Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake

My Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake features a thick Oreo cookie crust and big hunks of chocolate chip cookie dough interspersed throughout a tall, toppling, creamy, spiced pumpkin cheesecake! This one’s especially sinful, but so very worth the calories!

To easily view all of the blog recipes, follow along on Pinterest! 

This Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake is my favorite recipe of 2020, by far. As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m feeling uninspired this year. It’s so unusual because fall is when I really crank it up a notch and never feel a shortage of ideas.

It was only when I brainstormed this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake that I felt a spark. This recipe lit a fire, and I finally got busy in the kitchen. I’m sooo excited to share this recipe with you.

I have a ton of pumpkin cheesecake recipes — it’s one of our favorite desserts (year-round, honestly), and I was thinking: is there any type of pumpkin cheesecake I haven’t made yet?? 

I’ve combined pumpkin cheesecake with chocolate, chai, pecan pie, apple crisp, cinnamon rolls, white chocolate, coconut, Biscoff, Nutella, and quite a lot more, but an idea dawned on me: cookie dough. Yes!! That hasn’t been done yet, but we need this in our lives.

Now more than ever, we need Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake!

Today’s recipe is a cross between my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake recipe and my classic, traditional Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe. A beautiful marriage.

An Oreo crust felt right here — you could definitely use chocolate chip cookies, if you prefer, but frankly I don’t love how muddled of an appearance they get when you crush them up, so I went with old-faithful Oreos.

What follows is my tried-and-true pumpkin cheesecake recipe. Creamy, rich, dense — everything I personally love in a cheesecake recipe. I don’t want a light or whipped texture, but a rich, dense cheesecake with smooth, creamy texture. Then it’s infused with a generous helping of both pumpkin and spice.

If there’s a better pumpkin dessert than pumpkin cheesecake, I am not aware of it. 

Up next: drop in a whole mess of chocolate chip cookie dough balls. Yep, just drop them in the cheesecake batter, and let them fall where they may. 

The chocolate chip cookie dough is a small, homemade batch, and the ingredients are adapted so that the dough balls don’t spread or disintegrate in the cheesecake causing a big mess. The cookie dough balls stay completely in tact. Cut into this, and who knows how many hunks of cookie dough you’ll uncover. 

Lastly, a layer of silky chocolate ganache. Look, I usually top my cheesecakes with something just to cover any cracks. The top of a cheesecake is pretty uninteresting in the first place, and then you’ve also got a way to hide flaws. I tend to go with ganache. 

A quality that I love so much about this is how well the components come together. They don’t compete with each other. Pumpkin is a pretty mild flavor, sometimes it’s the spices that really bring it out, and chocolate can easily overtake it. Pumpkin can get totally lost with chocolate, but not in this case. It’s still a star of the show in this dessert.

This Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake is decadent, no surprise there, but it’s actually not as over-the-top as you might think. Try it, and I think you’ll be surprised how satisfyingly rich it is, without sending you into toothache territory.

I’ve got Pumpkin Cheesecake recipes galore around here! Traditional, baked options:

• Eggnog Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Turtle Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Apple Crisp Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Cinnamon Roll Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Pumpkin Spice Oreo Cheesecakes
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownie Cheesecake
• White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

I have no shortage of easy No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake recipes too. 🙂

• Again, the original Double Layer No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
• No Bake Chai Pumpkin Cheesecake
• No Bake Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake
• No Bake Coconut Pumpkin Cheesecake
• No Bake Biscoff Pumpkin Cheesecake
• No Bake Nutella Pumpkin Cheesecake

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake

Sarah

My Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake features a thick Oreo cookie crust and big hunks of chocolate chip cookie dough interspersed throughout a tall, toppling, creamy, spiced pumpkin cheesecake! This one's especially sinful, but so very worth the calories!

