This was developed for a dinner with some friends, after doing some gardening and tending the herbs on my patio including my large tub of spearmint. Apart from mojito’s (no complaints here!) and savoury dips and mint sauce I wondered what I could do that was sweet with the mint. One of my guests I knew loves chocolate cheesecake, so an idea was hatched.
Equipment
- Bowls
- Blender (or a teatowel and a rolling pin) – this is for crushing the biscuits
- 20cm loose bottom or springform cake tin, lined with strong parchment
- Jug- not essential but makes pouring the second mix into the tin much easier
Ingredients
- Plain digestive biscuits – 300g
- Unsalted butter, warmed but not fully melted – 110g
- Soft cream cheese – 400g (two packs)
- Icing sugar – 150g
- Double cream – 200ml
- Eggs, medium – 4
- Fresh mint – about 20 leaves
- Green food colouring, optional
- Mint chocolate – 220g (I used two bars to get this amount. A cheaper 120g mint aero bar and a 100g dark mint Lindt). You will be using 40g of the fine bar for decoration
Method
- Blitz the biscuits into crumbs (or wrap in a clean teatowel and bash with the end of a rolling pin if you don’t have a blender)
- Add in the warmed butter and mix
- Press the biscuit mix into the base of the cake tin and smooth as flat as possible
- Turn the oven on to 150C fan 160C conventional
- In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, icing sugar, double cream and three of the for eggs until smooth
- Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl
- Tip about half of the mix into a second bowl – you are going to add the chocolate to one and the mint and the extra beaten egg to the other
- Break the chocolate and reserve about 40g of the fine dark bar to one side, as you will use this for the mint leaves decoration
- Put 180g of the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt – either in a microwave or over a Bain Marie
- Pour the melted chocolate into one of the bowls and stir in thoroughly but gently until it is all mix together
- Take about 4-5 of the mint leaves and chop finely – add these to the plain bowl without chocolate along with the additional egg. If you are using food colouring, now’s the time to add a few drops
- Now you need to pour the mint mix into the tin
- If using a jug, transfer the chocolate mix to it. Pour the chocolate mix all over the first mix, moving the bowl/jug as you go to crisscross the tin
- Once it’s all poured in, gently take a spoon and swirl the mixes together a little – don’t do this too much, as you don’t want to blend it all. You’re aiming just to move the mix around a little under the surface
- Pop in the oven for 50 mins. After this time turn the heat totally off and leave for another 10 mins in the oven with the door shut
- After the hour is up, take the cheesecake out and leave to cool completely – this will take a couple of hours
- Keep the cheesecake in a fridge once ready to eat
Method for the chocolate leaves
- Clean and dry about 15 mint leaves
- Break up the remaining 40g of fine chocolate and melt, either in a microwave or over a Bain Marie
- Get ready a sheet of parchment or foil to lay the leaves on
- Dip each leaf (dip the top of the leaf, not the underside) into the chocolate and using the back of a small spoon smooth the chocolate out and across the whole of the leaf. You don’t want it too thin or you will not get the chocolate off without breaking it but, equally, you don’t want it really thick either
- Lay each leaf down on the paper or foil with the chocolate side up
- Mint leaves are naturally nicely shaped but the heat of the chocolate wilts them slightly so they will go flat. To add a bit of interest, you can arrange the leaves ove the handle of a wooden spoon to create a natural looking bend in the leaf to compensate
- Repeat with the remaining leaves and chocolate
- Leave to completely cool
- When cool, gently lift the leaf off the chocolate, peeling it back. You may lose a few but you can always eat them!
- Arrange on the cheesecake once that is cold too
Ink Sugar Spice ~ Lynn Clark 