OREO CHEESECAKE BITES

This is my favorite dessert find this year.  I have a box of them in the freezer right now for any unexpected dinner needs or personal cravings.  They will thaw in 5 minutes and are totally satisfying for a little sugar, chocolate fix.  Plus they look like you bought them at an exclusive bakery.

OREO CHEESECAKE BITES

Crush 15 Oreo Cookies and mix with 2 T. melted butter. 

Use a 9 inch square pan or a 7x11 pan. (this size is important)  Line with foil and wrap outside the pan. Spray with Pam

Press the Oreo mixture into the bottom

Beat 2- 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese with

½ C. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

½ C. sour cream

When nice and smooth gently fold in 10 more Oreo cookies, each broken into 4 or 5 pieces.  Pour onto the crust and spread to the corners.  Bake at 325 for about 30-35 minutes or until the center is set.  (It will start to brown just a little on the top)

When cold pull out of the pan in the foil and cut into squares about 1 inch wide.  Line them up squarely on a cookie sheet and drizzle with the chocolate as described below.

Melt 6-8 oz. each of white and milk or semisweet chocolate (separately) I like the milk for this.  You can use chocolate chips or chopped bulk chocolate. (Guittard for chips)  If you use white chocolate chips they are not really chocolate and don’t melt as well so add 1 tsp oil and stir well after melting. (Bakers sells a White Chocolate cube at the grocer about the right size)  The microwave has a way of ruining chocolate.  I wouldn’t use it for this.  You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler or put the chocolate in a bowl over some very hot water and stir until melted.  Chocolate is sensitive to high heat and will get grainy, so if you do it in the double boiler just get the water hot and remove from the heat.  My favorite way to melt chocolate is in the oven overnight with the oven light on.  It produces enough heat to melt the chocolate.  It doesn’t even need chopped if you have a block.  So I like to make the cheesecake one day, cool overnight, and that night put the chocolate in the oven to melt and drizzle the next morning.

Spoon the chocolate into a small ziplock bag and squeeze it all into a corner, twist the top a little.  Snip a very small corner off the end.  Drizzle stripes of the brown chocolate going one way and then stripes of the white chocolate going the other way.  They end up looking very professional. 

You can freeze these for a month or two if they last that long.