Mint chocolate cheesecake

So, earlier this week I posted my recipe for White chocolate cheesecake.  As part of this I mentioned that I use this as a base recipe to do variations – which is absolutely correct.

Some of the variations include:

• Tim Tam
• dark chocolate
• caramel
• salted caramel, and
• cookies and cream.

This version is Mint chocolate one.  Essentially the recipe is exactly the same, but it alters depending on how minty you want the cheesecake to be.

There are three options you can follow to make this cheesecake ‘minty’, and you can do one, two or all three, depending on how minty you want it.

Option 1:

Follow the recipe, but after step 7, take 150g of Arnott’s Mint Slice biscuits* (if you aren’t from Australia, then I implore you to look here to see what a Mint Slice is) and smash them up.  I do this by placing them in a zip lock bag with not much air, and then go at them with the end of a wooden rolling-pin.  Once these are broken up, add them to the cheesecake filling mix and stir through before pouring the mixture onto the biscuit base.

Option 2:

Swap the plain chocolate biscuit base for a mint slice base.

1. Process 200g packet of Mint Slice biscuits in a food processor until finely crumbed.
2. Add 50g melted butter (you need less butter because the mint cream filling in the biscuit substitutes as the additional butter) and mix until stirred through evenly.
3. Press this mixture evenly into the base of the cake tin.

Option 3:

Add 1 tsp of peppermint essence to the cream cheese filling at step 6 of the recipe.  (This is in addition to the vanilla essence already there, not instead of).

* I’m not sure I’ve said this before, and I will probably have to add it to my About Me – I’m not sponsored by Arnott’s, despite mentioning their products in recipes.  The main reason I do this is so that you can see what I’m using and decide on a suitable replacement if you can’t get these products.  For example, I know what Graham Crackers are, but we don’t have them in Australia, and I had to Google what they tasted like to find a suitable replacement.