I decided to buck tradition this year and I made this Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake for Thanksgiving instead of apple or pumpkin pie. Brandon and I both LOVE cheesecake and he insists that it’s more pie than cake, so in his mind, I still made the traditional pie. I used my previous cheesecake recipe, (which IMHO is the best) but modified it by adding melted white and dark chocolate, a method I’ve seen in a bunch of other recipes. If you remember from my previous sojourn into cheesecake baking I had some issues getting it right (it looked undercooked, though it really wasn’t). I baked it a bit differently this time and found this is definitely the right way to do it. Plus I think this new method makes it much more like a real New York cheesecake (or so I’ve heard) because it browns the top and sides slightly. While this method made the top kind of flaky looking (nothing you notice when you are eating it), the cake itself didn’t crack.
I thought all the chocolate would make it too rich, but it really didn’t. It tasted deliciously smooth and creamy and was also quite fun to make. I was in the mood for a normal graham cracker crust this time, but I can’t help thinking how good it would be with the oreo cookie crust of my original recipe. Hmm, maybe for Christmas…
If you like this cheesecake recipe, check out these variations:
- Cherry-topped Cheesecake Supreme
- Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Supreme Cheesecake Supreme
- Oreo Cheesecake Supreme
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Supreme
- Swirled Caramel and Pumpkin Cheesecake Supreme
- Citrus Swirled Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Supreme
adapted from Allrecipes.com
Ingredients
Crust
- 2-3 cups Oreo cookies with cream center removed, finely ground*
- 6 -8 tbsp. of butter*
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/8 tsp. salt
Cheesecake
- 5 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, room temperature**
- 5 eggs, room temperature
- 2 egg yolks, room temperature
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature
- 4 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 6 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped
Special Equipment
Process
Make the crust: Mix crumbs, sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl until combined and press into the bottom and, if you want, about an inch or two up the sides of a 10″ springform pan (springform pan is key, make sure you have one).
Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven and bake for 10 minutes. Let crust cool completely while you make the cheesecake.
Important: TURN OFF YOUR OVEN, it should not be preheated when you put your cheesecake in.
Mix the filling: In a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment, whisk together cream cheese, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 3-5 minutes. (It’s okay if you still have some very small lumps.)
Add in the sugar, flour, and heavy cream and mix on low speed until fully incorporated about 1-2 minutes. Do not over-mix as this will create more air bubbles which can contribute to your cake cracking.
Add the chocolate: Meanwhile, melt dark and white chocolate in separate saucepans on the stove. Once melted, remove both pans from heat and let cool for at least 5 minutes.
Stir 1/3 of the batter into the pan with the melted dark chocolate. Set aside. Stir the melted white chocolate into the bowl with the remaining batter.
Pour 1/3 of the white chocolate mixture into the prepared crust. Drop spoonfuls of the dark chocolate mixture on top. Pour in the rest of the white chocolate mixture over that. Finally, drop in spoonfuls of the rest of the dark chocolate mixture and swirl it all around with a knife, but don’t overmix.
Bake: Pour batter into your prepared crust. Gently tap the pan against your counter a few times to help get any possible air bubbles out of the batter.
Place your cheesecake in the oven and then turn it on to 400 degrees (F). Bake for 15 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 200 degrees (F). Bake for 3 hours.
Turn the oven off, prop open the door slightly, and let cool for 1 hour.
Finally, cover the top with plastic wrap, place it in your refrigerator, and chill for a full 24 hours before removing the springform pan’s side and serving.
Recipe Notes
*Use 2 cups ground Oreos and 6 tbsp. butter for a flat crust. Use 3 cups ground Oreos and 8 tbsp. of butter to add crust around the sides of your pan.
**Your cream cheese should be very soft to get the smoothest batter with the least amount of mixing time. I usually leave my cream cheese sitting on the counter all day or even overnight.
That looks sooooo good! I have a great cheesecake recipe, I have never thought about dropping in chocolate, thanks for the idea!
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oh my gosh…YUM!
Hmmmmm! At last! Someone who loves graham cracker crust as much as me!
Wow. That looks amazing! I’m sure no one at your table missed pumpkin pie this year!
Looks delicious! I do not make many cheesecakes but my DIL loves them so I may give this one a try for her Birthday.
Freakin’ Gorgeous!
look great!! I like your marble effect design:))
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That is one beautiful cheesecake- I’m bookmarking the recipe!
I did a pumpkin swirl cheesecake for Thanksgiving, using a gingersnap cookie crust. Unfortunately, my crust stuck to the bottom of the springform pan. I couldn’t get it unstuck!
How did your graham cracker crust turn out?
@nate: The crust turned out great. I have had that problem with previous cheesecakes before, but never with this recipe. I just make sure to butter the pan A LOT.
And thanks everyone else!
Lightly butter the bottom of the spring form pan place a piece of parchment paper that has been cut to size to fit the bottom of the pan before pressing in the crust. Slides easily onto a beautiful serving plate.
heaven…i’m in heaven.
your creation is picture-perfect and undoubtedly delicious. color me green with envy. 🙂
What a gorgeous cake and a fantastic recipe! White chocolate? YUM!!!
