Minty Chocolate Cheeecake

The mid-month cheesecake for Benton County Mental Health is due Wednesday. I have bowling practice tomorrow. Tuesday, the night before wouldn't work. Just in case. I needed to make it today. First I needed to decide which kind of cheesecake to make. I flipped through my cookbook, but did not get very far. The sixth recipe in the book of 125 Best Cheesecake Recipes precisely. The Minty Chocolate Cheesecake.

I lined the sides of a 9-inch cheesecake pan with parchment paper. For the crust I used chocolate stuffed Oreos. Double stuffed chocolate Oreos. The cream filling serves as a binding agent for the crumbs, and the butter can be eliminated from the crust. I pressed the crumbs into the pan and popped it into the freezer.

I set out the rest of the ingredients, in order to let the eggs, sour cream and cream cheese to let them reach room temperature. This allows for better mixing of ingredients, and will allegedly help prevent cracking of the finished cheesecake.

Then I went back to watching baseball on a Sunday afternoon. For a few more hours.

The cream cheese and the sugar are mixed for three minutes. Eggs are added, one at a time. Then flour, sour cream, vanilla and peppermint extract are added. Three ounces of melted chocolate are then streamed into the batter, with the mixer running.

Finally, a cup of semisweet chocolate chips are mixed with a spoon of flour and then folded into the batter. I had some green mint chips, so I let my inner anarchist run free and substituted the green mint chips for the chocolate ones. (I know. I know. But I am not as young as I once was).

The cheesecake bakes at 350° for 45-55 minutes, until the top is light brown and there is a slight jiggle at the center.

Well, this is a bit embarrassing. A crack did develop on top of the cheesecake. Fortunately, it won't affect the taste, and these get eaten so quickly that the crack will swiftly become little more than a memory. A trivial one.

Bon appétit!