Personal Sous Vide Oreo Jello Cheesecakes
It’s no secret that I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE cheesecake.
Love it.
Have ever since I was old enough to remember that cheesecake is life. And I thought I was in a little slice of heaven when I discovered the wonderful things that could come out of an Instant Pot, like my Instant Pot Egg Nog Cheesecake.
Well, I may have created a tiny monster that’s even better.
It’s like a jar full of a few of my favourite things.
We start with Double Stuff Oreos to form the crust on the bottom. Up next, a smooth, creamy layer of cheesecake – with a little lemon zest to brighten it up. Then, cherry Jello. But any flavour would be fine. Pick your (or your kids’) favourite and run with it. Top it all off with a layer of whipped cream. (Yes, from a can is PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE! You don’t have to do that from scratch, unless you want. No judgement here.)
So, how did I get here? Well, first, my aforementioned LOVE of all things cheesecake. Second, a childhood favourite – Jello No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake. I used to get mom to make it for me every birthday. Third, I’ve come to enjoy single serving size things made sous vide.
This is a pretty simple, straight-forward process. Everything was put together in a food processor, from the cookie base to the cheesecake filling. Once cooked sous vide, I simply added the Jello layer and put the jars in the fridge to set up.
It all comes together perfectly. The cheesecake is smooth and creamy, the crushed Oreos give a little crunchy texture, the Jello adds a sweet, fruity punch, and the completely unnecessary but absolutely essential whipped cream just adds decadence.
Sure, you could take it even further – a drizzle of chocolate syrup over the whipped cream. Some shaved dark chocolate. A lovely cherry on top. Maybe some extra crushed up Oreo cookie bits. It would be very easy to get carried away. In fact, for my next batch, I’m going to kick the cheesecake portion up a few notches by adding some Chocolate Cherry Bailey’s Irish Cream to the mix. It was so good in the Pots de Creme, I can’t see how it could go wrong in a cheesecake!
Okay, enough of my blathering about it. On to the recipe!
Sous Vide Oreo Jello Cheesecake
A childhood favourite gets a grown-up, single-serving sized makeover. Could be the best dessert you'll ever scoop out of a Mason jar.
Servings: 6 jars
Equipment
- Food processor
- Sous vide stick
- Wide-mouth Mason jars (250mL)
- Metal trivets/weights to keep jars from floating while in the bath
- Measuring cup
- Small mixing bowl (for Jello)
Ingredients
- 12 Double Stuff Oreo cookies
- 8 oz cream cheese (one block)
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- zest of one lemon
- 3 large eggs
- 1 package Jello Cherry, or flavour of your choice
Instructions
- Set up your sous vide bath and set temperature to 176°.
- Toss a dozen Double Stuff Oreo cookies in a food processor. Pulse until the cookies have been crushed to a fairly consistent crumb. The filling will make them sticky to press into a crust. (That's why you want Double Stuff!)
- Prepare six 250mL (1 cup) wide mouth Mason jars. Basically … remove the lids and make sure they're clean.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of the crushed cookies to each jar. Try to split them up as evenly as you can.
- Press the cookie crumbs down with your thumbs/fingers, unless you have something that fits into the jars that you can use to compress them into a crust.
- With the blade back in your food processor, add the block of cream cheese and the sugar. Blend together until well combined. You should probably have a spatula handy to scrape down the sides a time or two.
- Add the sour cream and blend it in. I used a combination of pulse and low speed.
- Zest one lemon and add it all into the batter.
- Add the eggs one at a time, blending them in after each one goes in. Watch for shells. They're not the kind of texture you want in a cheesecake.
- Scrape everything down and give it another blend on low speed.
- ** optional ** IF you are going to do something silly, like add alcohol, now is a good time to add that. Feel free to experiment.
- Remove the blade from the food processor.
- Pour the cheesecake batter slowly into each jar, trying to keep the amounts equal between each. I just eyeball it, because measuring is for chumps.
- Wipe down the rim of the jar with a clean cloth or paper towel and thread on the lid finger tight. Remember, you want it tight enough to keep water from seeping in, but loose enough to allow expanding gasses to escape while underwater.
- Add your jars to the water bath. Odd are, your jars are going to float. This is because we're leaving space in the tops for Jello to occupy later. So you're going to need something to weigh them down and keep them submerged. I used a couple of metal Instant Pot trivets, which were just heavy enough to keep everything underwater, and not block water circulation.
- Let them cook for 80 minutes.
- When time is up, remove the jars to a towel and let them cool for about 20 minutes.
- While that is going on, prepare your Jello. Just follow the directions on the package for the basic method. It's something silly easy like add one cup of boiling water to the powder, stir until dissolved, add one cup cold water, stir, Bob's your uncle.
- Basic math dictates that 2 cups of liquid into 6 jars means each one should get just about exactly ⅓ cup of Jello added to the top. So I used a ⅓ cup measuring cup to add the Jello to each jar. It worked out very nicely.
- Screw the lids back on the jars and place in the fridge for several hours/overnight to cool and set up.
- When ready to eat, pop the lids off, give them a squirt of whipped cream, and enjoy!