Improv Cooking Challenge: Ebony & Ivory = Black & White Cheesecake!

 

Creamy, chocolaty, cheesecake…mmm….

This month’s cooking challenge from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker: making something Ebony and Ivory, aka anything black/brown & white.

I thought about trying to make a savory dish, but then I thought of these. No questions, had to do it. The tricky part? I gave up chocolate for lent *gasp*. So I haven’t even tried these yet! However, I did bring them into work for a company Around the World day (I’m Italian. Cheesecake is Italian. boom) and has assured that they are finger-licking good.

What exactly is in the you ask?

We start with a layer of Oreo crust using half regular oreos, have golden Oreos. (Note, full disclosure, I use Giant-brand “Oreos.” They’re delicious and more economical, which matters when you love these tasty sandwich creme cookies as much as I do…

Anyway, that’s the crust. Then a layer of regular cheesecake, followed by a layer of chocolate cheesecake, and topped off with a mascarpone whipped cream. Sooo creamy and decadent. Chyeah, are you drooling? I was.

Served a few of them on one of my dishes from Barcelona. Not that that actually makes any sense since it’s supposed to be Italian. But…it looks pretty, no?

I am DYING to try them. And you better believe I saved a tupperware-full of these babies in my fridge so that I can have them when lent is over– IN 3 DAYS!! Oh boy, it’s exciting.

They take a few steps to make, but really none of it is too hard, and you end up with a very sophisticated-tasting dessert. I could have cut them a bit cleaner, and ideally they would be topped with “Oreos” because you can never have too many…; however, I was cutting them at 7am and had to get myself movin’ to get to the office!

Alrighty, here we go with the recipe.

Creamy Black & White Cheesecake
Makes one 13×9 inch pan, about 40-50 bars, depending on how small you slice ’em.

Ingredients:
Crust:
15 Regular sandwich cream cookies, such as Oreos
15 Golden sandwich cream cookiesm such as Golden Oreos
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Regular Cheesecake Layer:
2 8-oz bricks of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Chocolate Cheesecake Layer:
2 8-0z bricks cream cheese, softened
4.85 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips and weighed out 4.85 oz on my kitchen scale)
1/2 cup + 1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar (1/2 tablespoon = 1 1/2 tsps)
1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs

Mascarpone Whipped Cream
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 13×9 inch pan with foil, leaving an overhang on the ends with the foil to use as handles to pull the cheesecake of the pan later. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
2) For the crust, pulverize the sandwich cream cookies in a food processor or blender. Then, add in the melted butter and pulse until the butter is distributed throughout. Dump the mixture into your prepared pan. Using a wooden spoon (or your clean hands) firmly press the crumbs along the bottom of the pan, making the crust. Set that aside.
3) Now, the regular cheesecake layer. In your stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream together, stopping a few times to use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once that’s all combined, add in the vanilla and the eggs. Continue the mixer on a medium speed until you have a homogeneous creamy batter. mmmmmmm
4) Spread that batter evenly over the crust.
5) Now, in the same bowl, you’ll make the chocolate layer. First though, melt the chocolate. I did this in the microwave. I stirred the chocolate chips every 30 seconds and it took about 2 minutes total. Allow this to cool a bit. Now, back in your big bowl, put the 2 remaining bricks of cream cheese, the sugar, the cocoa, and the melted chocolate. Beat until all combined. Then add in the eggs. Beat again until you’ve created another creamy delicious batter.
6) Spread that layer over the regular cheesecake layer. Then, take a knife and swirl the batters together a bit, like this:

That knife stroke in the middle was me getting a little carried away. Whoopsy. Try to avoid that 🙂

7) Bake in your preheated oven 45-50 minutes, or until the middle is almost set. It’ll still be a bit jiggly. Yes, it’ll jiggle!
8) Cool the cheesecake in the pan on a wire cooling rack. Once it’s totally cool, add on the mascarpone whipped cream.
9) To make the whipped cream, beat the mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla on high speed in the large bowl. Keep on beatin’ until you’ve made a whipped cream and can create stiff peaks with the beaters.

10) I tried to artfully swirl the whipped cream, see?

Well, you can sort of see it anyway!

11) Now, cover the pan with a lid or foil. Refirdge for about 3 hours or overnight.
12) Then, to cut, use your foil handles to pull it out of the pan.

Peel back the sides of the foil from the sides of the cheesecake.

And slice!

MmMmMmMmMm I hope you enjoy!!! I’m looking forward to mine on Sunday 😀