Q: I was making a cheesecake with a chocolate wafer crust. I couldn’t find chocolate wafers, but I did find Oreos. I’ve seen recipes that called for crushed Oreos, but I’ve never used them because I’m confused about whether I should leave in the cream filling. Should I scrape it out before I crush them?

A: That’s really two questions. First, to find the chocolate wafers, don’t look on the cookie aisle. Many stores stock them on the ice cream aisle, along with the chocolate syrups and ice cream toppings.

Second, if the recipe doesn’t call for removing the Oreo filling, leave it in. The cookies can be crushed easily in a food processor, filling and all.

The creamy filling will help the crumbs stick together to form the crust. And why would you want to remove all that creamy goodness?