It’s been a while since my last post. The holiday season was a ridiculous rush of parties, activities, and visits as usual. It’s also the peak of the sick season, where we lovingly pass the current popular ailment around and share in its misery and various bodily fluids. Living with a five year old who goes to school provides us with an endless array of fun family ailments. My husband gave me two new games for Christmas and my birthday. I’ve already rescued Princess Peach, but I am still working on saving Hyrule. I haven’t had much time to game over the last few years, and I’d forgotten how obsessed and addicted I can get. It was very hard to put down that controller.
But enough with the excuses. It’s about time to get back into a routine.
Let’s talk about cheesecake. A few years back, I’d been obsessed with baking cheesecakes. Then I discovered how easy no bake cheesecakes can be, so I obsessively made no bake cheesecakes for a while. Baked or not baked, I love them both. Over the holidays, I made a couple of cheesecakes that were pretty freaking good. The one I will share in this post is my Peppermint Bark Cheesecake. It’s a rich minty cheesecake on a chocolate mint cookie crust, covered with a thick layer of melt in your mouth peppermint bark. Ok, I will admit, it was a screw up that turned this cheesecake into “peppermint bark cheesecake.” It was supposed to be a regular mint chocolate cheesecake topped with a chocolate ganache. But I used too much chocolate in the ganache, and it turned out really thick, and the result was more of a peppermint bark. It worked out quite well though, because come on, it’s two luxurious and delicious desserts in one.
You might be thinking, oh, the holidays are over, I’ll save this recipe for the next holiday season. I ask you this: When is it ever a wrong season to eat chocolate and mint? This is also a good way to get rid of a few of those candy canes you somehow acquired. Yeeeeah, pantry cleaning is a good reason to make this cheesecake.
Oh yeah, this was the first time I ate a slightly warm cheesecake. I made the cheesecake for some friends, but it had not chilled enough when I served it. It was tasty, but the flavors were kind of muted. I ate some of the leftovers after it chilled overnight, and it was like I was eating a different cheesecake. So I learned an important lesson. Always make cheesecake ahead of time with plenty of chill time.
Here are a few other tips on making cheesecakes:
-Let all the ingredients sit to room temperature first.
-Don’t over mix. Too much air in the batter can cause cracking.
-Don’t over bake, the middle of the cheesecake is supposed to be a little jiggly. It will set as it cools down.
-Let the cheesecake cool gradually. Once the oven is turned off, just leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar for at least an hour. Sudden temperature changes can cause cracks.
-Chill the cheesecake before serving.
-Even if the cheesecake cracks, no worries. Get creative and delicious with sauces and toppings.
My sister gave us a box of Trader Joe’s mint chocolate sandwich cookies. I decided to use these instead of my usual Oreos. But if you have mint Oreos, those will certainly work too. Or you can also add a little mint extract to regular Oreos. I smashed a bunch of cookies up with my rolling pin, the creamy filling included.
Here are my smashed cookies mixed with melted butter that I pressed into a greased spring form pan. I pre-baked my crust. You don’t have to, but I prefer my crust to be crunchier. Oh another important lesson here. I forgot to put the springform pan on top of a baking sheet before placing it in the oven. My springform pan does not form a tight seal due to a few dents, and some of the butter leaked out and dripped to the bottom of my oven. Burning butter smokes and stinks. It was not pleasant.
The cheesecake I made is based off a recipe I found a few years ago on Allrecipes. This here is my cream cheese and sugar getting beat up.
Then I added the milk. From this point on, don’t go crazy with your mixer. Keep the mixer on a speed that is just high enough to mix everything together. We don’t want to beat a lot of air into the batter.
Here are my eggs joining the party. A lot of recipes tell you to mix the eggs one at a time. I get the reasoning that one at a time allows each one to become fully incorporated. But I am the lazy sort, and I usually dump them all in at the same time. I have not noticed any significant difference in taste or texture. I’d probably get a bad grade if I went to culinary school though.
Here we go, mixing in the sour cream, flour, mint extract and vanilla extract.
I poured the batter into the pre-baked crust. I gently knocked the springform pan against the pizza pan to try and get some of the air bubbles out. I did not use a water bath. Many people recommend placing the springform pan in a pan of hot water while baking. The steam is supposed to keep the cheesecake from cracking. But water baths also make the crust a lot softer than I like. Plus, I’ve had cheesecakes crack even when using a water bath. So, whatever.
After an hour of baking, I turned off the oven. The cheesecake is still a bit jiggly in the middle, but that is ok. It will set as it cools. I left the cheesecake in the warm oven for at least an hour (I’ve left it in there for 5-6 hours before). I ran a knife around the cheesecake before popping the latch open. Ok, so here you can see a nice big crack. It happens. No problem, because I will be covering that up with a thick layer of chocolate.
Here is a simple ganache. I heated up heavy cream, and poured it over dark chocolate chips. Stir it until the chocolate melts. You can add some mint extract if you want an extra hit of mint.
After I poured the chocolate over the cheesecake, I topped it with crushed candy canes.
Tadaa! Peppermint Bark Cheesecake. This is not very sweet since I cut out some of the sugar, and I used dark chocolate. But I will warn you, it is rich. This is not a case of the bigger the better. A small slice is probably enough to satisfy most of you.
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake
Mint Chocolate Crust
Ingredients
– Around 26 mint chocolate sandwich cookies
– 6 tbs melted butter
Directions
– Crush the cookies into crumbs with whatever method you prefer, be it the food processor, rolling pin, or wine bottle.
– Mix the cookie crumbs with the melted butter. Press the mixture to form a crust in a greased springform pan. Place the springform pan on another baking sheet in case of leaky butter.
– Bake at 375°F for about 10-11 minutes.
– Let the crust cool before pouring cheesecake batter in.
Mint Cheesecake
Ingredients
– 32 oz of regular fat cream cheese (4 blocks)
– 1.25 c white sugar
– 3/4 c milk
– 4 eggs
– 1 c regular sour cream
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 2 tsp mint extract
– 1/4 c flour
Directions
– Let the ingredients sit out to room temperature.
– Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
– Gently mix in milk. Then add the eggs (all at once, or one at a time. You decide) Then mix in the sour cream, mint and vanilla extracts, and flour. Careful not to over-beat the batter.
– Pour the batter onto the cooled crust. Gently knock out air bubbles.
– Bake at 325ºF for one hour. After an hour, turn the oven off, and leave the oven door cracked open. Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for at least an hour.
– Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cheesecake before opening the pan latch.
– Once the cheesecake is mostly cooled, pour the ganache over the top. Put the cheesecake in the fridge to chill until ready to serve.
Peppermint Bark Ganache
Ingredients
– 3 c dark chocolate chips
– 1.5 c heavy cream
Directions
– Heat the heavy cream on the stove until it starts to boil. Don’t let it keep bubbling or it’ll boil out of the pot and you’ll have a mess.
– Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips. Stir until you have a smooth chocolate sauce. Pour over the cheesecake.
– Top the chocolate ganache with crushed peppermint candies. Smashing them in a Ziplock with a rolling pin works well.
