Boo-reos!

I went to the supermarket a week ago and found out that Oreos have brought out a new kind of Oreo for Halloween. They have 5 different designs on them and have an orange coloured filling. The flavour is the same (which I am happy with). I was inspired by the colour and the fact that it was Dairy Week on Bake Off and I didn’t feel like tackling any of the challenges yet.

So I present to you, my oreo cheesecake recipe, with a new halloween twist!

Try out the ghost face alternative using regular oreos below.

Ingredients

400g Halloween Orange Oreos (scoop out the filling and keep to one side)

200g butter (vegan butter works too)

750-800g cream cheese (vegan cream cheese also works)

200g caster sugar

3 tbsp plain flour

3 + 1 yolk eggs (use egg replacement, or 2 tsp of veggie gelatin + 1/2 tsp xanthan gum)

200ml sour cream (vegan version, just leave out)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Some more oreos (for decoration you need at least 5 for the cheesecake filling and 3-4 minus the filling for the decoration on top)

50g more sour cream

1x 8 inch cake tin

Method

Put your oven on to 180c/350F/Gas 4

Take your oreos and scoop out the filling. I will say this also works with regular coloured oreos. Leave the filling to one side in a bowl- you will need it for the topping/decoration. Weigh out around 400-450g of the cookie part and put them into a food processor. Blitz until they turn into breadcrumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, then a ziplock bag will do- then bash it until breadcrumbs. Put into a bowl and add your butter. It helps to have the butter at room temperature and diced. With your hands (yes, get stuck in!) or a food processor, mix the butter into the crumbs until its fully incorporated.

Press the oreos into the base of a lined 8” cake tin and up the sides. You want the base and sides to be rougly 5mm thick everywhere. Use your fingers to move it all around. Put into the oven for 10 minutes to bake the cookies and butter together. This will help make it more solid. Take out, and if the sides have slumped down, wait until it has cooled slightly and use a flat bottomed glass to press and reposition the oreos back to their sides. Leave to cool on the side.

If you have a stand mixer, use it now. If not, get a big bowl and throw all the cheesecake ingredients into the bowl/stand mixer bowl. You need the Cream Cheese, Caster Sugar, Eggs, Flour, Sour Cream, and vanilla.
Once you have everything in the bowl, mix thoroughly, and crush in 5 oreos, mixing them through with a spoon/mixer.

Pour your filling into the oreo base shell until it comes right up to the top of the oreo walls.

Put into the oven for 45-1 hr until the middle has a very slight wobble. Please be patient with this.

Once there is the tiniest of wobbles, take out and put on a wire rack to cool on the side, then place into the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight to cool completely and solidify.

When the cheesecake has solidified, its time to decorate. Take the filling you set aside and add 50g of soured cream mixing until the consistency is like a thick yoghurt. (vegan version, use 10-20ml of oat milk, added gradually to reach yoghurt like consistency)

This should be a beautiful shade of orange if you are using the halloween oreos, or a beautiful off white if you use regular.

Take 3-4 oreos and take the filling out of those and crush them up to make breadcrumbs.

Pour your sourcream topping onto your cheesecake and spread until the top is covered. Now take a spoon and draw lines curving down from one point to make it look like a pumpkin. You can make a ghost version by pouring the white filling on top also. Now take your crumbs and using a small spoon, spoon the mix on to make triangular eyes, and a spooky mouth, and finally some for the stalk. Ghost version, is use the cookie crumbs to make a ghost face.

Slice, eat, enjoy!