What an AWESOME looking cheesecake!!
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This looks so yummy. I am going to make it for Christmas.
I am going to try this recipe this week only this time I will add crushed peppermints on top of the melted white chocolate and pour it over the crust (before adding the batter)I will add the batter after the chocolate turns back to a solid again. Then
whent the cake is cooled I will add broken pieces of white chocolate and dark chocolate peppermint bark to the top of the cake & possibly a chocolate sauce too. My goal is Peppermint bark cheesecake so I will adapt your yummy recipe and see what happens. Oh and I made a turtle pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving using crushed oreos for the crust it was awesome!!! It will be a new holiday tradition and i hope this one will be too.
Wow, that sounds really good. I may have to try that, too!
Omg i love chocolate and that cheese cake look yummmmmyy!!!!
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Your cake is a piece of art! It makes the mouth watery instantly an looks nicely cheesy and discretly sweet at the same time. Pictures also quite professional!
I will bake this nice piece and take a portion to work every day…
Thanks!
sight of desserts like these drive me really hungry
Thank you for this recipe, I made it for my sister-in-laws birthday and all you could hear were moans of satisfaction for several minutes when everyone first dug in. Great recipe. Thanks!
This cheesecake looks delicious!!!
White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant, but it is not ‘chocolate.’ According to the FDA, to be called ‘chocolate’ a product must contain
chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the biter intense chocolate flavor (and color) to dark and milk chocolates.
This looks fabulous! I will make it soon and I’m sure it will be well worth the extra walking I will do….Can’t wait to enjoy it! Thanks for a great site..forwarding to my 3 daughters as well:)
The photo of food makes me really hungry. One thing, don’t gloss over the selection of spices in your recipes. I didn’t think twice about spice until I tried Juliet Mae spice. I got some Ceylon Cinnamon and it was like nothing I had ever had. Find a good spice company, it can really add to the finished product.
I came across this recipe a few weeks ago and thought it looked divine. I bookmarked the page hoping I would get a chance to make it. I made it last week and it was one of the most amazing things I have EVER eaten. It was so much better than any cheesecake that I had ever made before or even bought. Thanks!
It does looks supreme…..
I have to try it.. thanks
a) yum
b) i love your dishes
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That looks sooos delicious!
Oh my goodness, that looks delicious – can’t wait to try it out.
Thanks for sharing.
I made this cheesecake for Thanksgiving (without a mixer, I might add! Ahh!) and it was phenomenal!! Certainly the best cheesecake recipe I’ve ever made or tasted. I’m pretty positive that some of the tasters STILL don’t believe it was made by me! Definitely worth the effort and the time put into it; thank you so much for sharing your recipe 🙂
This is one of the very best cheesecake recipes I have made. I would like to do a peppermint version of this, what do you suggest?
You should read Desiree’s comment above if haven’t already as she describes adding crushed peppermint and topping it all with peppermint bark, which is an interesting idea. I’m not sure I’d really be into biting into the chunks of peppermint, though. Maybe you could just do something as simple as adding a little peppermint extract to the white chocolate batter (probably only about 1/4 tsp, a little of that extract goes a long way). I have made peppermint bark before and I always use white chocolate instead of dark, so I know the combination works well. And I think the contrast between the peppermint white chocolate and the normal chocolate would be good and the cheesecake wouldn’t be super overpowered with peppermint flavoring. And I’d probably use an oreo cookie crust instead of graham crackers, peppermint and graham crackers don’t sound so great together to me!
When you say 5 eggs and 2 egg yolks, is this 5 whole eggs plus the two extra yolks, or is this 5 egg whites and only 2 egg yolks?
It’s 5 whole eggs plus 2 extra egg yolks. You could use the unused egg whites to make an egg white omelet to help save some calories in anticipation for this cheesecake. 😉
Okay this looks absolutely amazing. I can’t wait to try it!
Beautifully and apparently tasty. Thank you.
I want it.. now. Give it. Now. Right now.
Hi, I tried this yesterday. It was very good! Shared it on my blog.
Looks to die for! can’t wait to try!!!!
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Hii this looks sooooooo yummy.. One question though.. Does this mean I gotta add 40 oz of cream cheese?
LOL, yep it has A LOT of cream cheese! I think it’s completely worth having to buy 40 oz because it’s SO thick and creamy. It’s still my go-to cheesecake recipe after 2 years. Everyone loves it!
I suppose in theory you could reduce to maybe 4 packages of cream cheese? I haven’t done that, but I imagine it would be ok. I wouldn’t go any less than that, though!
OMG… i love you… 🙂 seriously this was yummmmmmmmmy! and looked so pretty everyone loved it and thats after i over baked it too… thank u thank u sooooo much.. xoxoxo
Emily… I don’t know if you’ll get this before it’s too late, but umm… I didn’t read the instructions completely until I was in the middle of making the cake… I started making it at 10pm to serve at a pot luck at work the next day around 12pm… I am cooking it the full 3 hours at the lower temp, but it will only be refrigerated maybe 8-9 hours max… what will happen? Should I put it in the freezer? Will it fall apart when I remove the spring pan? HELP PLEASE!
