Thin Mint Cheesecake

Yield: one 9" cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

• 25 Girl Scout Thin Mints® or Keebler Grasshoppers (183g)
• 3 Tbsp (43g) unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake:

• 3 8-oz packages (680g) full fat cream cheese, room temperature
• ¾ cup (149g) granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp peppermint extract
• 12 Girl Scout Thin Mints or Keebler Grasshoppers (88g)
• Gel food colouring, optional

Ganache:

• 1 ½ cups (255g) semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp (15g) unsalted butter, softened

Directions

1. Set one oven rack in the middle of oven and other rack at the bottom.
2. Fill a 9" x 13" dish halfway with water. Place on bottom oven rack.
3. Heat oven to 350°F.
4. Wrap a 9" springform pan tightly with a couple layers of aluminum foil. Grease inside of pan; set aside.
5. Blitz 25 cookies in food processor until they become fine crumbs. In a medium bowl, mix cookie crumbs and melted butter until thoroughly combined. Press crust mixture into bottom of springform pan. Set aside.
6. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, roughly 2 minutes.
7. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the bowl as necessary.
8. Add peppermint extract and, if using, gel food colouring. (We used a tiny amount of AmeriColor Leaf Green.) Mix until colour is evenly throughout batter.
9. With your hands, break 12 cookies into little pieces. With mixer on low, drop broken cookie pieces into batter a small handful at a time. Mix until just combined, being careful to not overmix.
10. Pour batter over crust, smoothing the surface with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Tap pan on kitchen counter a few times to release air bubbles.
11. Bake for 45–60 minutes until cheesecake is set.
    NOTE: To check whether or not your cheesecake is set, without removing the pan from the oven, give it a gentle jiggle. If the cheesecake is firm at the edges and still wobbles a little in the centre, it’s done. If ripples when shaken or looks watery, bake for a few minutes more.
12. Once cheesecake is baked, don’t remove it from your oven! Instead, turn off the oven and crack open the oven door. Allow the cheesecake to slowly cool in the slightly open oven for 1 hour.
13. Transfer cheesecake to refrigerator to cool and set completely, at least 4 hours or overnight.
14. After the cheesecake is absolutely cool, it’s ganache time! To make the ganache, put chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour cream over chocolate chips, then let sit for one minute.
15. Add butter to chocolate/cream mixture, then gently whisk until incorporated. Chocolate should be melted, and mixture should be smooth.
16. Pour ganache on cheesecake, smoothing the top. Allow to drip down or coat the sides, if that’s your thing. Toss on some sprinkles, cookie pieces, or other decor, if you like. We added some Callebaut dark chocolate Crispearls, gold stars, and edible glitter because we were feelin’ fancy.
17. Place cheesecake in fridge while ganache sets (at least 30 minutes) before cutting.

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Adapted from: Eva Bakes