Peppermint Brownie Cheesecake and my 18th Birthday

First published 12/2/13 on my old blog; recipe updated 5/9/16

“It’s beginning to [taste] a lot like Christmas…”

I’ve had an idea cooking (er…baking) in my head for awhile now, and it was inspired by an old Southern Living Christmas recipe for Layered Peppermint Cheesecake.  The original recipe is a layer cake that uses both a sour cream white cake and peppermint cheesecake layers.  I never got around to trying it, but with my birthday coming up, I decided to tweak it THM style.  I could easily forgo the cake layers, but the peppermint cheesecake looked salvageable.  Add a brownie crust and you have a winner!

All in all, it was a pretty good finale to my birthday meal, which consisted of grilled chicken, cabbage sautéed in butter, and spinach salad.

Click here to see a more recent recipe for Peppermint Cheesecake Bars!

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You can find this recipe (with an updated picture) in my cookbook, Necessary Food.

Peppermint Brownie Cheesecake

 

Author:

Briana Thomas

Serves: 12-14

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BRING ALL CHEESECAKE INGREDIENTS TO ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE MIXING // A yummy peppermint cheesecake that is perfect for a holiday or party. Or a holiday party. THM:S, Low-carb, Sugar free

Ingredients

Brownie Crust:

• ¼ cup salted butter
• ¼ cup water
• 1 T natural peanut butter (you don't taste it; aids texture)
• 1 oz. cream cheese (full or reduced fat)
• ¼ cup Briana's Baking Mix
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 T THM Super Sweet Blend
• ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg

Cheesecake:

• 3 8-oz. packages cream cheese (full or reduced fat), room temperature
• 1½ cups sour cream, room temperature
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 2 T oat fiber
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. Watkin's peppermint extract
• 2 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend (or more to taste)
• ¼ tsp. THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
• ½ cup crushed sugar free peppermints
• A few drops of red food coloring, optional

Instructions

1. For the crust: melt the butter, water, peanut butter, and cream cheese together in a nonstick saucepan until smooth. Take off the heat and add the dry ingredients and egg. Beat until smooth and spread into the bottom of a greased 10" springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 5 minutes.
2. For the cheesecake: beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between additions. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the crushed peppermints and mix. Fold in the peppermints. Pour the cheesecake mixture onto the prebaked crust.
3. Bake in a water bath (see the Notes section for details) at 325 for one hour or until set. Let the cheesecake cool, then refrigerate overnight before cutting and serving. Yields 12-14 servings

Notes

Water bath: place the springform pan (filled with cheesecake batter) in the center of a piece of wide tinfoil and press the tinfoil up around the sides of the pan so water can't get in. Place the tinfoil-wrapped pan into a larger pan (such as a circular pizza pan with sides on it), then fill the large pan with a half inch of water. Place this whole contraption in the oven.

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Suggested products:

• Trim Healthy Mama paperback
• THM Sweet Blend
• THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder
• Oat Fiber
• Gluten free oat fiber can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
• Watkin’s Pure Peppermint Extract
• Sugar-free Peppermints (some wonky ingredients in these, but they’re sweetened with Splenda, which could do in a pinch)
• Xylitol-Sweetened Peppermints

You may also enjoy:

Peppermint Brownie Ice Cream Cake (And My 21st Birthday) Peppermint Delight Frosted Peppermint Pie Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes