Mint Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

This Friday a friend of mine invited us over for a dinner party. We’re all about meeting and making new friends, so we excitedly accepted. I offered to bring dessert and reverted back to my favorite – cheesecake!

As you can probably tell from the many blog posts about cheesecake, I’m a bit of a fanatic.

This time, I adapted a new recipe from a great cookbook “I Love Cheesecake” by Mary Crownover called Marbled Grasshopper Cheesecake. It’s a yummy mixture of creme de menthe and chocolate.

Chocolate Mint Cheesecake

This is a delicious cheesecake, with lots of rich, dark chocolate flavor and a hint of mint. It would be perfect for St. Patrick’s day, which is right around the corner.

Marbled Grasshopper Cheesecake Recipe:

Crust Ingredients:

– 18 chocolate mint sandwich cookies

– 5 tablespoons butter

Chocolate Mint Filling Ingredients:

– 32 ounces cream cheese

– 1/2 cup sugar

– 4 large eggs

– 1/4 cup sour cream

– 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

– 2 tablespoons corn starch

– 2 tablespoons cocoa

– 2 tablespoons sugar

– 1/4 cup creme de menthe

– 1 teaspoon mint extract

– a few drops of green food coloring

Chocolate Sour Cream Topping Ingredients:

– 5 ounces chocolate chips

– 1/3 cup sour cream

– Tablespoon creme de menthe

– 1 tablespoon sugar

First, make sure ALL your ingredients are at room temperature- the eggs, sour cream, cream cheese etc. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crust, put 18 cookies in a plastic baggy and enlist the strength of someone with strong forearms to crush the cookies into crumbs.

Combine the cookie crumbs with the butter and using your fingers, press onto the bottom of a well-greased spring-form pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Cheesecake cookie crust

Set the crust aside and start on the best part- the chocolate mint filling! Beat together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until completely smooth. Make sure there aren’t any cream cheese clumps floating around.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. Then stir in the sour cream, lemon extract and cornstarch.

Remove one cup of the filling and put it in a bowl. Stir in the cocoa and 2 tablespoons sugar.

Go back to the rest of the filling and mix in the creme de menthe, mint extract and green food coloring until you have a yummy, minty flavor and light green color. You can add more extract if you want a stronger mint flavor.

Here’s what creme de Menthe looks like. You can buy it in the specialty liquor section of your grocery store.

Now your filling is done! Pour half of the mint filling into your pan and smooth the top. Then spoon on half of the chocolate filling in the middle. Pour the rest of the mint over it and top again with the rest of the chocolate.

This is where the fun begins! Take a knife and without disturbing the crust, run it through the mixture to create a pretty marbling effect.

Bake the cheesecake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 200 and bake for another 2 hours or until the center no longer looks wet.

Turn the oven off and remove the cake and run a serrated knife around the edge to unhinge it from the pan. Place the cake BACK into the turned off oven to cool for 2 hours. Then refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to serve, whip up the topping. This is really the finale of the dessert and will also help it look really pretty.

I forgot to take photos of the process, but it’s really easy. Just mix together the chocolate chips, sour cream, creme de menthe and sugar in a sauce pot over low heat.

Pour the melted mixture on top of the cake and spread around with a spatula to the edge. I decorated the edge of mine with chocolate chips to add a little crunch to each slice.

Scrumdiddlyumptious! This cheesecake was literally gobbled up before I could get any more glamour shots. A definite crowd-pleaser.

How to Make Ohio State Buckeyes

This weekend Lake Tahoe has been getting pounded with snow- seven to ten feet to be exact!

Our attempt at skiing during this storm was met with a few wipe outs, so on Sunday I opted to stay in our cozy apartment and bake Christmas cookies!

As I was scouring the internet for some good recipes, I checked my work email and was presented with this from my colleauge:

Subject: Kiss My Buck-Eye!

Things you will never hear a Buckeye fan say:

– I’ll take Shakespeare for 1,000 Alex

– Too many deer heads detract from the decor

– I just could find a thing at Wal-Mart today

You see, this colleauge happens to be  Michigan fan and when she found out I was an OSU fan, well let’s just say the email wars began.

Usually my response is this : SCOREBOARD! But on Sunday, I felt compelled to take it to another level. I decided one of my recipes had to be the one dessert that no one, not even a Michigan fan could turn down, Buckeyes!

Ohio State Buckeye Recipe

Mix 1.5 cups creamy peanut butter, two sticks softened butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 4-5 cups of confectioners sugar.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out the dough and roll into balls about an inch to 1.5 inches wide.

Stick toothpicks into the tops of all the peanut butter balls. This will help you when it comes time to dip them in chocolate.

Then place the balls in the freezer for thirty minutes so they’re firm for dipping. Once the thirty minutes are up, melt two cups semi-sweet chocolate and two cups bitter-sweet chocolate.

