Chocolate lovers, assemble! This easy Triple Chocolate Cheesecake is absolutely perfect. It’s one of the best chocolate recipes you can make. It’s a decadent dessert with a crispy crust, a creamy filling and a wonderful dark chocolate ganache on top.
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake
This dessert is called Triple Chocolate Cheesecake because it has 3 layers of chocolate. The first one is an Oreo cookie crust. Then you have a rich chocolate cheesecake filling and it’s finished with a silky and delicious dark chocolate ganache. All these three layers make for a lovely chocolate flavour. It’s a baked cheesecake which is my favourite type of cheesecake. I think it has the best texture! I have to say that this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake might be the best cheesecake there is.
Ingredients
The ingredients for this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake are pretty standard for a cheesecake, no weird ingredients here! You can easily get all of these in your local grocery store. Here’s the complete list:
- Oreo cookies: You need chocolate cookies for the chocolate cookie crust. You will use a food processor to turn them into fine crumbs, filling and all.
- Melted butter: The melted butter is added to the chocolate cookie crumbs to bring them together. You will press this mix into a prepared pan for the crust of the Triple Chocolate Cheesecake.
- Cream cheese: For this recipe, you want full-fat cream cheese at room temperature. The fat in the cream cheese is what gives this recipe the creamy texture.
- Sugar: We add sugar to sweeten the cheesecake.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: The cocoa powder adds a deeper chocolate flavour to the filling.
- Sour Cream: This ingredient is very important in this type of baked cheesecake. It adds a light tang that works very well at breaking the sweetness. It also compliments the chocolate extremely well. If you don’t have access to it, you can replace it with Greekñstyle yoghurt.
- Dark Chocolate: We add melted dark chocolate to the filling, you want it to be 60-70% cacao. The chocolate helps with the silkiness of the dish and just makes it that much more delicious. You will need the same chocolate for the ganache.
- Eggs: The eggs will give structure to our cheesecake filling and help it set.
- Whipping cream: The cream will be mixed with the dark chocolate to make a delicious and silky ganache.
Tips for a perfect Triple Chocolate Cheesecake
Baked cheesecakes can be a bit finicky to make. If it’s not your first time making one, I’m sure you agree. There are a few easy-to-follow tips that I can give you to achieve the best results when making this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake recipe.
- Room temperature cream cheese: To make the most smooth cheesecake batter, it’s essential to have the cream cheese at room temperature. If it’s cold it will be harder for your stand mixer or hand mixer to remove the lumps.
- Beating enough: When you’re beating the cream cheese, you want to beat it. Use the whisk attachment and beat the cream cheese with the sugar until you have no lumps at all. Any lumps that you don’t dissolve at this stage will stay in the finished, baked product. If you have a stand mixer, make sure to stop and scrape down the sides and bottom every couple of minutes so that it gets evenly beaten. This will create the most creamy chocolate cheesecake filling.
- Not over-beating: I know, BUT YOU JUST SAID BEATING ENOUGH. Yes, indeed. However, there’s a time for everything. You will leave the eggs for the very last and include them on low speed. There’s no need to switch the attachment to the paddle because at low speed there’s not much air going in. If you beat the mix too much at this point you will insert air bubbles into the cheesecake batter. Those air bubbles then would expand in the oven and collapse when it cools, creating cracks.
- Perfect baking: Baking your cheesecake too little will make it not structurally sound, it will collapse when you remove the pan or cut the slices. However, if you over-bake it, it will dry out and lose that silky smooth chocolate cheesecake filling texture. You want to remove it from the oven when if you shake it gently it looks like set jello. If it looks too liquidy, it’s too little. If it doesn’t shake, it was too much.
Preparing the springform pan
Another critical point in this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake is the baking. One of the things that can really affect the outcome and your mental sanity is the preparation of the springform pan. You need to add baking paper/parchment paper to the base and sides of the pan. What I do for the base is cut a piece large enough and then clip it in place using the pan’s lock. For the sides, I cut strips a bit taller than the sides and stick them in place by rubbing the pan with a bit of vegetable oil. Once you have it ready, you can now add the mixed ingredients for the chocolate Oreo crust and press it in place. As I’m making the filling, I like to place the pan with the crust in the freezer. This helps to keep it in place as I pour the cheesecake batter on top.
Baking the cheesecake
I have no idea how many critical points I have named so far in this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, but yes, baking is another one. I do, however, have good news for you. You do not need to place the springform pan inside the water bath. One of the things that I hated the most about making cheesecakes before was placing the pan in the water because no matter what I used, the water always seeped into the cake. This meant that the base came out completely soggy and horrible. Since then I have used an indirect water bath. You place a large roasting pan or baking pan with boiling hot water in an inferior level of the oven and place the cheesecake on a level above. The water vapour is enough for a gentle cooking and it will not crack.
