Rosie Makes Youngest Hawthorne A Birthday Oreo Cheesecake.

No, this is not a Jackson Pollack painting.

It's Youngest Hawthorne's birthday cake. The only input I had from YH was, "Oreos. I want Oreos in it." So, I'm thinking a cheesecake with an Oreo crust and a layer of crumbled Oreos in the middle of the cheesecake with a sweet sour cream top. And chocolate. There's always gotta be chocolate.

For the Oreo crust: 20 Oreos, crushed 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted Mix Oreos crumbs and butter. Press evenly into bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

I nuked the butter and poured the crushed crumbs in. I use a plastic bag and a rolling pin to crush the cookies with. No sense having to clean up a processor. I love the smell of melted butter and chocolate.

Mix well.

Roll the crust mixture evenly in the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Use plastic. The crumbs don't stick and there's no clean-up. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling:

My mise en place: 15 Oreos, coarsely chopped 4 packages cream cheese, room temperature 4 eggs, room temperature 3 yolks, room temperature 1 1/4 cups sugar 2 TB flour 1/3 cup whipping cream 1 TB vanilla extract Beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Slowly beat in sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in flour. Add eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in whipping cream and vanilla. Pour half of batter onto prepared crust. Sprinkle with chopped Oreos. Pour remaining batter and smooth out. Place on baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 225 degrees and bake 50 minutes. Remove cake from oven and increase temperature to 350 degrees. Mix 1 pint sour cream and 1/4 cup sugar. Spread evenly over cake and return to 350 degree oven for 7 minutes. Let cool at room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.

Sugar going into beaten cream cheese. Always add sugar slowly to incorporate it in whatever it's going into, be it cream cheese here, or beaten eggs for a cake recipe.

Beat in flour.

Action shot of egg going in.

Egg!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a good action egg picture?

Whup in the cream.

I like a lot of vanilla.

I poured half the batter into my springform pan

then sprinkled coarsely chopped Oreos on top.

Pour the remaining batter over top.

Don't worry if some of the Oreos rise to the surface. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes Reduce heat to 225 degrees and bake an additional 50 minutes.

Here's my cheesecake after baking. I turned the oven up to 350 degrees and I'm preparing my topping.

Mix one pint of sour cream and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat well, so the sugar is incorporated.

Pour the sour cream over top of the cake.

Spread evenly with a spatula.

Bale in the 350 degree oven for 7 minutes. Let cool at room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, I unmolded my cheesecake. I love the white layer of sour cream on top.

Ooooooh. Purty.

I'll just rotate the cheesecake so you can see all the way around.

Of course I couldn't leave the cake nekkid.

I melted some dark chocolate and stirred until completely smooth.

Then I took a fork, dipped it in the chocolate, and, with a controlled tremor in my hand, zig-zagged the chocolate over top.

I thought it needed a draping of chocolate along the outside.

Now for the taste test.

Look at the pretty white sour cream topping and how it contrasts with the rich, Creamy-with-a-Capital-C, and decadently luscious filling.

Check out the Oreo layer.

I'll just take pictures from all sides, so's you can get an idea of this little delicacy. I love the sweet sour cream layer on top. Gives it a nice finish.

Indulge.