I am not a huge mint fan. It can be a strong flavor that tends to overpower food creations. Well, that was true until I started experimenting with incorporating mint into a few of my beloved classic recipes like cheesecake. After all, cheesecake is what it is a nicely unique dessert that tastes just like you would think it would. I’ve added many things to my cheesecake from caramel to chocolate yet never considered mint until my youngest put in a firm request after I refused to continuously stock mint chip ice cream everyday of the summer week. To my surprise, Mr E was right, milk and cheesecake make fabulous partners at the dinner table.
Mint Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients:
- 1 pkg mint oreos, crushed to crumbs
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 3 8oz pkgs cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp mint extract
- 1 oz green food coloring (optional)
Let’s get to baking:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and butter. Stir to combine.
- Press cookie mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
- Add in eggs, one at a time and mix until well blended.
- Stir in mint extract and green food coloring (optional – start with 5 drops and increase as needed to reach desired color).
- Pour cream cheese mixture over crust.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes until center is set.
- Cool completely before cutting.
- Top with additional crushed Oreo cookies.
