Peppermint Bark Cheesecake
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake is a festive holiday dessert perfect for this time of year. Use store bought peppermint bark if you’re short on time!
When I made that Swirled Peppermint Bark the other day, it wasn’t to simply have peppermint bark in the house. I made it with the intention to make this Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.
For the December birthday celebration at work, the one guy with a birthday requested peppermint bark. I’m happy to oblige and decided to kick things up a notch by throwing the peppermint bark in to a cheesecake. And since the cheesecake didn’t use the entire batch of peppermint bark, there was peppermint bark for him to enjoy along side his cheesecake.
It’s no surprise this cheesecake was a huge hit. It uses my favorite flavor combination – mint and chocolate with a festive tone from the candy cane garnish. I did run in to a minor issue with this cake, which was completely my fault. I apparently didn’t latch my springform pan properly prior to putting it into the water bath. As a result, some water seeped in to the cake, even though I had wrapped the pan with two layers of foil. This made the crust a little soggy, but other than this minor issue with the texture, it wasn’t a big deal at all.
Oh and the birthday boy we were celebrating went back for seconds and then thirds of this cheesecake.
One Year Ago: Five Homemade Gift Ideas
Three Years Ago: Caramel Corn
Four Years Ago: Eggplant Parmesan and Green Bean Casserole
Five Years Ago: Peppermint Chocolate Cookies and Snickerdoodles
Six Years Ago: Spinach Tomato Chicken Pasta
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake is a festive holiday dessert perfect for this time of year. Use store bought peppermint bark if you're short on time!
Yield: One 9" cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the Chocolate Crumb Crust
3 cups or 10 ounces finely ground cookies such as chocolate wafers or Chocolate Teddy Grahams
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
For the Filling
4oz white chocolate, melted
3 - 8oz containers or blocks cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp peppermint extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups peppermint bark chunks, storebought or homemade
For the Mousse
1/2 cup cool whip, softened
4oz cream cheese, softened
2 oz white chocolate, melted
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Directions:
For the Chocolate Crumb Crust
Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 9-inch springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.
For the Filling
Preheat oven to 325 degF.
Begin melting 4oz white chocolate. Using a double boiler or heat safe bowl, melt over simmering water. Stir until fully melted. Using the microwave, in a heat safe bowl microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power until fully melted. Stir well after each interval.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar. Mix well. Scrape bowl well prior to each new addition and as needed. Add melted chocolate, flour, whipping cream, salt and peppermint extract. Mix well. On medium/low speed, add one egg at a time. Mix until smooth and blended well.
Add peppermint bark pieces, stir by hand.
Transfer spring-form pan to a larger pan, such as a large roasting pan. Pour filling into crust. Add enough hot water to reach half way up the sides of your spring-form pan. Carefully place in center of oven. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off the oven. Keeping the door shut, leave the cheesecake in the oven for an additional 45 minutes. Remove and allow to sit for at least 1 hour before chilling.
Chill 4 hours or overnight before adding the mousse.
For the Mousse
In a medium bowl beat softened cream cheese, melted white chocolate, cool whip, sugar and vanilla until smooth and slightly thickened.
Carefully remove side of spring-form pan. Spread mousse mixture evenly over cheesecake. Chill for 4 hours or overnight before serving.
Garnish with crushed candy canes and shaved chocolate.
Store covered in the refrigerator.
Cheesecake and white chocolate mousse recipe from Baked by Rachel, crust from Smitten Kitchen
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This looks amazing, Jen. I think both my husband and I are slowly becoming more lactose intolerant as we get older. Goat milk ice cream may be something we’ll try soon. Can’t wait to see what other non-dairy ice creams you come up with!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:23 am
Thanks! Like I said, coconut milk has been my go-to so far, but it’s definitely fun to try new milk varieties.
Looks incredible, I need to find a local goat milk supplier…
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:24 am
Yea, I definitely want to find someone local to get my goat milk from. For now, I’m just happy that I can find it at all. Even back in Boston, it wasn’t on the shelf at my grocery store.
