Curb your chocolate craving with an amazingly creamy Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake that is so easy to make. This pressure cooker Chocolate Cheesecake is chocolatey, rich, and creamy as all get-out! Just YUM! Chocolate cheesecake made in your pressure cooker! How cool is that?!
Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake
A few years ago my siblings and I did a “staycation” here in Washington. We decided to go to Seattle and stay in a hotel and just be tourists for a couple of days. Now, when I say siblings, I mean in-law siblings, and there are 14 of us! Paul is the youngest of seven! So with the spouses, we number fourteen! Oh, and I’m the youngest. Just thought I’d mention that (hee hee, I know they will be reading this).
We get together often, and always have a great time together. We do all kinds of things, and it is very special. We don’t fight, and there is always something to talk about!
So during our Seattle staycation we ended up at a local chocolate factory! How cool is that?! We got to go on a guided tour and learned all about the chocolate, from where and how it’s grown, harvested, processed, to the final tasty products.
The name of this chocolate company is Theo Chocolate. “Theo” is from the actual name of the tree Theobroma Cacao. This is a special company, and they are organic, Fair Trade, and just so great! I have always loved their chocolate, and it makes a difference in so many people’s lives. Visit their website to learn a lot at theochocolate.com! The tour is so fun, and you get to sample the chocolate. I couldn’t believe how much I learned about not only chocolate, but the people involved in the whole process. It’s really a great story!
I mention Theo because that is what I used in my Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake! I just chopped up the bars and measured a cup. I mixed 85% dark chocolate with the 45% milk chocolate. You can just use chocolate chips, or whatever chocolate you love! I want to say that Theo is not paying me to say all of this about them, in fact, they don’t even know I wrote this post yet. I just love them and am proud to have a company like theirs in Seattle!
Try my Caramel Sauce, you won’t regret it!
If you love cheesecake, try my other scrumptious recipes:
Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pressure Cooker Dreamy Orange Cheesecake
Instant Pot New York Cheesecake
Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake is so easy to make. It is chocolatey, rich, and creamy. Chocolate cheesecake made in your pressure cooker! How cool is that?!
- 20 Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (scrape filling out so you have a total of 40 discs)
- 1 Tbsp Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Butter, melted
- 2 8oz Pkgs of Cream Cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips, semi sweet (or mix semi sweet and dark chocolate)
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp Instant Espresso Powder (you can do without, but it enhances the chocolate flavor!)
- 1 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 2 Eggs, room temperature
Use a 7 or 8 inch cheesecake pan (I use a 7” push pan, but you can use a springform pan as well. Whatever will fit comfortably in your pressure cooker and hold all of the filling).
Spray the pan with baking spray. If you have parchment paper, cut a piece to fit the bottom of your pan and spray that too.
Put 1 1/2 cups of water in the inner liner of the pressure cooker.
Put the trivet/rack in the pot as well.
Usually made with aluminum foil, used to get the cheesecake in and out of the pot easily.
Fold a 28” length of foil along the long end 3 times. You will end up with a sling that is 28” x 3”
Scrape the filling out of the cookies and place them in a food processor. Discard the filling.
Add 1 Tbsp sugar.
Pulse several times until the cookies turn into fine crumbs.
Add the melted butter and pulse several times to combine and soften the crumbs. You may need to scrape the bowl of the food processor and pulse a few more times.
Pour crust mixture into your prepared pan and use your fingers or the bottom of a small glass to press the mixture into place. Cover the entire bottom of the pan and come up the sides a little. You do not have to come all the way up the sides. You want the crust to be about 1/4” thick or so.
Put the pan in the freezer to chill and firm up while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
Clean the crust residue out of the food processor.
Add the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and pulse a several times until well combined. Then process until it's smooth and creamy.
In a microwave safe bowl, add the chocolate chips and heavy cream. Heat for 25 seconds in microwave. Stir well and put back in for another 25 seconds. Stir very well again. It may take a couple minutes of stirring to become creamy, which is what you want.
