Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Sent in by Black Rose

Tasty cheesecake of evil. Perfect for St. Patrick's Day if you tint it green!

Difficulty Level: ♦♦♦ - Some Skills Are Required

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes
Post-Cooking Time: 13 hours

Yield: 12 servings

Crust
	Preheat oven to 350F. Crush entire package of cookies in either a food processor (recommended) or plastic bag. Melt butter. In a large bowl, combine cookies and butter. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of greased 9-in. springform pan.
Filling
3 pkg. cream cheese 3/4 c. sugar 5 tsp. cornstarch 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream 2 tsp. peppermint extract 1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract 3 drops food coloring 1 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips	Soften cream cheese. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Lightly beat eggs and egg yolk; add to cream cheese mixture. Beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in the cream, extracts, and green food coloring if desired. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into crust. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edges of pan to loosen. Cool 1 hour longer. Cover and chill overnight. Remove sides of pan. Refrigerate leftovers.

Helpful Hints

For the cookie crust bottom, you can use either Keebler Grasshopper cookies or a package of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. Basically, a mint-flavored chocolate wafer covered in chocolate for people who don't know what they are. You want to bake the cheesecake until it's almost set...until it jiggles in the middle. If you bake it longer than that, it'll crack. I have a lot of trouble with this cheesecake cracking, but that's just an aesthetic problem. You can cover that up with a topping of some sort if you like or just serve it with the cracks there if it doesn't bother you. Still tastes good!