I do this by simmering a little bit of water in a sauce pot and placing a metal bowl over it so the steam heats the chocolate gradually without burning. You want to stir constantly while the chocolate melts.

Pick each ball up by the toothpick and dip it in the melted chocolate, leaving a little bit at the top uncovered so they look like buckeyes. Place the dipped balls onto parchment paper and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Once the chocolate is firm, pull the toothpicks out and cover the hole left behind by pressing your finger tip on top of it and smoothing it over.

Keep the buckeyes in the fridge until you want to serve them. If you feel compelled, by all means use this delicious buckeye recipe to torment a nearby Wolverine.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Yesterday was one of those rare Sundays where I woke up with absolutely nothing on my to-do list. It was wonderful to be able to spend the day doing things I wanted to do vs. things I HAD to do.

I decided that I was in the mood to bake something “Fall” themed to go along with a pot roast for dinner. I opened my favorite book of cheesecake recipes “I Love Cheesecake” by Mary Crownover and fell upon the Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Cheesecake is a delicate dessert that really requires a full 4-8 hours to perfect, so it was great I had my day free.

To start, set all your ingredients out until they reach room temperature. This is important as it can really mess up the end result. Also, preheat your oven to 350.

The recipe I had called for a sugar cookie crust, but I wanted something with more spice to match the pumpkin, so I bought some ginger snaps.

Run 20 cookies through the food processor until crumbly then combine 2 cups of the cookie crumbs with five tablespoons of melted butter until it has a thick texture.

Then press the crust into the bottom of a greased spring form pan until the entire bottom is covered.

To make the filling, start by beating 32 oz. regular cream cheese, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup regular sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla and three tablespoons corn starch until smooth. Next add four eggs and one egg yolk one at a time, beating thoroughly after each egg.

Once smooth, stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves. Then stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract. This is the step that gives the cheesecake a TON of yummy fall flavor, so don’t skimp on the spices!

Finally, fold in 8-10 oz pumpkin filling. I prefer a less sweet and more savory cheesecake, so I opted for pure pumpkin filling vs. pumpkin pie filling. The difference is about 20 grams of sugar!

Pour the filling on top of the crust and spread around until even with a wooden spoon. Place it on a cookie sheet (spring form pans can leak) and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

While it’s cooking, whisk one cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to make a yummy sour vanilla topping. Don’t skip this part…it really takes the cheesecake from good to WOW!

After the 3o minute timer goes off, take the cheesecake out and pour the sour vanilla topping on top. Carefully spread it around as far as you can to the edges. Don’t worry if it messes up that “perfect” cheesecake look…it’s more important that it TASTES good!

Turn the oven down to 200 and place the cheesecake back inside for 2 hours. Carefully run a knife around the edge of the pan to prevent the cake from cracking while it cools.

Turn the over completely off and let the cake sit in it for another 2 hours. Chill for 4-8 hours or preferably overnight.

We couldn’t wait that long (of course) and cut into ours about four hours into chilling, but the end result was still amazingly delicious.

The rich, spicy pumpkin taste perfectly crossed with the sour vanilla topping to create a lovely fall celebration in my mouth. I was so impressed with this cheesecake, I’m planning to make it again at Thanksgiving!

I can’t wait to get home to eat that last piece I saved for left overs. :)

Indiana Blueberry Festival Culinary Tour

This weekend we went out to the Indiana country-side to visit Luke’s parents and attend the Blueberry Festival nearby. The festival was exactly what you’d think a classic county fair would be…carnival games, rides, tractor pulls, crafts and of course awesome street food.

I was really impressed with the variety of foods they had available beyond the typical carnie treats like elephant ears and corn dogs. We canvassed the food stands for the best places to spend our money…

I was definitely intrigued by the deep-fried candy bars, but decided that might make me really sick.

These polish sausages and grilled onions looked awesome.

For his meat, Luke ended up going for this monstrous turkey leg.

I went for the more lady-like half smoked chicken. It had a really nice lemony flavor and the meat was extra tender.

We sampled some bacon rinds, because I’d never had them before. They tasted fairly bland for something with the word bacon in it.

We washed it all down with some old fashioned cream soda. You can’t go wrong with a good cream soda.

For dessert, we decided to go with the festival theme and try an assortment of blueberry treats…blueberry pie, blueberry donuts and blueberry ice cream.

Despite stuffing ourselves at the festival, we still had room for Luke’s mom’s blueberry milkshake, which successfully put all the other blueberry desserts to shame.

If I had to judge this weekend based on yummy foods eaten and lbs gained, it would be getting a gold medal! It’s definitely back to salads and water this week.

What delicious foods did you guys eat this Labor Day weekend?