This delicious layered chocolate raspberry cheesecake makes the perfect dessert for any occasion! The raspberry layer has a fresh raspberry puree in it that gives it the light pink tint and a boost of flavor from the raspberry extract. The chocolate layer has both melted semi-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder in it to give it the perfect richness. If you love cheesecake don’t miss my Perfect Cheesecake Recipe and No-Bake Cheesecake.
Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Let’s talk crust. There are so many options when it comes to the perfect cheesecake crust. Most crusts tend to be a graham cracker crust, but when there’s chocolate in the cheesecake, I always opt for an oreo cookie crust. I always use a chocolate sandwich cookie for my chocolate cookie crusts and it doesn’t matter whether it’s store brand or Oreos. The sugary filling of the cookies provides the sweetness and I don’t have to add any additional sugar to the crust. That’s right, the chocolate cookie crust only takes two ingredients, cookies and butter.
The food processor is the quickest and easiest way to get your cookies processed into crumbs and the butter evenly distributed. Within minutes you’ll have your crust ready. If you don’t have a food processor, that’s okay too. Place the sandwich cookies into a large storage bag and crush them with a rolling pin. I tend to do that when I’m too lazy to drag out the food processor and wash it up. The crumbs tend not to be as fine, but they will do the trick.
Cheesecakes are my favorite thing to make and eat. They are just so delicious! If you want to try some other great cheesecakes, there’s the snicker cheesecake or the ultimate blueberry cheesecake.
How to make the raspberry puree?
The raspberry puree for this chocolate raspberry cheesecake can be made from fresh or frozen raspberries that have been thawed. Add the raspberries into a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath to catch the puree. Push the raspberries through the strainer with a rubber spatula until the only thing left in the strainer is seeds. I despise berry seeds so this was perfect.
You can also run the raspberries through a blender. It seems like everyone has a blender nowadays. Pour the puree through a strainer to be sure all the seeds are removed.
How do you make a layered cheesecake?
I created the cheesecake base altogether. When it comes to flavoring the 2 layers of cheesecake, I divided them evenly into two bowls. The first bowl, I added raspberry extract. If you want to add food coloring to make the layer pinker, add it now.
For the chocolate layer, I melted the semi-sweet chocolate and added 1/2 cup of the cheesecake base into it. Quickly mix until incorporated to keep the chocolate from seizing up or cooling off too much. After the melted chocolate is worked into the cheesecake, add the cocoa powder. Mix until thoroughly combined and then work it into the rest of the cheesecake.
The chocolate is a thicker consistency than the raspberry and would probably sink to the bottom. So keep our layers nice, add the chocolate layer on the bottom and spread it evenly into the pan. Add the raspberry layer on top.
Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust
- 20 chocolate sandwich cookies
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
Cheesecake
- 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ½ cup raspberry puree
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons raspberry extract
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Ganache
- ¾ cup milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 pint fresh raspberries
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325°F.Â
- Add the cookies into a food processor. Pulse until cookie crumbs are all that are left. Remove any large pieces of cookie.
- Add in the butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs resemble wet sand.
- Press the crust into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
- Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Cheesecake
- Add the cream cheese to a mixing bowl. Beat on medium with a hand mixer until the cream cheese is smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Beat each egg in before adding the next. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the sour cream, raspberry puree, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium until it's just incorporated. Scrape the sides and stir in any remaining sour cream or raspberry puree.
- Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl. Try to keep it as even as possible. I used a scale, but a measuring cup would work as well.
- Add the raspberry extract to one of the bowls of cheesecake batter. Now is the time to add food coloring if you want more of a pink color. I left it out. Stir until everything is combined.
- Melt the chocolate chips in a medium bowl by microwaving for 30 seconds and stirring. Repeat until the chocolate chips are completely melted.
- Add 1/2 cup of the second bowl of cheesecake batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate. Immediately start stirring in the batter into the chocolate to avoid the chocolate seizing up or cooling down too much.
- Once the batter is incorporated, add the cocoa powder to the chocolate mixture. Stir until it's completely incorporated.
- Scrape the chocolate mixture in with the second bowl of batter. Stir to combine.
