Mar 17, 2012
As a cheesecake novice, I learned a few things by making this recipe. #1. Mine also puffed during baking & fell in the refrigerator. I read that this is due to overbeating of the eggs causing a "souffle effect." It didn't affect the texture of the finished product, other than the 4 edges remained raised. Next time I will add the eggs as the last ingredient of the batter so as not to overbeat them. #2. There is an art to cutting cheesecake so that the filling doesn't cling to the knife. Use a very thin, sharp blade (steak knife) and dip it into the hot water often to prevent dragging the filling and making messy edges. #3. My grocery store did not have candy flavoring, so I bought peppermint extract. I used 1 tsp. in the batter. They also did not have mint chocolate chips or even mint chocolate candies (Andes)! So I bought dark chocolate chips & white chocolate chips. I colored the white chips with a drop of green coloring in a plastic bag. They somewhat absorbed the color. Pale green mint chips would've been prettier, but this worked fine. Also because of the lack of mint in the topping, I think the batter could've used more than 1 tsp. of peppermint extract to stand up to the strong cheesecake flavor, maybe 1 1/2 tsp. #4. I cut the squares & arranged them on a plate, & then drizzled melted dark chips from the corner of a bag onto each square individually. This prevented smearing the chocolate onto the pale green filling during cutting. LOVE IT! THANKS!!!
—Jennifer
