At home over Christmas, my mom and I were tossing around ideas for embellishing cheesecake when it hit me: Nutella, of course! Long a part of my repertoire (please see Nutella Hot Chocolate and Nutella Cake), it seemed a natural candidate for the job. Rather than blending the spread into all of the batter, I opted for swirls, retaining some of the plain cheesecake’s tang to balance the richness of the Nutella. I put ground hazelnuts in the chocolate-cookie crust to echo the Nutella’s flavor and add crunch.
Nutella Cheesecake
- 3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup nutella
Chocolate-Hazelnut Crumb Crust
- 1 1/4 cups ground vanilla wafer cookies (about 1/2 box)
- 1/4 cup ground hazelnuts
- 1 tb cocoa powder
- 4 tb (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.
To make crust: whisk together cookie crumbs, ground hazelnuts, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Pour in melted butter, and stir to combine, creating a texture like wet sand. Press into bottom of pan, and up the sides about 1/2 inch. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Do not turn off oven.
While crust is cooling, make the cheesecake batter: in the bowl of a standing mixer, beat cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar until well-combined, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolks one at a time, mixing well between each. Beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat egg whites until they hold medium-soft peaks, then fold into cheese mixture.
Reserve one cup of the cheesecake batter in a bowl; pour the rest into the cooled crust. Mix the Nutella into the reserved batter, then drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the surface of the batter in the filled pan. Holding a knife upright, insert it about 1/2 inch into the surface of the batter, then draw the knife back and forth across the pan, creating a marbled appearance on the cake’s surface.
Create a water-bath in which to cook the cheesecake: bring a kettle of water to a boil. Wrap the springform pan in foil (to prevent water from the water-bath seeping in); place the springform pan in a roasting pan, and pour the boiling water into the roasting pan, surrounding the cake. Carefully place in oven and bake for 60 to 75 minutes, or until edges begin to pull away from pan, but center is still jiggly. Remove from water-bath and cool completely on a rack. Chill in refrigerator at least 4 hours, but ideally overnight. When serving, you might garnish with a drizzle of Nutella or a dollop of creme fraiche.
Serves 8.
Comments 10
okay, you’re killing me with the nutella in the past couple of posts!
some friends and i recently decided that we would have an anti-superbowl get together with a cheese theme, so naturally i need to make a cheesecake for dessert. and what with world nutella day coming up and all…
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 8:38 pm ¶Us vs. Food
this looks fantastic! I made chocolate cheesecake during the holidays and it turned ok. I used frangelico in the crust and in the cheesecake, but it wasn’t enough. and definitely not chocolatey enough
next time I am going the nutella route. I just made my own nutella cookie sandwiches at my blog. soooo good.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 11:10 pm ¶I love nutella. That looks great
Posted 31 Jan 2008 at 2:43 pm ¶Mmm…cheesecake with nutella:)
Posted 01 Feb 2008 at 8:59 pm ¶Oh, wow. I’ve been wanting to figure out a Nutella cheesecake for a while now. Yours looks delicious! And, just in time for World Nutella Day!
Posted 03 Feb 2008 at 11:45 pm ¶You amaze me. I thought Nutella was for spreading on bread!:)
Posted 04 Feb 2008 at 1:19 am ¶You should take part in the ‘Nutella day’ event!
Thanks for this recipe! It sounds right up my alley, I’m sure my family would love it.
If I may ask a quick “lost in translation” question (I’m not from the US), what do you mean by “vanilla wafer cookies”? I found two options: cookies made with a simple flour, sugar, egg dough + vanilla, or wafers like Loacker, which have layers of wafer leafs with a vanilla pasty thing between them?
Thanks for everything!
Posted 11 Feb 2008 at 6:39 am ¶Sharon, you can actually use whichever cookies you like, though I would advise not using sandwich cookies with fillings because when you grind them, that filling might produce a gummy texture, and you want fine crumbs. I used Nilla wafters, which are very simple, crisp vanilla cookies, but you should feel free to play around with flavors.
Posted 11 Feb 2008 at 12:57 pm ¶I’m not a huge nutella fan but it does look yummy and I love cheesecakes. I made one similar with Toblerone, using cherry ripe cookies adds another flavor.
Posted 12 Feb 2008 at 7:40 am ¶Regards John
Hi Gena,
Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 10:26 am ¶Thanks for the answer! I baked the cake for some family occasion and it was delicious!
I only wish it would remain light in color on top, and won’t brown in the oven, but as it happens to me with every cheesecake it seems I’ll have to hone my baking skills…
Looking forward to your next treat,
Sharon
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