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hr

Cook Time 1 hr

Chill time 4 hrs

Total Time 6 hrs

Course Cheesecake

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

For crust:

• 30 regular (not Double Stuf) Oreos or similar chocolate sandwich cookie almost a full package of Family Size 19.1 oz. Oreos
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp. butter melted

For cookie dough:

• 1/3 cup butter softened
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. water
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

For cheesecake:

• 4 8 oz. packages cream cheese softened (full fat or reduced-fat will work, but not fat-free)
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs at room temperature, if possible
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 tsp. clove
• 15 oz. can pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie mix

For topping:

• 4 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate broken into pieces
• 3 tbsp. butter sliced into pats
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Instructions

 

For crust:

• Using a food processor, pulse chocolate sandwich cookies into fine crumbs. Alternative method: place cookies in a gallon-sized plastic bag, and smash with a rolling pin. This will produce a similar effect with a bit of elbow grease!
• Transfer crumbs to a medium bowl.
• Add granulated sugar, and stir to combine.
• Drizzle melted butter over crumbs, stirring well to distribute. Crumbs will begin to slightly form together and adhere as you stir.
• Press mixture into the bottom and up the edges of a 9-inch or 10-inch springform pan. (It cannot be smaller than a 9-inch pan).

For cookie dough:

• In a small mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until thoroughly combined.
• Beat in water and vanilla extract.
• Beat in flour. Batter will be very thick, and should mostly come together in a ball.
• Beat in semi-sweet chocolate chips in a few short turns of the mixing paddle. Since batter is so thick, it is easiest to beat in the chips with a mixer than to stir in by hand. The mixer distributes the chips evenly, and it doesn't crush the chips because they're so small. If you prefer to mix by hand though, feel free to do so.
• Roll cookie dough into scant 1-inch balls.
• Chill in the refrigerator while preparing cheesecake layer.

For cheesecake:

• In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.
• Add sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping the bowl after each addition. Do not add eggs all at once, and then beat. Add one-by-one, beating well after each. It's best if eggs are at room temperature because they incorporate easily and prevent overmixing, but it's not absolutely necessary.
• Beat in spices and pumpkin puree until combined.
• Pour pumpkin cheesecake batter over crust.
• Evenly distribute the chilled cookie dough balls over the pumpkin cheesecake batter. Once on top of the batter, push them down, making sure they are entirely covered by batter. They do not have to be pushed down to the bottom of the cheesecake, only enough that they are covered by batter. No edges of cookie dough balls should be exposed.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 75 minutes, or until edges are golden, and center appears set. It will be slightly jiggly when lightly shaken (it will fully set as it cools), but most importantly, it should not seem liquidy, especially toward the center.
• Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Run a knife around the edges of the cheesecake to loosen, release the edges of the springform pan, and remove. Leave the cheesecake still sitting on the bottom part of the springform pan -- we'll transfer the cheesecake later.
• Refrigerate cheesecake until thoroughly chilled.
• Transfer to a serving platter, removing the bottom of the pan carefully.
• Prepare ganache and garnish.

For topping:

• In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate and butter.
• Heat for 30 seconds, and stir. It may not be very melted at this point, but give it a little stir.
• Add heavy cream, and heat for 30 seconds.
• Stir and whisk until smooth. You'll be surprised how little heat is needed to get the ingredients to melt and combine, so do not heat again until you have thoroughly stirred and whisked. As you stir, ingredients will continue to melt. If you find that additional heat is definitely required, only heat for 10-second intervals. The melting point of the ingredients is low, so it will not require intense heat to melt and combine, and the ingredients are prone to scorching, which will ruin ganache. Only minimum heat needed to achieve a smooth mixture!
• Spread and drizzle ganache over top of cheesecake. Allow to set for 15-20 minutes.
• Garnish with mini chocolate chips and whipped cream mounds, if desired.
• Cut and serve.
• Store in refrigerator for up to a week.

Keyword cookie dough cheesecake, Cookie Dough Pumpkin Cheesecake, pumpkin cookie dough cheesecake