Créme de Menthe Cheesecake with Chocolate Glaze

Or Happy Birthday to me! The cheesecake recipe is from the Company's Coming cookbook series by Jean Paré.  This cookbook is called Tempting Treats & Cookies it was a Christmas gift to my daughter.  Shannon is storing her cookbook at my house while she is away at school.  A big thanks to her for that!  My mom sent me a cheque for $20 for my birthday which I promptly cashed then went out a bought an 8 inch spring form pan.

The chocolate glaze recipe was pulled off the net by googling "chocolate glaze recipe for cheesecake."

Chocolate Crumb Crust:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
• 2 tbsp of granulated sugar (optional)

Place butter in microwave safe bowl heat on high about 35 seconds to melt the butter.  Add chocolate wafer crumbs and sugar.  Stir well.  Line the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper.  I sprayed canola oil around the inside edge of the pan.  Press crumb mixture firmly and evenly in bottom of spring form pan.  Bake for ten minutes at 350 degrees F.  While crust is cooling make the filling.

Filling:

• 3 - 8 oz or 250 gram blocks of cream cheese (softened or room temperature)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup créme de menthe liqueur

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition just until combined.  Add liqueur.  Beat well.  Spread evenly over crust.  Bake in 350 degrees F oven for 55 minutes.  Shut oven off and let sit in hot oven for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool cheesecake.

Chocolate Glaze:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream – (125ml)
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter – (7.5ml)
• 2 1/2 ounces finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate – (75ml)
• 2 1/2 ounces bitter-sweet chocolate – (75ml) 

For the glaze, combine cream and butter in microwave safe bowl. Bring to a boil and then mix in chopped chocolate.   Stir well, if the chocolate is not completely melted heat in microwave only long enough to melt chocolate.  Pour glaze over cheesecake while still in spring form pan.  Refrigerate at least 2-4 hours.  Remove spring form pan and your cake is ready to serve.

Special note: The recipe in the cookbook called for 3 - 4 oz packages of cream cheese, 2 eggs,  1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup liqueur.  I used 3 - 8 oz (250 gr) packages of cream cheese and doubled everything.  Before baking it my cheese batter was very runny, I poured it into the pan and a greasy clear fluid dripped onto the bottom of the stove while it was baking.  If I made this recipe again I would cut back to 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar  and 1/2  a cup of créme de menthe liqueur.

Approximate nutritional information:

• 1 wedge
• 486 calories
• 31.6 gr total fat
• 111 mg of cholesterol
• 41 gr carbohydrate
• 1 gr fiber
• 7 gr protein
• 340 mg sodium

Definitely not diet food!  I spent an extra one hour and 6 minutes on my treadmill to justify eating it.  My goodness it was delicious!  It freezes well, so the remainder of the cake is going into the deep freeze until my grown-up kids come home to help us eat it.

Enjoy!