does not taste like dark chocolate – just rich. A chocolate bar will melt more easily than chocolate chips so stick to a good eating bar of chocolate.
• Cream cheese: Use full fat cream cheese and make sure it’s softened before starting so it blends together nicely.
• Sugar: Just regular white granulated sugar or caster sugar is perfect.
• Vanilla: Make sure to use a pure vanilla extract (not essence).
• Eggs: I use large free-range eggs. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature so the cheesecake batter can blend together smoothly. Cold ingredients are a struggle to make smooth.
• Sour cream: I use light sour cream, simply because that’s what we always have in the fridge, but full fat sour cream will work too and make the cheesecake even richer.
• Cream: The ganache is made using thickened cream (also known in other parts of the world as heavy cream or even fluid whipping cream).

I serve my baked chocolate cheesecake with a blackberry compote on the side. Any berry compote would work. It has a lovely tang that goes beautifully with the richness of the cake. You could also serve it with some whipped cream or simply serve it au natural.

Detailed quantities and instructions in the recipe card below.

1. The Oreo cookie crust: The base is an incredibly easy mix of Oreo cookie crumbs and butter. You could use any chocolate cream biscuit you like though – for my Aussie readers, Arnotts Delta Creams also work wonders here. All you need to do is blitz them in a food processor, or if you’re looking to vent some frustration, place them in a plastic bag and bash away (gently) with a rolling pin, then you just add melted butter. Press it into a springform tin and the base is ready.
2. The chocolate cheesecake filling: Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then one by one you’ll add the remaining filling ingredients, beating in each one until super smooth. The final step is folding in the melted chocolate and it turns it into the most silky, luscious chocolate cheesecake filling.
3. Bake: Pour the cheesecake filling over the chilled base and level it out, then bake for around an hour.
4. Setting: There are a few stages to the cooling time. Leave it in the oven with the oven turned off and door ajar first for ½ an hour – this slow progression to cool the cake is what will stop cracks from forming. Then you’ll let it rest at room temperature for ½ an hour before finally transferring it to the fridge to chill completely for about 6 hours. I’ll be honest and say I’m impatient and have sped this up before by placing it in the freezer for 30 minutes and I had it perfectly chilled within 4 hours of baking time.
5. The chocolate ganache: Literally the icing the on the cake, the chocolate ganache is another rich chocolate layer and the perfect way to finish the cake. Just mix heated cream with finely chopped chocolate and mix until it’s smooth and glossy. You can let it cool if it’s too runny until it’s a nice consistency that you can spread on top of the cheesecake. The ganache can be added after an hour or two of chilling the cheesecake.

FAQ’s

Yield and storage

This recipe serves 10-12. It’s not a deep cheesecake so a slightly larger slice is appreciated by most.

Keep it chilled: The cheesecake must be kept chilled and can be served straight from the refrigerator. It will keep, in an airtight container in the fridge, for 4-5 days.

Freezing: You can freeze this chocolate cheesecake, making it perfect for making in advance. Freezing individual slices makes it easy to just take as much at a time as you need and they will thaw quicker than a whole cheesecake. That being said, you can freeze the cake whole. I would thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours before serving. If freezing slices, let them freeze until solid, then wrap them individually in plastic wrap.

More recipes you’ll love

• Baked Salted Caramel Cheesecake
• Black Forest Cheesecake
• No Bake Oreo Cheesecake
• No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
• No Bake Lemon Meringue Cheesecake