You may have seen pictures floating around on Pinterest or other social media of amazing cheesecakes made in an Instant Pot. They look pretty good, right? And so easy to make and cook! If however, you’re like me and don’t actually own an Instant Pot (yet!), you can still enjoy these amazing cheesecake recipes, if you’ve got access to some other sort of pressure cooker.
I love everything there is to love about the Instant Pot but I haven’t added one to my kitchen appliance collection yet because I already own a Tefal Cook 4 Me. This is a similar appliance to the Instant Pot so, whenever I see an Instant Pot recipe I’d like to try, I just adapt it and give it a go in my Cook 4 Me.
And that’s exactly what I’ve done with this chocolate cheesecake! The original recipe I modified used Oreo’s for the base. While we do now have Oreos readily available in Australia, I’m not a huge fan of them (gasp!) so I opted to use good old Arnott’s Choc Ripple biscuits instead.
The full recipe is below, so scroll down to the bottom if that’s all you’re after, but if you’d like more of a step-by-step description of how I made this chocolate cheesecake, follow along here.
To begin with, to cook a cheesecake in an Instant Pot or any other type of pressure cooker, you’re going to need a springform pan that fits into your appliance. I used this 7” springform pan that I bought on Amazon especially to try this recipe.
It worked well so I’m very happy with my purchase and will use it again, but there is a knack to getting your pan in and out of the cooker – I’ll show you how I did it when we get up to that part.
Grease the pan with cooking spray and line it with baking paper.
Crush your biscuits in a food processor and add them to the melted butter and combine.
Press the crumb mixture into the base of your springform pan and then pop it into the freezer while you make the cheesecake filling.
Mix together the cocoa and sugar in your food processor or blender. Then add the softened cream cheese and blend until smooth.
In a separate, microwave safe bowl, combine the cream and the chocolate chips.
Microwave for 30 seconds and whisk until smooth. (microwave for another 10 seconds if not fully melted).
Let this mixture cool for a few minutes – you want it to be warm but not hot when you add it to the cream cheese mixture, and then process or mix until completely combined.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla and mix/blend again until combined. Then pour the filling mixture into your prepared springform pan.
Now for the fun part – figuring out how to get your cheesecake safely into the pressure cooker appliance you are using!
You want your cheesecake pan to be sitting up out of the water you need to put in the base. For this you can use a special trivet like these, or make do with what you have already and use an egg ring (or two) like I did! Add 1 ½ cups of water and your trivet or egg ring contraption to the base of the cooker.
Then you need to completely cover your cheesecake with foil and work out how you’re going to lower it carefully into the pressure cooker. Again you can buy a special silicone sling that has been specially designed for this purpose but, if you don’t have one of those, you can do what I did which was to make my own sling or strap out of foil.
Just tear off a long stretch of foil and fold it over a couple of times so that you’ve got a long length of tripled thickness foil. Put this under the cheesecake pan and pull the sides up like a strap to lower it into the cooker.
Then just fold your foil strap handles over the top of the cheesecake while it cooks – you’ll need to use them again to get the cheesecake out once it’s finished cooking.
Cook for 40 minutes – I used the “Quick Cook” function of my Cook 4 Me and just set the time to 40 minutes. If you are using an Instant Pot, cook for 40 minutes at high pressure.
Once the cooking time has finished and the pressure has been fully released, use the foil handles (or your silicone sling) to lift the cheesecake out of the cooker.
Allow it to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours. The next day (or at least 6 hours later) unwrap the foil to reveal your masterpiece!
Don’t panic if you’ve got a crack in the top (like my cheesecake), this is easily disguised by making up some quick, microwave chocolate ganache and spreading it deliciously all over the top of the cake.
Or you could add a layer of cream or even just sprinkle grated chocolate all over the top – a crack is no bother, it takes a bit of disguising but when the disguise is tasty, who cares?!
Carefully remove the cheesecake from the springform pan, cut into slices and enjoy!
Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
Ingredients
- 125g chocolate biscuits
- 50g butter, melted
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa
- 500g cream cheese (at room temperature)
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup cream
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Instructions
- Process biscuits into crumbs.
- Add melted butter and combine.
- Press into the base of a lined 7 inch springform pan.
- Put in freezer.
- Mix together cocoa and sugar, add cream cheese and blend or process until smooth.
- Combine cream and chocolate chips in a separate, microwave safe bowl.
- Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir or whisk until smooth – microwave a further 10 seconds if chocolate has not fully melted.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Add chocolate/cream mixture to the cream cheese mixture and beat/blend until combined.
- Add in eggs, one at a time.
- Add vanilla and blend/mix until combined.
- Pour filling mixture into prepared base/springform pan.
- Cover the cheesecake with foil.
- Add 1 ½ cups of water and a trivet to the base of the cooker and then use a sling or strap to gently lower the cheesecake into position on the trivet.
- Cook for 40 minutes at high pressure.
- Once cooked and the pressure has been released, remove the cheesecake from the cooker and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Once cool enough, refrigerate the cheesecake overnight or for at least 6 hours.
- Remove from the pan and enjoy!
I love adapting recipes I find online and turning them into something I can cook at home with whatever appliances or gadgets I already have. While I would love to try out an Instant Pot, I won’t be buying one until my Cook 4 Me has cooked its last meal!
But that doesn’t mean I have to miss out on Instant Pot recipes. Just like this Instant Pot chocolate cheesecake, I just figure out a way to convert it for the Cook 4 Me. I hope you give this pressure cooker chocolate cheesecake recipe a try – it’s smooth, creamy and delicious, not to mention it’s fun to cook!
If you’re in the market for a pressure cooker and are thinking of buying an Instant Pot, check out this article about where to buy an Instant Pot in Australia.
A pressure cooker is a great way to cook this chocolate cheesecake, but, if you want the secret recipe to the best cheesecake ever, it’s not so secret anymore, you can find it here – no pressure cooker required.
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