- Wrap the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil. Place the cheesecake into a slightly bigger pan and fill with an inch to two inches of hot water.
- Add the chocolate cheesecake batter to the springform pan first. Spread it out evenly.
- Slowly pour the raspberry cheesecake batter on top to avoid it plopping into the pan and disturbing the chocolate layer. Spread it out so it covers all of the chocolate batter.
- Place in the oven. Let the cheesecake bake for 1 hour 20 minutes - 1 hour 30 minutes until done. To make sure the cheesecake is done, give it a wiggle. If it slightly jiggles in JUST the middle like jello, then it's done. If it jiggles on the edges, it needs to bake longer. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door slightly. Let it cool in the oven.
Ganache
- Once the cheesecake has cooled to room temperature, begin making the ganache.
- Add the chocolate chips and heavy cream into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until the ganache looks like a smooth chocolate syrup.
- Pour the ganache on top of the room temperature cheesecake. Place in the fridge until the ganache begins to thicken up. It will take 1 - 2 hours.
- Add the fresh raspberries on top of the ganache and place back into the fridge until you're ready to serve it up. I prefer to let the cheesecake set up overnight before cutting into it, but it's not necessary.
Did you make this recipe?
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I’m Miranda from the blog Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt and the author of the Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook. Two of the most popular recipes on my blog are for a strawberries and cream cheesecake and a triple cholate cheesecake. Come over to see check them out and other delicious dessert recipes!
I made this for my daughter’s birthday. The presentation is absolutely gorgeous and turned out looking like it was professionally made, but the raspberry flavor was WAY too subtle. It was barely noticeable. The cookie crust directions were vague. I did not know to use just the cookie wafers OR to use the WHOLE cookie. Other than those two things, it was a good recipe.
Very Good! Ate two Ä£ had to put them away or I’dve made myself Sick eating them🙄🥰
I was asked to make the Chocolate/Rasp berry Cheesecake instead of Apple Pie for Thanksgiving. A great recipe!
Wonderful recipe and it turned out beautifully. Everything worked exactly as stated. However, I’m glad I wrapped the pan because melted butter leaked *out*.
For those asking about the extract: I found a bottle on Amazon for a good price.
One question though: how did you manage to cut it so cleanly? Any knife I used (even tried rinsing in water first) dragged a lot of the cake with it. I let it set overnight (actually a whole day) in the fridge too.
The method you describe is the method I use when cutting cheesecake… sorry it was not efficient for you!
Good, but not cheesy enough. I’m not sure if I’ve used the right amount of Cream Cheese. It showed as “3 8 oz” on my screen. Does it mean 3.8 oz? As I’m based in the UK, using Google conversion, it says 3.8oz = roughly 105 grams. Luckily, it turned out well after all the effort. It was just not very cheesy. I also tweaked the recipe a bit. I didn’t use raspberry extract. I used homemade raspberry puree and only mix it with the half mixture that has no chocolate in. It turned out pink naturally without using colouring.
It is 3 packages of cream cheese. Each package is 8 ounces.
Hi there, in the description you mention making a raspberry puree to flavor the raspberry layer, but then later on you call for a raspberry extract. Is the puree supposed to be the extract?
Both are ingredients in the recipe. 🙂
I made this for my Sister-In-Law’s 70th Birthday. She LOVES rich cheesecake, like at the Cheesecake Factory. Well it WAS RICH!! Too rich for me and most of the folks at the party, but it was really good. She LOVED IT!!! which is all that mattered.
Substitutions: Couldn’t find raspberry extract. I dissolved 1T raspberry jello in 2T boiling water and didn’t use coloring. I tried a shortcut for the raspberry puree and used Smuckers sugar free raspberry fruit spread. It turned out great.
I am obsessed with this recipe! All my family and friends loved it as well! I was wondering if you have any suggestions on how to make this dairy free? I mean, I know I can use the dairy free substitutions but was wondering if you have any favorites as far as brands go? Would appreciate it so much!! Thank you again for this amazing recipe!!
I saw I can double the recipe for more people but it still says to use a 9″ springform pan. Is that correct?