OMGosh! My nephew Ryan baked this holiday Peppermint Bark Cheesecake. Now that's some delicious misbehavin'!
RYAN’S PEPPERMINT BARK CHEESECAKE
PREP TIME: 25 MINS
COOK TIME: 1 HOUR 35 MINS
TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS
INGREDIENTS
Cheesecake Crust:
1 1/3 cups chocolate wafer cookies (crushed)
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
2 ½ tablespoon sugar
Cheesecake Filling:
4 eight- ounce packages cream cheese (softened)
¼ cup sugar
1 fourteen-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs (beaten)
Cheesecake Chocolate Ganache Topping:
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ cups Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar (chopped finely or grated)
1 pound bag of Peppermint Bark (I get mine from Nuts.com)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat your oven to 350áµ’.
2. Get out your 9-inch springform pan and wrap some heavy aluminum foil around the outside bottom of your springform pan, in order to prevent any leakage. Then, butter the inside of the pan and set aside while we make the crust.
3. You can crush the chocolate wafer cookies in your food processor or place them in a large gallon zip lock bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Once crushed, place them in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Blend in the 2 ½ tablespoons of sugar. Then, melt your butter in a little saucepan and pour the melted butter over your crushed chocolate wafers and stir around until the mixture is moist. Then, place the moist crumb mixture into your buttered springform pan. Now, using your fingers, press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and about ½- inches up the sides of the pan. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect.
4. Get out a cookie sheet and cover it with some parchment paper. Place the springform pan with the crust inside into the center rack of your 350áµ’ oven and bake for 8 minutes. Once the crust has baked for the 8 minutes, remove from the oven and set aside to cool while we make the filling. Now, turn your oven down to 300áµ’.
5. Get out a large mixing bowl and your electric hand mixer. Add the 4 softened cream cheeses and the ¼ cup of sugar into the bowl. Mix at medium-speed with your hand mixer until blended and fluffy. Next, add in the condensed milk and beat until that is blended. Then, beat in the 1/3 cup whipping cream, the flour and vanilla extract. Lastly, add the eggs and beat until the entire mixture is blended together…and your mouth is watering because it looks so good. Pour the entire mixture over the cooled crust in the springform pan.
6. Bake at 300ᵒ for 1 hour and 20 minutes until the edges of the cheesecake have begun to pull away from the sides and the center of the cake barely jiggles at all. It’s ok if the top cracks as we are gonna cover it in the chocolate ganache.
7. Turn your oven off and prop the door of your oven open with a wooden spoon and leave the cheesecake in the oven for at least 30-35 minutes.
8. Once the cake has cooled in the oven, remove from the oven and refrigerate the cake overnight or for at least 5-6 hours.
9. When you’re ready to decorate your cheesecake, take it out of the fridge, carefully remove the foil from the bottom place the springform pan on a nice serving plate. Get a metal spatula or dinner knife (I warm it in a glass of hot water from the faucet) and carefully run it around the edges of the cheesecake to loosen it from the sides. But, don’t release the springform pan yet, while we make the ganache.
10. Let’s make the chocolate ganache. Grate or chop finely your bittersweet chocolate bar and place the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl. Get out a small saucepan and heat the whipping cream until it begins to bubble. Then remove it from the heat and pour the whipping cream over the chopped chocolate in the mixing bowl. Whisk until chocolate and whipping cream together and the mixture is completely blended, shiny and smooth. Now pour the ganache over the cheesecake inside the springform pan and spread evenly over the top with your metal spatula.
Let this cool a bit before you remove the springform’s outside.
11. When you’re ready to serve, unhook the springform pan and remove the side, and then decorate the top of the cheesecake with crushed peppermint sticks or candy canes and triangle- cut chunks of the delicious peppermint bark! Yum!
NOTE: You can also add ¼ teaspoon of peppermint flavoring to the ganache if you like. You can also mix some powdered sugar into the crushed candy cane and sprinkle this over the ganache.