If you’re craving a homemade chocolate cheesecake, this guide will help you create the perfect dessert from scratch, just like when you bake an easy homemade apple pie with perfectly flaky crust.

Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake From Scratch

This week, we are making a decadent chocolate cheesecake completely from scratch. That means the cream cheese, the cookies, everything. Here’s how to do it.

What You Need

For the Homemade Chocolate Cookies

• ○ All-purpose flour
• ○ Granulated sugar
• ○ Baking powder
• ○ Baking soda
• ○ A little bit of salt
• ○ Black cocoa powder (or regular Dutch processed cocoa powder)
• ○ Cold butter
• ○ 1 egg

For the Homemade Cream Cheese

• ○ Full fat dairy milk
• ○ Lemon juice (or vinegar)
• ○ A little bit of salt
• ○ A splash of milk or cream (optional, for blending)

For the Cheesecake Base

• ○ 18 homemade chocolate cookies
• ○ Melted butter

For the Cheesecake Filling

• ○ Homemade cream cheese
• ○ Granulated sugar
• ○ Regular cocoa powder
• ○ Melted bittersweet chocolate (cooled)
• ○ Whipping cream (high fat content)
• ○ A dash of vanilla extract

For Garnish (Optional)

• ○ Freshly whipped cream
• ○ Grated chocolate

How to Make This Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake

For the Homemade Chocolate Cookies

1. Start by adding flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black cocoa powder into a food processor. If you don’t have black cocoa powder, regular Dutch processed cocoa powder is fine, but black cocoa powder gives that unique, rich, deep chocolatey Oreo flavor. Give these a little mixy mix together.
2. Add in your cold butter. Blend this up until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, just a few seconds. You should see little lumps of butter throughout.
3. Crack in your egg, then blend it up until the dough comes together. This will take just a few seconds until it starts to thud.
4. The beauty of this cookie dough is that you don’t have to chill it. You can scoop it and get it onto your tray straight away.
5. Scoop a level tablespoon of dough for each cookie, roll it into a little ball, and place it onto a baking tray. Give it a little smush to flatten it. Leave some space between them as they will spread out.
6. Bake your cookies at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius) with fan assist. A lower temperature with the fan on helps the cookies cook evenly. They only take around 8 to 10 minutes to bake.
7. You might have cookie dough leftover as you don’t need all of them for this cheesecake. You can scoop it, freeze it, or bake it off for later.

For the Homemade Cream Cheese

1. In a nice big heavy bottom saucepan, add a lot of full-fat dairy milk.
2. Turn on the heat to around medium-medium high and slowly let the milk come to a simmer.
3. Once it simmers, add in lemon juice a tablespoon at a time. The amount needed to curdle can vary depending on the lemons. Sometimes you need 3 or 4 tablespoons, sometimes more.
4. Stop adding lemon juice once it starts to curdle and you see the curds separating from the whey. Let it heat through a little bit more.
5. Line a bowl with a sieve and some cheesecloth. If you don’t have cheesecloth, use a clean, non-fuzzy, thin kitchen towel.
6. Pour the curdled milk into the lined sieve. Let this hang and strain for a little bit to cool down.
7. Once cooled, bring all the corners of your cheesecloth together and squeeze out as much of the liquid (whey) as possible. You can save the whey for smoothies, drinks, or use it in baking as a replacement for buttermilk.
8. Transfer the curds to a food processor. Add a little bit of salt for flavor.
9. Blend until it is really lovely and smooth. If it’s a bit chunky, you can add a tiny bit of the reserved whey, a splash of milk, or cream to loosen it up and help it blend smoothly.
10. Once smooth, put the cream cheese into a bowl, let it cool down completely, then pop it into the fridge.

Making the Cookie Base

1. Once your homemade cookies have cooled down, take 18 of them and add them into your food processor. Blend them up until they are lovely and fine crumbs.
2. Add in melted butter to bring the cookie base together. Blend until it starts to clump.
3. For your 9-inch cheesecake pan, take out the base and flip it over so the flush, smooth side is facing up. Pop it back into the pan. This makes it easier to lift the cheesecake later.
4. Press the cookie crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan. Use your hands to flatten it out nicely.
5. Pop the cookie base into the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Preparing the Cheesecake Filling

1. Into the food processor, add your homemade cream cheese and granulated sugar. Blend this up by itself first until it’s really lovely and smooth. This helps get rid of any lumps.
2. Add in regular cocoa powder and your melted bittersweet chocolate. Make sure the melted chocolate has cooled down before adding it, so it doesn’t heat up your other ingredients.
3. Blend until combined.
4. Pour in your whipping cream (with a high fat content) and a dash of vanilla extract.
5. Blend a little bit more until the filling is smooth and combined. This is a no-bake, no-gelatin cheesecake because the chocolate will set and firm the cheesecake once it gets cold.

Assembling and Chilling

1. Scoop the cheesecake filling onto your chilled cookie base.
2. Flatten it nice and smooth with a palette knife.
3. Give the pan a little tap to settle the filling and remove any air bubbles. Clean up the edges around the rim.
4. Cover the cheesecake and pop it into the fridge for a few hours to set even more.
5. Once the cheesecake is nice and firm, take a thin-edged knife and go around the rim, pressing it up against the tin to keep it clean. Carefully loosen the cheesecake from the pan.
6. Because you flipped the pan base, you can very carefully slide the cheesecake onto your platter.

Serving Notes

To decorate, you can pipe some freshly whipped cream rosettes on top for a lovely contrast of color and flavor. Finish with a little bit of grated chocolate. This rich, creamy, and decadent chocolate cheesecake is definitely for chocolate lovers. For another amazing chocolate treat, you might also enjoy making chewy brownies with a soft, crinkly top. The bittersweet chocolate and cream cheese have a lovely tang together, making it a sophisticated and classy dessert.