Let it cool to luke-warm, then stir in the espresso powder and add it to the cream cheese mixture.
Add the cocoa powder to the cream cheese mixture and pulse a few times to combine. Then process until smooth and creamy.
Add the eggs last. Pulse just until combined. If you whip the eggs too much the cheesecake will puff up and won’t have the right consistency.
Take the crust from the freezer and pour the filling into the pan.
Cover the pan with a paper towel, then with a piece of foil. Crimp the edges around the pan so it stays taut and secure.
Lay the sling out and set the pan on it, centered. Gather up the two ends and very carefully lift the pan and set it in the pressure cooker, leaving the sling with it. Just fold over the two ends of the sling on top of the pan.
Close the lid of the pressure cooker and set the steam vent to the Sealing position.
Press the Manual (or Pressure Cook) button and then the + or - button to choose 40 minutes.
When cook cycle ends, let the cooker naturally release pressure for 20 minutes. Then manually release the remaining pressure.
When the pin drops and it is safe to open the lid, do so carefully, facing away from you.
Gather up the two ends of the sling and VERY carefully lift the cheesecake pan out of the cooker and onto a cooling rack.
Leave covered for a few minutes, then carefully peel off the foil/paper towel.
Let cool for an hour, then put the pan in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours before serving. I prefer to make my cheesecake in the evening and let it cool overnight.
Top with extra chocolate, caramel sauce, whipped cream, strawberries or other fruit, or a sweet sour cream topping (Cheesecake in photos has my Caramel Sauce poured over it. Very good!).
This is a very creamy cheesecake. I think it tastes best after it has warmed up a bit. Almost to room temp. The texture is more creamy than cake like.
Resources to Make This Recipe and More
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20 sandwich cookies , does that mean 20 wafers or 40 ?
Hi Sali, it’s 20 sandwich cookies, then you scrape out the filling, so you are left with 40 halves (or wafers, as you call them). Hope that helps. Enjoy the cheesecake! 🙂
Thanks Sandy,
I made this last week!!! boy was it a hit !!! so rich and delicious.. my husband thought i bought it from our local bakery shop.. he couldn’t believe that I made this. This is the best chocolate cheesecake i have tried yet so far
Hi Sali! Yay! That is a big compliment, and I appreciate that you took the time to tell me! Take care!
I’ve seen some cheesecake recipes for Instant Pot that have 50 plus minute cook time. Your pumpkin one calls for 50 minutes. This one is 35. Is that just because of the different ingredients?
Hi Dennis! Yes, the pumpkin cheesecake has a full cup of pumpkin added to it, and needs that extra time. My New York Cheesecake is only 37 minutes. They all have their own variations, therefore, different times. Variables such as altitude and so on make a difference, too.
Trader Joe’s has gluten free peppermint O’s out!
I’ll try a gf version for my first cheesecake in the IP!
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Hi JJ! Thanks for the comment! Corn starch is a great sub for flour. You can do crustless, or the O’s, as you said. If you like peppermint, check out my white chocolate peppermint cheesecake! It’s amazing! https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-white-chocolate-peppermint-cheesecake/
Can you make ahead of time and freeze it? Will it taste the same after thawing?
Thanks!!
Cheesecakes do freeze well. Place the cheesecake (make sure it is cooled completely) on a baking sheet pan and put in the freezer, uncovered, until it is firm. Remove the cheesecake from the freezer, wrap it in plastic wrap, and then heavy duty aluminum foil, and place in a zip-closure freezer bag. Return to the freezer. To thaw, take out cheesecake and let thaw at room temp. Is a previously frozen cheesecake as good as a fresh one? Almost. But fresh is always better!
This looks amazing? How would one adapt it for a 6″ pan?
