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This is an amazingly creamy Instant Pot Chocolate Cheesecake that is so rich and delicious. This pressure cooker Chocolate Cheesecake is chocolatey, creamy and just so YUMMY! 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. 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
Ingredients
Chocolate Crust
- 20 Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (scrape filling out so you have a total of 40 discs)
- 1 Tbsp Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Butter, melted
Cheesecake Filling
- 2 8oz Pkgs of Cream Cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips, semi sweet (or mix semi sweet and dark chocolate)
- ½ cup Heavy Cream, room temperature
- ½ tsp Instant Espresso Powder (you can do without, but it enhances the chocolate flavor!)
- 1 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 2 Eggs, room temperature
Instructions
Prepare the Pan
- 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.
Prepare the Pressure Cooker
- Put 1 1/2 cups of water in the inner liner of the pressure cooker.
- Put the trivet/rack in the pot as well.
Prepare a Sling
- 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”
Prepare the Crust
- 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.
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.
Cook the Cheesecake
- 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. High pressure.
- 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.
Topping - Optional
- 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!).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried this recipe tonight. Did everything as directed and even securing the paper town with foil, the paper towel ended up resting on the cheese cake and it pulled up come batter when I took the foil off. Is this normal?
No, you need to secure it taut and crimp the foil over it and it won’t touch the cheesecake.
This is our go-to cheescake recipe. I replace the chocolate with white chocolate and top with fruit topping. To die for!!! I would like to make this in an egg bite mold. How long would you recommend cooking it in the molds? I would like to do 1 batch of chocolate and 1 of white chocolate.
Hi Kristen! Thank you for your review! For the mold I would try a batch at 8 minutes with a 7 minute natural release. Then you will know if you need to adjust for the next batch.
Hi,
I tried this recipe and it turned out great the first time. I tried it again yeterday and unfortunately the edges were cracked and uneven. I had two main questions:
1) when the foil is placed, should it cover thr whole pan or just the top surface?
2) after the 40mins pressure time is up, should the “keep warm” function be cancelled whilst awaiting the 15min pressure release?
3) is there anything i can do to prevent my bad edges? I think it was to do with the edges sticking ti the sides if the pan and then breaking on cooling.
Thanks so much
Hi Reenam. First, the foil covers the top only. You can turn off the pot for the natural release. I use a baking spray that is for cakes and has a little flour in it. Cooling the cheesecake slowly helps it not crack, but you might also want to try less cook time, maybe 5 minutes less and see if that helps.
I know this post is old but looked like there were still some recent comments. I was wondering what the purpose of the paper towel is? I am making this recipe but skipped the paper towel under the foul and am wondering if it will still turn out ok? Thanks!
Hi Gem, the paper towel is not vital to the recipe. What it does is catch some of the moisture and keeps it off of the cheesecake. But honestly, you don’t even have to cover a cheesecake when you pressure cook it. If you do cook it uncovered, shorten the pressure cook time to about 30 minutes.
Is this recipe for 6 quart IP? That’s what I have, if not what adjustments need to be made?
It is for the 6 qt or 8 qt. As long as you use the 7″ pan for the cheesecake you can use either pot!
I used this recipe, but I skipped all the chocolate and used white chocolate chips in place of regular. It is amazing and your instructions were spot on! We made 2 cheesecakes before this one that were super dry even though I followed instructions to a T. This one was the perfect density! It didn’t even flatten in the middle! 🙂
Hi Arivendi! Thank you for your review! This recipe is based off of my regular cheesecake recipe. You can really have fun with it! With the white chocolate, you can add a tsp of peppermint extract and have another wonderful variation! https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-white-chocolate-peppermint-cheesecake/
Can’t wait to try this recipe but I have a question. I live in Utah and usually follow the high altitude directions on a box cake mix. Would I need to do anything different for this recipe?
Hi Sue, add 5% to the cook time for every 1000 feet above 2000 feet. So for 3000′ + 5%, 4000′ + 10%, 5000′ + 15%, and so on.
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!
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!
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……