This holiday cheesecake can be topped in a variety of ways. Crushed candy canes are a requirement, but you can also drizzle melted chocolate chips over the top or layer whipped cream on top beforehand. Please share your feedback as you come up with ways to make this dish better!
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 day 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 day 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 to 9 – inch cheesecake |
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
- 3 tablespoons white sugar
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¾ cups white sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
- 3 eggs
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 dashes red food coloring
- ½ cup crushed peppermint candies
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan.
- Combine the cookie crumbs and 3 tablespoons sugar in a bowl. Drizzle the melted butter into the mixture while stirring until evenly moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until set, about 10 minutes; set aside to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
- Combine the cream cheese, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer on lowest speed until smooth and fluffy. Add the 1 3/4 cup sugar, sour cream, and 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and beat until incorporated. Stir in the eggs one at a time, stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each one.
- Divide the mixture evenly into two separate bowls. In one bowl, stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla. In the other bowl, add the peppermint extract and the red food coloring and mix until you get a reddish-pink color. Add more coloring as needed. Alternate layers of 1 cup each of the white and pink onto the cooled crust until all the filling is used.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the filling is mostly set. The center will jiggle slightly when the pan is shaken and the edges will be slightly puffed, 60 to 70 minutes.
- Sprinkle the crushed candies evenly over the cheesecake and gently press into the top. Allow to cool on a rack to room temperature. Cover loosely and refrigerate overnight before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 545 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 143 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 21 g |
| Sodium | 378 mg |
| Sugars | 42 g |
| Fat | 35 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I covered mine with a dark chocolate ganache and sprinkled Red Bird Peppermint Candy Puffs on top that I ran through the food processor. I also used twice as much peppermint extract as the recipe called for.
Delicious! It’s always hard to find tasty gluten free desserts, but this one was easy to modify. Had some difficulty finding the right chocolate cookie for the crumbs, and ended up scraping the cream out of GF double stuff Oreos for the crust and crumbling the chocolate shell. Used GF Jules GF flour. I finely crushed the candy canes to make a less crunchy bite. Like the others, I waited for it to cool a bit before adding the crushed candy cane. Didn’t think to snap a photo after taking out of the pan.
I made this along with the eggnog cheesecake and one other. This was the 2nd most popular but it was my husband’s favorite. It came out great-very creamy. Maybe a little too sweet but I made it for Christmas-so it’s okay to indulge, right?? All in all very good recipe & I will make it again.
My family loved it!
I was really excited to make this cheesecake, but I personally was underwhelmed with how it turned out. It was pretty to look at, but the peppermint flavor did not mesh well with the cheesecake flavor and came across as weak but acidic to me. On the other hand, my guests raved about it.
Recipe was easy to follow and make. I did go with a little extra peppermint extract because I like the flavor. Also, I echo some of the other reviews about waiting until later to sprinkle the candies so they don’t melt.
This cheesecake is now on grandma’s “traditional ” Christmas dessert list. It received rave reviews by all.
Amazingly delicious! We loved it!
Delish! Changed a few things..used Oreos but scraped cream filling off for the crust..used about half the sugar and butter since Oreos are super sweet already..melted about 3/4 cup white chocolate peppermint kisses and added into batter..I didn’t layer the batter since I was short on time..I didn’t have a springform pan so I used 2 regular glass pie pans..stuck them in the fridge overnight and added a layer of cool whip on top with some Andes creamy peppermint crunch chips just before serving..to die for!
I made this cheesecake and took it to a church supper. It was a bomb! Then after I tried it, I agree. The crushed peppermint melted and looked glob-like—very unappetizing! It was heavy and not appealing in looks either.
This tasted great! The crust was a bit “gooey”–maybe too much butter for the amount of cookies? Anyway, the family loved it, and one said “I don’t usually like cheesecake, but if they all tasted like this I’d eat them all the time!!”
WOW!!!! This is a awesome cheesecake!!! I really enjoy that christmasy flavor in this dessert. This is great to make around the holiday season and I recommend this to anyone who is looking to try something new. The combination in the recipe is good in that ,this was my first time making this and the pie came out great!! I will be planning to make pie in the near future. Candy cane sprinkled on top of pie made for a great decoration!!
I added more mint because I didn’t think 1 tsp would be enough – I added 2 tsps and it was nice and minty! I was a little dissappointed, however, when I went to grab the cheesecake in the morning to bring it to a bakesale at work, and the crushed candy canes had bled all over the top of the cake. this has nothing to do with the recipe, of course, but be warned – the longer it sits, the more the candies on top will get messy! still delish though!
I made this for my hubby who really enjoyed it. I wish I would have taken a picture as it is so pretty. Thanks for sharing!
I was rather disappointed with this cheesecake. I have had really good luck with other cheesecakes that I’ve made, but for some reason this one didn’t turn out like I had hoped. The colors weren’t as distinct as I thought they would be (which could have been my fault because of the amount of food coloring I used). The cheesecake cracked and sunk a bit in the middle so I had to put a light frosting on it. I then sprinkled crushed candycanes on top of the frosting. Everyone said it looked good and enjoyed it, but I was disappointed in it.
It was expensive to make and extremely sweet. Nice presentation and good idea however if you don’t like overly sweet food items don’t make this! I made it for a family Christmas and no one finished a piece. I ended up throwing most of it away.
This was delicious! The only thing I would change would be to sprinkle the crushed candy canes just before serving, as they half-melted in the fridge overnight and looked kinda icky. But it tasted great – the whole family liked this for the Christmas dinner dessert.
This was AMAZING! I opted not to use the cool whip, and added 1/2 melted white chocolate chips to make it a white chocolate peppermint cheesecake. I made them in two bite size for a cocktail party and they were a HUGE hit!