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.
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Five Years Ago: Peppermint Chocolate Cookies and Snickerdoodles
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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. 
I love freezing dough but somehow most ends up in my tummy unbaked when I do that 🙂
What a great gift! I’m thinking that would be wonderful for all sorts of occasions. Thanks for the idea!
These are adorable and I love that idea! Two questions, though: 1) Were these as good as the cookies from the other recipes? and 2) When you freeze them, do you bake right from frozen?
Great questions Carly – As far as comparing them to the other cookies. I enjoyed the chocolate M&M cookies the best, but they were REALLY chocolatey. The other non-chocolate M&M cookies were a bit more chewy and they had nuts in them, so they had a different vibe. This recipe was more of a classic M&M cookie for sure.
As far as baking from frozen, you can def just go straight from freezer to oven. Bake them ~13 minutes instead of ~11 and take them out when they look done.
these were delicious!
they look so cute all frozen up 🙂
I love the pink and red M&Ms. Thanks for the idea of freezing the cookie dough.
I was going to ask you the same thing as Carly, well the first question. These cookies are cute. Your freezing method reminded me that I have a bunch of sugar cookies still in the freezer! Do you know how long cookies can stay in the freezer?
I don’t know how long they will last in the freezer. I have a tendency to forget about things in my freezer… I’d guess a couple months? Anyone have ideas?
What festive little cookies 🙂 I love them! I also like the fact that you froze them. I bet they were delicious. Make sure to enter the All Through the Year Cheer event for Valentine’s Day 🙂
I think that sounds like a great way to spend valentine’s day. It can be intimidating the way it’s so hyped up. The cookies look very festive, love ’em!
We don’t do “valentine’s day” either since my MIL was born on the 14th and daughter’s birthday is the 15th – besides, its more important to say you love someone everyday, not just one day out of the year. Love the idea about freezing the cookie dough in preshaped form and giving that away. Wonderful idea!
I am looking for cookies that travel well for my soldier adopted through Soldier’s Angels and these look like a winner!!
Mmm, these were so tasty! Happy Valentine’s Day!
These are just too cute!! I love M&M cookies too!!
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Just had to add my two cents on the idea of giving cookie dough frozen and ready to be baked – genius! For some reason, I’ve never thought of that, even though I’ve given cookies frozen to people to be defrosted when they’re ready to eat. I love the dough idea!
YUM-these look absolutely delicious! I love the pink and red M&Ms!