Chocolate,Guinness and Mint Cheesecake
Happy St. Patty’s Day, Everyone! For the holidays I always try to make something special. So, I did what I always do when I need a good brainstorm. I drew a bath and got out my bullet journal to write down what came to mind. I asked myself 2 questions. First, what are the flavors of St. Patty’s day? First, I thought of mint. That’s a classic St. Patty’s day flavor. Next, I thought of some kind of alcohol. Guinness is a very popular St. Patty’s day-ish beer. Although, with that I was a little worried it would be weird as just a guinness cheesecake.
The other issue is I had never tried guinness so I had no clue what the cake would even taste like. So that night I tasted it and it hit me. This is a pretty heavy beer and a lot of heavy beers that I have tried have a chocolaty note to them. And Viola, the Chocolate, Guinness and Mint Cheesecake was born.
Now for the decoration on top. As we know I’m clumsy so as much as I would love to do this big extravagant decoration straight out of cake boss, that just isn’t happening but simple can still be beautiful. So I got to thinking about my second question.. what thing makes me think of St. Patty;s Day? What I think of most is Pots of gold at the at the end of the rainbow. So that’s exactly what I did. So, now that we have a plan, it’s time to put it into action. Let’s go!
So first, I prepared my pan and made a Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust. . Sorry, I still have no pictures of that. I really need to get better at remembering to taking pictures. Feel free to judge me in the comments haha.
What we are essentially going to do is make some Plain Vanilla Cheesecake batter and add melted chocolate and Guinness.. So, after I made my crust, I took my cream cheese that was softened at room temperture and beat the heck out of it until it was smooth. Then, I scraped down the bowling beat again to make sure it was smooth. I always get those one or two chunks at the bottom of the bowl when I scrape it down.
Next, I put in the sugar, For this recipe since it will be a chocolate cheesecake we are going to use brown sugar. It just brings out more of the chocolate flavor. Along with that sugar you are going to put in spearmint extract and vanilla extract. This is really up to your taste. Just be careful with the spearmint extract. You don’t want your cheesecake to taste like toothpaste. Or maybe you do. you do you b00, no judgement.
Lastly, you are gonna add melted dark chocolate. What I will tell you about all these flavorings is that the taste is more pronounced after its baked. So you might taste the batter and think ‘hmm, that’s not minty enough”. Be sparing if you decide to add more. You don’t wanna overdo it. Rule of thumb for me, if it seems like it needs just a little more, that’s perfect because it will bake and the flavor will come out more. So add that all in, blend till smooth, scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl, and blend once more till smooth.
Next add the plain greek yogurt and beat until incorporated. After that is blended in you are going to add the guiness. This is also a to taste thing. I added a half a cup but if you want to add more or less, go for it, boo. Part of my goal is to show you how to make a cheesecake and let you guys make what you want according to your tastes. That is so much more fun in my opinion than just following a recipe. Although, my recipes are amazing. 🙂
Lastly, you are gonna add your eggs, beating one at a time and just until incorporated. Remember to reduce the speed to low. we don’t wanna overheat those eggs. You will notice in the recipe that I added 4 eggs instead of the typical 5. That is because when I added the Guinness it got very soupy and I didn’t wanna over saturated it with the eggs.
Now, you are gonna pour the batter into your prepared crust. Tap the pan on the table to get rid of any air bubbles. Remember there are going to be more air bubbles because we put beer in the batter. Bake in your waterbath in the oven for one hour. Or until the edges are set but the middle jiggles slightly. Mine took 55 minutes but it depends so much on so many factors: oven, altitude, how thick the cheesecake is etc.
After it’s done baking, crack the oven door and turn the oven off. Let the cheesecake cool gently in the fridge for an additional hour. After the hour, take the cheesecake out of the oven and cover it with clear plastic wrap. Put it in the fridge overnight.
Now comes the fun part. the decoration. And, I added this picture just to show you. Apparently, no cheesecake is complete without me sticking my finger in it. And, I wanted to show you the power of decoration. It doesn’t matter at all that the top looks mangled because we are gonna cover it.
Before we can start our decoration we have to unmold our cheesecake , and make some stabilized whipped cream. Next you are going to take two airhead extreme strips and sandwich them on top of each other with melted chocolate. This will give them more structure so they won’t be so flimsy when we put them on the cake. Bend them into a rainbow shape.
After, we do this you are going to start by adding 7 medium sized dollops of the whipped cream around the sides of the cake and one in the middle to resemble clouds. Then place your airheads extremes on the clouds fanning out from the middle. Lastly, I picked up a pot of gold figurine from hobby lobby and placed that In the middle.
Prep your pan and prepare the chocolate graham cracker crust. Let sit in the freezer for an hour Beat your cream cheese until smooth on medium speed. About 5-10 minutes. Beat in brown sugar until incorporated, scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl and beat again. Add the chocolate, spearmint extract and vanilla extract. Blend until incorporated, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, beat again until smooth. Add the plain greek yogurt and guinness, Beat until incorporated, scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl. Beat again until smooth. Reduce the speed to low, add each egg individually, beating in between each addition. Pour batter into prepared pan, tap on the table to get rid of an air bubbles and bake in a water bath for one hour or until the edges of the cake are set but the middle jiggles slightly. When its done shut off the oven,crack the oven door and leave the cheesecake in the oven for an hour. Put in the fridge overnight to set. Unmold the cheesecake and decorate. (see above)Chocolate,Guinness and Mint Cheesecake
Ingredients
Instructions
Would like to taste this someday
It/s a fairly simple thing to make. Most of it is just waiting around for things to happen. Baking,,cooling,, chilling and setting etc.
Chocolate mint cheesecake omg!!!