23 December 2007
Peppermint Cheesecake
This cheesecake is only brought out during the holiday season. Mostly because it uses crushed candy canes and those are a little hard to find in the middle of July (starlight mints, the red and white ones, work but don’t tint the cheesecake as pink). Peppermint flavor screams winter and the holidays as well.
This recipe is so good, I’m just going to get to the point and let you try it for yourself.
(Please excuse the not-so-great photography this time, I’m dog sitting and the lighting in their kitchen isn’t so great for photos.)
Ingredients:
Oreo Cookies (or chocolate crumbs)
Butter or margarine, melted
1 envelope (or 1 tbsp) unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
16-oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies
1 cup whipping cream
2 1.05 oz milk chocolate candy bars
1 9-inch round spring-form pan.
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Crush the cookies. I used a blender/food processor to crush the cookies. Make sure the crumbs don’t become too fine, otherwise the crust will be too hard. The original recipe called for 1 cup, but thats never enough to cover the bottom of the pan.
Mix between 2 and 3 tablespoons of butter for each 1 cup of cookie crumbs you use.
Start with a little butter, only adding more butter if the crumbs aren’t sticking together well. Adding too much butter makes the crust really hard. Press the crumb/butter mixture into the bottom of a spring-form pan.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven (350 degrees F). Cool.
Crush the peppermints or candy canes. I used starlight mints this time because for some weird reason the grocery store didn’t have any (its two days before Christmas people!). I used about 25 mints (usually about 3 candy canes).
The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of crushed peppermints, I like using a little more about 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Adjust the amount to your taste, if you really like mint use more. If you don’t like mint, or are making this for someone else, use the original amount.
Soften gelatin in the 1/4 cup cold water. Stir over low heat until the gelatin is dissolved.
Combine the cream cheese and sugar together until well blended.
Add the melted and cooled gelatin.
Gradually add the milk, doing your best to keep the mixture as smooth as possible.
Fold in the crushed peppermints.
Chop the chocolate into small chunks. (I use about half a 5 oz hershey’s symphony bar, I like extra chocolate.)
Whip the cream.
Fold in the whipped cream and chocolate pieces.
Pour the mixture over the cooled crust.
Chill in the refrigerator until firm.
Slide a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to help release it from the pan. Slice and serve. (Pictures of that tomorrow.)
Ingredients:
Oreo Cookies (or chocolate crumbs)
Butter or margarine, melted
1 envelope (or 1 tbsp) unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
16-oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies
1 cup whipping cream
2 1.05 oz milk chocolate candy bars, chopped
1 9-inch round spring-form pan.
Directions
Crush cookies into crumbs. Create a mixture of 2-3 tablespoons of melted butter to 1 cup of crumbs, increasing amount if needed to cover the bottom of the springform pan. Press mixture into the bottom of the pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Cool.
Soften gelatin in cold water, then heat on low until dissolved. Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing until well blended. Add in the dissolved gelatin. Gradually add in the milk mixing until smooth. Fold in crushed peppermint.
Whip the whipping cream. Fold in the whipped cream and chopped chocolate. Pour over the crust and refrigerate until firm.
Tags: chocolate, dessert, holiday, sweet
December 23, 2007, 08:18:47 PM | Permalink | Subscribe | 
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