Hi Lovella! If you line the side of your 6″ pan with parchment and let it come up higher than the pan, you can use all of the batter and the cheesecake will stay contained when it rises. You’ll need to cook it uncovered, which is fine, it just won’t be as smooth on top. Then add 5 minutes to the cook time.
Can I make the filling using an electric mixer? I don”have a food processor, just a small food chopper (which will work for the crust).
Hi Gorjean, yes, just add the eggs last and hand mix them in so they don’t get over mixed. The rest you can use the mixer.
Thanks, Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Sandy, I made this cheesecake yesterday. I got distracted and only after I got it in the pan, realized that I had forgotten the cream. The batter fit perfectly in my 6 in pan, so I decided to cook it anyway. I did it according to directions and it set up nicely. We tried it today, and it was the best Chocolate Cheesecake I have ever had. The crust was perfect and crisp and the intense dark chocolate flavor was outstanding. I need to make another, for an occasion this weekend, but since my guests prefer Milk Chocolate, I will try it with the cream. Thanks for the recipe and clear instructions.
hi. I have a pressure cooker that we use.mostly for pulses as we have Indian origins. I want to try the cheesecake too but I can’t understand the folding process of paper for preparing the tin and all. I think if u could add pics to these procedures would help enormously. I read a few times but I still cannot understand it clearly:(
greetings from sunny Mauritius in the Indian ocean.
chamila
Hi Chamila, I will work on getting some photos up. In the meantime, you can watch my Pumpkin Cheesecake video, which has a better explanation of the foil sling.
Thank you for the recipe. This was my first instant pot cheesecake attempt and it came out beautifully. I then immediately made your New York cheesecake recipe too . New York cheesecake is my favorite dessert and there are a few popular instant recipes out there. I’m glad I went with yours first. So creamy. Again thank you for the great recipes. I can’t wait to try out all the cheesecake recipes that you have created.
Hi Laura! I’m honored that you chose my cheesecake recipe as your first in the IP! I’m very glad you enjoyed both recipes! Thank you so much for your review, it is wonderful to hear from you!
Hi! 😁
I am a chocaholic and will definitely be trying this recipe!! Hehe!! However, I did try making my first cheesecake in my cooker last week. It also had a chocolate crust. I just used Oreo cookies and did not remove the cream filling. It alleviated the need for the extra sugar as well as the cleaning of the processor for the next step. I simply put them in a ziploc sandwich bag and mashed them all up with a rolling pin, then put them in a mixing bowl and added the butter. Just a thought!! It came out great and tasted wonderful!! 😁
Hi Angel! I have seen that some people do this, so I decided to try it with my next cheesecake!
Just remember to adjust your cooking time for altitude in the Instant Pot. I have to add 5% at my altitude of 4800 ft. There are Instant pot altitude tables online. The new Ultra adjusts automatically on their preset settings. Your recipe is fabulous……
I made your regular cheesecake, and the chocolate one. So yummy and smooth. However, even though I am from Long Island and had Lindy’s cheesecake many times, I still prefer a little denser cheesecake…just a little bit. I know, weird, huh? Anyway, when your cheesecake was done in my Instant pot, I removed the cover like you said, but left it in the cooker for another 20 minutes…haha, forgot that the keep warm thing was on. I was worried it would be like a brick, but no. It was just a little less creamy and a little more firm than yours. I then took it out of the Instant Pot and put it on a cooling rock and removed the foil and paper towel. PERFECT! let it cool to lukewarm and put in fridge overnight. To die for. Of course, the pressure cooking removes all the calories, right? Right? Thank you for the very best cheesecake I have ever eaten.
Haha Emily! Of course the IP removes those pesky calories! I’m thrilled that you like my cheesecake recipe! If you add a couple teaspoons of flour to the batter it will be a bit denser, but it will always be different than one baked in the oven. Thanks so much for your review!
I found I don’t need the “sling”. My 6qt has a trivet that has a handle on each side. No need to make the sling.
That’s great! One less step!