Refrigerating and serving this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake
Once the cheesecake comes out of the oven, you need to take it cool to room temperature. There’s no need to keep it in the oven, room temperature is just fine. Once it has cooled down, you need to refrigerate it for at least 8 hours or overnight. It will finish to set in the fridge! After that time you can remove the pan and peel off the parchment paper. This will be SO satisfying! Then you can transfer it to the serving dish and pour the chocolate ganache on top. After pouring the ganache I like to refrigerate it for an extra 30 minutes or so. This will make the ganache set and it provides the perfect surface for garnishing with fresh raspberries. When serving, if you want the cleanest slices of Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, definitely use a sharp knife and clean it in between each cut that you make.
About the chocolate ganache
Chocolate ganache has this scary fancy-sounding name. However, I promise I have the easiest, fool-proof, little washing-up method ever. First, you will melt your dark chocolate. You can do this in 30-second intervals in the microwave, mixing between each interval. Alternatively, you can melt it in a hot water bath, although I prefer the first method. In a small saucepan, you will mix the cream and sugar over medium heat until it steams. You don’t want it to boil or it will burn the chocolate. Now comes the fun part! Add all of the cream to the dark chocolate. Then use a spatula to stir at the very centre of the chocolate. You will see how slowly but surely, it comes together on its own. Once it looks even and glossy, you know you have achieved a rich chocolate ganache for your Triple Chocolate Cheesecake. Remove the cheesecake from its pan and pour the ganache on top of the cheesecake. Spread the ganache in an even layer starting from the center of the cheesecake and letting it drip a bit down the sides.
More cheesecake recipes
I just love cheesecake in every shape and form. There are plenty of delicious cheesecake recipes here for you so feel free to take a look. Here are a few that I adore:
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
Ingredients
For the base
- 220 g Oreo cookies or similar
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- ¼ tsp salt
For the filling
- 900 g cream cheese, approximately 4 packages at room temperature
- 350 g granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 60 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 220 g sour cream at room temperature
- 200 g dark chocolate (60-70% cacao) melted
- 4 eggs at room temperature
For the chocolate ganache
- 125 g dark chocolate (60-70% cacao)
- 125 g whipping cream
- 60 g sugar
For garnishing
- 200 g fresh raspberries
Instructions
For the base
- Process the cookies until fine.
- Add the salt and butter and mix.
- Cut baking paper to the size of the base of the pan and also the sides. Stick them in place with vegetable oil that you can spread with a piece of kitchen paper.
- Press the base mix onto the base of the pan using the base of a glass and then with your fingers around the edges. Take the pan to the freezer for at least 15 minutes while we make the filling
For the filling
- Beat the cream cheese with the granulated sugar and salt until it's soft and homogeneous. Every once in a while stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything gets beaten in.
- Add the cocoa powder and beat again. Then add the sour cream and melted chocolate and beat once again. Every once in a while stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything gets beaten in.
- Reduce the speed to a minimum and add one egg at a time. You know that you can add the next one when the previous one is incorporated. Finish to incorporate with a spatula if needed.
- Pour the mix onto the cookie base and spread evenly.
- Bake the cheesecake in a preheated oven at 180°C / 350°F. When you preheat the oven you want to have a baking pan with water at the bottom layer of your oven so the water preheats, too. If you forget to do it, you can add boiling water. The cheesecake goes on the level above it (not in the water). In this way, the cheesecake still cooks gently but you remove the risk of the water going into the cake.
- As soon as it goes into the oven, reduce the heat to 150°C /300°F.
- Bake the cheesecake for 1h15hmin-1h30min or until you see it starting to get golden on top and it jiggles like gelatin if you shake it slightly. Halfway through the cooking process, check that the water level hasn't dropped too much. If it has, fill it up with boiling water. When you remove it, it should giggle like set jello.
- Wait for it to cool down completely and place it in the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.
For the ganache
- Remove the springform pan from the cheesecake and peel off the parchment paper.
- Place the cream and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat up the cream over medium heat until it steams. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar. If by mistake it breaks into a boil, then you need to cool it down a bit before using it.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl. You can do it in the microwave in intervals of 30 seconds, mixing in between each interval. Alternatively, you can melt it in a bain-marie over low heat. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water.
- Remove the chocolate from the bain-marie if using. Add all the cream onto the chocolate.
- With a spatula, make small circles at the centre of the bowl. You'll see that it will start to come together at the centre on its own and then expand towards the sides.
- When everything looks evenly dark, scrape down the sides of the bowl and keep mixing until everything looks incorporated and shiny.
- Pour the ganache at the centre of the cheesecake and spread it using a spatula, making it drip down the sides. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and garnish with fresh raspberries.
