What a heavenly cheesecake! It’s rich, decadent, and oh, so chocolaty. This Red Velvet Cheesecake is explosive with a deep, red crimson color, a beautiful, elegant presentation, and on top of that this recipe makes 20 servings! It’s great for holiday parties, Valentine’s Day, or special occasions like anniversaries or birthdays.

Everyone loves cheesecake and here’s a spectacular version just in time for Valentine’s Day. It has a luscious cookie crust made from Oreos, almonds, and chocolate chips. The cream cheese filling includes a heap of semi-sweet  chocolate. I topped it with chocolate shavings and powdered sugar. What’s not to love?

I saw this recipe in our local Christmas flyer for H-E-B grocery stores in Texas in 2011. Several of their vendors had provided recipes and this luscious looking cheesecake was from Chobani Kitchens. Although the one posted on their website is not exactly the same as the one in the flyer that I made. I wanted to make this in 2011 but I had carpal tunnel surgery in both hands that November so I wasn’t able to do much baking beyond Thanksgiving until after the holidays.

It’s been over a year since I’ve wanted to bake this fantastic-looking recipe. I dedicate this recipe to my daughter-in-law, Candice, who loves Red Velvet Cake and Red Velvet desserts. I was hoping to make it for her during our family vacation together in July but it just didn’t work out. So here’s her virtual Red Velvet Cheesecake! I hope you, along with her, will enjoy this tremendous recipe.

The crust is spectacular even though it is quite involved. The crust calls for chocolate wafer cookies which I couldn’t find anywhere so I bought an oreo substitute and scraped off the fudge filling. These cookie crumbs without the cream filling made a great crust when all the other ingredients were added to them. I was still trying to use up Halloween and Christmas candy so I used all our remaining miniature Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate bars for the chocolate added to the cream cheese layer. I recommend increasing the sugar in the cream cheese layer and also the amount of red food coloring to get a richer, darker crimson color.

If you’re looking for a delicious Valentine’s Day dessert or a scrumptious cheesecake dessert for any other special occasion, consider this Red Velvet Cheesecake recipe as a great option. It does take a good bit of time to prepare, but it’s worth it. Bon Apetit!

Here’s a look at this scrumptious cheesecake.

This rich, decadent cheesecake has amazing flavor.

The crust is made with oreos, chocolate chips, and almonds. It’s absolutely fantastic.

Here’s what I did.

The original recipe calls for 8 ounces of milk chocolate. I think each of these is about a half ounce which would have been about 16 miniature bars. I used 20 because I wanted to get rid of all of them.

Melt the chocolate over low heat.

Add a stick of butter to the chocolate and melt together.

To make the crust: I used a package of cheap Oreo knock-offs and removed the fudge cream filling and discarded it. The cookies were ground up in our food processor for the crust.

Here I’ve scraped off the fudge filling.

Here is a pile of the cookies where I’ve scraped off the filling. I couldn’t find chocolate wafer cookies – only vanilla or strawberry wafer cookies! So I substituted Oreo-type cookies for the chocolate wafer cookies in the crust ingredients. It turned out wonderfully.

Here the chocolate and butter are melting.

After the sauce has completely melted, set it aside to cool completely.

Here I’ve processed the cookies in my food processor. This would not process the chocolate chips so I ended up just cutting them very fine with a knife.

Melt butter.

Add crushed oreos (minus the filling), ground almonds, and ground chocolate chips to melted butter.

Add brown sugar. Stir all ingredients together.

Here’s a picture of the chocolate chips. I had to chop them by hand because my old food processor wasn’t up to the challenge!

Here’s a picture of all the crust ingredients mixed together.

I sprayed a 10 x 13″ spring form pan with Bakers Joy cooking spray even though the recipe did not say to do this. I didn’t want to have problems with the crust sticking later so I sprayed the pan.

Press the crust ingredients all the way up the sides leaving a 1/2 inch border around the top. Here I’m pressing the ingredients against the side of the spring form pan. I found it easier to work with my hands rather than a fork.

Here I’m pressing the crust ingredients into the bottom of the pan.

To make filling: Soften cream cheese in large mixer bowl.

Add Chobani vanilla Greek yogurt.

Add sugar. The original recipe is pretty skimpy on the sugar. I recommend increasing this to one full cup rather than a miniscule 1/3 cup.

Add buttermilk.

Add the cooled chocolate mixture.

Add red food coloring. I increased this because the texture seemed too pink. With an electric mixer mix all ingredients until smooth.

Add eggs.

This recipe calls for two egg yolks so I’m going to have to separate the eggs. I try to break the eggs right down the center of the egg. (My fingers still have red food coloring on them!)

I press both my thumbs into the center of the egg and pull the shell apart to try to get it to break apart as evenly as possible.