This looks amazing and I love that you used goat milk..so interesting!
i had to give up gluten a few months ago and just realized a few weeks ago that i also must give up dairy. i am not sure if it is lactose or casein that i am intolerant of, but i love that you are doing stuff that i may be able to eat someday! (also, we bathe Olive is goat’s milk. it’s great for her eczema!).
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 6:58 am
Going dairy free isn’t too bad honestly.
Oh wow, bathing in goats milk sounds so luxurious!
Oh wow, this looks so perfect! I’d love to try this soon 🙂
Sounds delicious, I’ve not thought about using goats milk in ice cream before but would love to try it!
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:24 pm
You should definitely try it!
Thank you so much for posting this!! I gave up cow dairy in the winter (makes me break out) and have been glaring at my ice cream maker, because sorbets are just not the same and coconut ice cream is good, but so coconutty! I’ve been wondering if I could make ice cream with goat’s milk and now I know I can! The canister just went into the freezer 🙂
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:23 pm
Nice – glad I could help. I don’t find coconut milk very coconuty… I assume you drink goat’s milk so you’re familiar with the flavor? It definitely has a distinct taste.
Goat milk?? I bet it goes fantastic with chocolate. I love this combination, I can’t wait to try it, yum!!
In the ingredients, you say condensed goat milk, but the directions say heavy cream. Which did you mean? Really excited to try out this recipe!
beantownbaker — July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:14 pm
Sorry about that. I used condensed goat milk, not heavy cream. I’m updating the recipe now.
Hello,
I want to place an order from you to our store in The Netherlands.I want to know if you can ship here and accept credit card as a form of payment.
Reply back asap
Thanks
beantownbaker — September 4th, 2013 @ 9:27 am
I don’t sell anything.
My wife and I raise a couple of dairy breed goats for home milk use. I don’t find that the milk tastes goaty, it’s actually richer and better tasting than cows milk in my opinion. Although before we discovered that we should pasteurize the milk asap after filtering, we did notice a musky kind of taste…… but with pasteurization started within a minute or two after milking, our milk is just as good or better than the flavor of cows milk. I just ordered an icecream maker. We will definitely use this recipe. Thanks for posting it.
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
Fresh goat milk is not something I have tried. I would love to get my hands on some though!
I’m looking forward to trying this! We got hooked on Laloo’s goat milk ice cream several years ago, but it’s been increasingly difficult to find, and very expensive ($7.79 a pint as of 2 days ago). It would be great if I could find a homemade alternative.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:36 pm
I agree – Laloo’s is good, but quite expensive. Let me know what you think of this recipe if you try it out.
GOOD NEWS!! Laloos is filling the pipeline and more flavors are coming soon to you your local Whole Foods store.
I have dairy goats so will toss in my 2 cents worth 😉 Not all goat milk is the same!!! If you like the goaty taste, go ahead and buy your milk at the store. Personally I find the goaty taste vile and disgusting! So for those who want to try goat milk but don’t like that nasty goaty taste, you want raw milk, and the breeds vary in taste a lot. Nigerian Dwarf goats have the highest butterfat and do not have the goaty taste. Their milk is really good! Nubians are second best. It would be worth your while to find a local source of nice raw milk from either of those breeds. Healthier too, as raw milk has all the nutrients nature intended.
With rare exceptions – goat’s milk should not taste goaty. I can’t comment about grocery store milk, but would urge you and your readers to look for direct-from-the-farm sources. There are a few goats with funny tasting milk – and those work great for making blue cheese! If a goat is healthy, has a good diet with the right balance of vitamins and minerals (very important!), and the milk is handled in a clean manner with quick cooling, it should have a rather sweet taste. I have Nubians and like Cindy above, appreciate the high butterfat. If you’re looking for a milk source – try realmilk.com. There’s also tips there for buying safe milk.