I think 8-9 hours is ok. As long you cook it the full 3 hours it will be completely solid, it won’t fall apart or anything like that. I think the extra time in the fridge is more about flavor development, so it may be a bit milder than it normally would be? But that seems more than enough time to chill it through so I think you should be fine. I know I’ve cut into it at around 12 hours before and it was good. I hope you like it!
I have coffee and now I need something like this–> https://backtothecuttingboard.com/dessert/black-and-white-chocolate-cheesecake-supreme/
It looks so good! I want to make it for my mother’s birthday since she is a cheesecake fan 🙂 But I have one question. How tall is this cake? I have a 10″ x 2,4″ springform pan. Will it work? Because this cake looks very tall. Thank you!!
Yeah, this is a tall cheesecake. But I just measured my springform pan and realized that I’ve been using a 9″ x 3″ pan all this time, when I thought I had a 10″ x 3″ pan. I always have leftover cheesecake so that explains why. So I think in an actual 10″ pan it should be fine even if it’s not as tall as my pan. The cheesecake puffs up a bit, but nothing substantial so you can fill it almost to the top.
And if you do have leftover batter you can make mini cheesecakes in foil lined cupcake tins. Bake them at the same temps, but they only need about an hour.
It’s in the oven right now! My mum never made a cheesecake before, but this looks like this one is going to be a regular in our house. Thank you 🙂
Looks so tasty. It’s amazing the variety of cheesecakes that can be made. Yet another for my list.
That looks amazing! Definitely try to do at home. Thanks for the recipe!
i just made this amazing cheesecake https://t.co/urs7lbSP you should definitely give it a try!
Nice recipe! Just couldn’t understand the method very well.
You don’t say whether to mix the dark chocolate with the batter or to just stir the melted dark chocolate in the batter.
Hi Melanie,
Step six says to pour 1/3 of the batter into the pan of melted dark chocolate. That seems pretty clear to me but I’ll try to update it to be more specific. Thanks for letting me know.
I don’t see that you used a waterbath for the cheesecake. Did I miss that or is this a recipe that doesn’t call for a waterbath?
Is it possible to leave out the white chocolate and leave this as a vanilla cheesecake with the dark chocolate mixture mixed in? I would be cooking this for someone who only likes the plain variety and I’d like to add the dark chocolate in case he might want to eat around the yummy chocolate parts. I think chocolate cheesecake is the bomb but apparently I am alone in the opinion in my immediate circle of family.
Lovely pictures, by the way!! Your whole website is chock full of wonderful recipes and deliciously tantalizing photos!!
Nope, the recipe doesn’t need a waterbath. I think because it cooks at such a low temperature it’s not necessary. I’ve never had a problem with this cheesecake cracking UNLESS I overmixed the batter. Overmixing adds extra air bubbles which will cause cracking so just be careful about that and make sure all your cream cheese is at room temperature so it will mix in easier.
But yes, you can leave out the white chocolate if you want. I’m with you on the chocolate cheesecake love but my boyfriend prefers the plain kind, too. I don’t get it. 🙂
Thanks, Dianna! I hope you like it!!
Hi,
I just wanted to make sure that it’s 3 hours to bake? Thank you!
Yep, that’s correct. Baking at a low temperature helps keep it from cracking, but it also means you have to cook it for a longer time. The other variations I linked to in the post have instructions for baking in smaller pans if you’re looking to speed up the baking time.
Hey there! Not sure if you’re still replying to comments on this post. I love the look of this recipe, but I don’t have a springform pan. Can I just use a regular pie crust for this? Will there be too much batter? Or will it throw off the way it cooks if it’s cooked in a store-bought crust?
Hi Taylor,
I don’t think you can make this recipe in a regular pie crust, it would definitely be too much batter. If you half the recipe, maybe you could *try* it in deep dish pie pan, but for best results I really recommend a 10″ springform pan. This recipe can also be made into mini cheesecakes in a cupcake tin. Click on the link in the post to the Cherry-topped Cheesecake Supreme and there are instructions for making mini-cheesecakes in that recipe.
Does your cheesecake from this recipe crack? The last recipe I made for a yummy, thick cheesecake didn’t call for baking in a water bath and it cracked across the top. Other thick cheesecakes I baked in a water bath didn’t crack. So here’s the conundrum: I don’t want to bother with the water bath but I don’t want the cheesecake cracking either. Thanks for your response!
Hi Pamela,
This is actually why this recipe is my favorite. I was specifically looking for a recipe that avoided the water bath. Since the cheesecake is baked for a long time at a very low temperature and then very slowly cooled off in the oven, that prevents it from cracking. Make sure to follow the directions and don’t try to bake it any faster because that will cause it to crack.
On the rare occasion that I have had small cracks in my cheesecake it was due to overmixing, so just make sure that your cream cheese is really soft when you begin and mix with the whisk attachment, not the paddle. Don’t mix any longer than you have to. Also, right before you put it in the oven, tap it a few times against your counter to get any remaining air bubbles out of the batter.