Here I am breaking open the egg. You can see the egg white dripping out of the egg.

The yolk stays in one side of the shell. With my fingers I dig out all of the egg white in the shell without the yolk. Then I start tilting the shell with the yolk until all of the egg white is out.

I continue to try to get all the egg white out of the shells and it drops into the bowl or cup below my hands.

Here you can see the egg yolk dripping into the cup.

I use my fingers and scrape the egg white off the outside of the shell.

I’ve tipped the yolk into the other shell. When the egg yolk went into the clean shell underneath it I found all this egg white which I cleaned out and poured it into the cup with the other egg white.

Here I’ve cleaned out as much of the egg white as possible. The egg yolk can now be added with the other eggs in the cream cheese filling. 

Here’s the egg white mixture. Use for meringues or discard.

Here I’ve added the egg yolks.

Here’s the mixture after stirring in all the eggs.

Here I’ve poured the cream cheese batter into the chocolate crust and set the spring form pan into a shallow roasting pan. 

the recipe said to bake at 350 for about an hour or until the outside two inches of the cake would be set when shaken slightly. It took my cheesecake an hour and a half to get to that point.

Here’s another view of the cheesecake fresh out of the oven.

After 15 minutes loosen the cheesecake from the edges of the pan with a spatula. I used a rubber one because I didn’t want metal scratching the inside of my pan.

After an hour remove the outside piece of the springform pan. Here I’ve placed the Red Velvet Cheesecake  on a plate.

The cheesecake had cooled so I sprinkled the top heavily with powdered sugar.

I finely grated a miniature chocolate bar and sprinkled the shavings on top of the cheesecake.

Here’s what the chocolate shavings look like.

Here I’ve sprinkled the chocolate shavings on top of the cake. Those who are more artistic than I can make chocolate leaves or large chocolate curls to add to the top of the cake.

Now I’ve topped the cheesecake with strawberries. Raspberries, chocolate covered strawberries, or other candies can be used for decoration as desired.

This picture shows the delicious crust from this spectacular cheesecake.

Here’s another close up look so you can see the texture of the cheesecake and the chocolate almond crust.

This side view shows the creamy texture of this marvelous Red Velvet Cheesecake.

Here’s the recipe.

RED VELVET CHEESECAKE

(Recipe adapted from Chobani Kitchens)

½ lb. milk chocolate, chopped

½ cup butter

16-oz. Oreo-type cookies without the cream filling or other chocolate wafer cookie, ground

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, chopped or ground

1 cup slivered or sliced almonds, ground

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup butter, melted

4 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 cup vanilla Chobani Greek yogurt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 ½-oz. red food coloring

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

Chocolate shavings, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, fresh raspberries, chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberries or candies for garnish

In a saucepan, melt milk chocolate and ½ cup butter over low heat. Transfer to a bowl and cool completely.

For the crust:  Process chocolate wafer cookies (oreos), chocolate chips, almonds, and brown sugar in a food processor until well combined. Place mixture in mixing bowl and add ½ cup melted butter. Stir to combine. If your food processor isn’t heavy duty you can crush the cookies with a rolling pin, and finely dice almonds and chocolate chips to get the same consistency. Press crumbs onto the bottom and sides of a 10×13 spring form pan, leaving a ½ inch space at the top of the pan. Set aside.

For the filling: soften cream cheese. Add vanilla Greek yogurt, sugar, buttermilk, red food coloring, and chocolate mixture. Beat with an electric mixer until combined. Add eggs and egg yolks and mix until combined. Pour filling into crust. Place spring form pan on a shallow baking pan.

Bake cheesecake at 350° until 2 inches of outside edge appear set when shaken gently, about 1 hour. Cool cheesecake in spring form pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Use a small, metal or rubber spatula to loosen cheesecake from sides of pan and cool 30 minutes more. Remove sides of pan, cool for 1 hour more. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or cocoa powder. Add chocolate shavings. Add fresh raspberries or strawberries just before serving. Makes 20 servings.

Here’s a look at this sumptuous Red Velvet Cheesecake. Fabulous for special occasions, Christmas holidays, Valentine’s Day, or for a special loved one. 

Your company will love digging in to this marvelous cheesecake.

Serve this with chocolate sauce if you prefer.

This picture shows the texture a little better.

This is one of the best pictures I could get that shows the crust and the red velvet filling.

I’ve saved a slice for you. Pull up a chair and come sample a slice.

Make this delicious cheesecake for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day. Yum, yum.

You may also like these recipes:

Philadelphia Cheesecake

Red Velvet Cake

Company Cheesecake

Red Velvet Peppermint Kisses

Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cake Bars

Red Velvet Kisses

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

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