Birthday Cheesecake!

Growing up, sometimes for birthdays or special occasions my mom would make a very special Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.  This was the only cheesecake I would willingly eat until I was probably in high school (lets be honest, maybe later than high school).  It is delicious and amazing and whatever other words for awesome that you can think of.  She would make it maybe once a year, probably less often then that.

John, my dear older brother, has his birthday on January 13th.  Every year his birthday drives me crazy.  I also think about it a few weeks before Christmas but at that time no one wants to plan anything because everyone is focused on the holidays.  Every single year, after Christmas, I forget about John’s birthday; I usually remember the week of and them am frantic to figure out what we’re doing.  I don’t mean to forget, I love John, and I blame the holidays; it really would have been more convenient for me if he had been born at a different time of year.

Here is a photo of John and I from my wedding in August of last year; it’s the most recent photo of him that probably isn’t a crappy cell phone shot that may be embarrassing.

Well…this year for dear old John’s birthday, I was in charge of the dessert. Growing up John wasn’t really into sweets.  My dad and I loved them and would eat whatever we could get, whereas John was never really interested in it.  Now, it seems like he has a sweet tooth, I just have no idea where that came from.  He’s also funny now, which I also think is new…

Anyway, for his birthday dessert, I was thinking he’d want either butterscotch cookies or carrot cake.  Much to my surprise, he suddenly asked for cheese cake!  I had never in my life heard him ask for cheese cake so I had to ask my sister-in-law (Natalie) what he wanted.  Once again he surprised me and he asked for the chocolate chip cheesecake that my mom would make.

I was excited that he wanted this, because it’s absolutely incredible, but also nervous because I had only made cheesecake once before and it wasn’t overly successful.  Since this is what was requested I decided to do it and I asked my mom for the recipe.

Much to my surprise and glee, this cheesecake turned out absolutely amazing and just like my mom’s used to.  I will definitely be making this again because it is so delicious and seems special.

The first thing you do for this amazing cheesecake is prepare the crust.  To do so, make crumbs out of about 18 Oreos to get approximately 1 1/2 cups of fine crumbs.

I did this in a food processor but you could also use a blender, or you could even put them all in a sealed ziplock bag and hit them with a rolling pin until they’re crust.  If you’re feeling a lot of aggression that might be the way to go…

When the Oreos are sufficiently crushed into fine crumbs, pour them into a bowl with the melted butter.  Mixed the crumbs and butter together until it’s pretty well mixed; then pour the crumb mixture into a 9-inch springform pan and pat it around the bottom until it forms a crust.

Once the pan has been prepared, preheat the oven to 300 degrees and begin making the cheese mixture.  Once the cheese mixture has been prepared, pour it into the prepared pan and pour the remaining chocolate chips onto the top, distributing evenly or even creating a fun design with them (perhaps a smiley face).

Bake the amazing cheesecake for approximately 1 hour or until the cake bounces back when lightly touched.  Let it cool completely and then refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve it.

I made this the night before John’s birthday and it was perfect after sitting in the refrigerator all night.  Everyone loved this; there was only one slice left over and I’m pretty sure John took that home.

This recipe is really easy which is also a big plus especially since I was fearing it before I made it.  The one thing I would do different and recommend is being careful about the cream cheese.  I think mine was both a little too warm when I was beating it and I made it too fluffy; the result is that the chocolate chips that were mixed in kinda sunk and weren’t really distributed evenly.  This didn’t change the flavor at all, just make it less pretty.