White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake
Try this White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake recipe, or contribute your own.
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 drops red food coloring
- 3 tbsp butter melted
- 20 oreo cookies
- 4 (8oz) bricks of cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- 1 cup white chocolate morsels melted and cooled slightly.
- 1/2 tsp peppermint extract (or 1/4 tsp peppermint oil)
- 2 to 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- 2 drops of peppermint oil (or 1/4 tsp peppermint extract)
- candy canes for garnish
- Carbohydrate 160.073437500011 g
- Cholesterol 322.549375039243 mg
- Fat 155.118563764805 g
- Fiber 0.44800000667572 g
- Protein 32.1921012501551 g
- Saturated Fat 95.670405009376 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (1025g)
- Sodium 56818.7581605181 mg
- Sugar 159.625437493335 g
- Trans Fat 10.6806307510364 g
- Calories 2135 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a 9"x13" pan on the bottom rack of your oven and fill half way with water. Position a rack just above the pan, in the middle of the oven.
- To make the crust, use a food processor to chop up the 20 Oreo cookies until they turn to a fine crumb, drizzle in the melted butter and pulse until combined. Optionally, you can use your hands or a rolling pin to crush the cookies. Press the crumbs in a 10" spring form pan in an even layer, and a little up the sides of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from oven, set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the greek yogurt, white chocolate, sugar and vanilla and beat until combined, scraping down the sides of bowl when necessary. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between. Scoop out a cup of the cheesecake mixture and place in a separate bowl, then pour the remaining cheesecake over the crust.
- To the small bowl add the peppermint extract (or peppermint oil) and red food coloring, stir until combined. Add more food coloring if desired. Spoon the mixture over the top of the cheesecake into an even layer. Carefully place in the oven and bake for 70 to 75 minutes, or until the center of the cheesecake is only slightly jiggly.
- Turn the oven off, and crack the oven door open slightly, letting the cheesecake rest inside the oven for 1 to 2 hours. Let cool on counter top until room temperature, then refrigerate (covered) for 2 hours.
- Add the heavy cream and 2 to 3 drops of peppermint oil to a bowl and beat with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Sweeten with the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Serve the whip cream on top of the cheesecake with a candy cane on top.
Ingredient weights and quantities reveal little about how cream cheese, melted chocolate, and high-fat dairy behave under thermal stress. Cold blocks of cream cheese trap air pockets that expand and rupture during baking, which inevitably tears the surface open before the proteins fully set. Additionally, pouring warm, untempered melted chocolate directly into a cold batter causes the cocoa butter to seize into tiny, hard granules instead of dispersing uniformly through the emulsion. Working with room-temperature ingredients ensures the fats remain fluid enough to incorporate the eggs without requiring excessive mechanical mixing that beats air into the batter.
Preventing structural failure relies entirely on managing heat transfer and moisture inside the oven cavity. Placing a water-filled pan on the bottom rack creates a humid environment that buffers the surface temperature, while baking at 350 degrees F followed by a gradual cooling phase inside a cracked oven prevents the rapid contraction that causes center sinking. Introduce the eggs one at a time on low speed to maintain density, and pull the pan when the center still maintains a gentle, gelatinous jiggle across a two-inch diameter. Chill the finished cake for at least two hours to allow the starches and dairy fats to firm up completely into a sliceable crumb structure.
Seasonal baking often calls for flavor adjustments based on ambient humidity and extract potency. Swapping peppermint oil for extract requires reducing the overall volume by a factor of four since essential oils concentrate the volatile flavor compounds significantly.
