White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

Merry Christmas! We’ve had a quiet holiday season since I’ve been working in the county hospital and I’m on call day and night.

I can’t believe I’ve been doing my hematology-oncology fellowship for 6 months now. So far I’ve done transfusion medicine, outpatient clinic, consults at the VA hospital and country / trauma hospital, and bone marrow transplant.

I’m grateful to have a job during the pandemic. I’m even luckier that it’s my dream job; hematology-oncology is so interesting, and I’ve learned so much while getting to meet so many amazing patients.

I am working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but hoping it won’t be too busy. I did want to get some baking in, although it’s been difficult since I get home late and the sun sets shortly after 4pm now.

This white chocolate peppermint cheesecake was a more work than I anticipated. Working with chocolate ganache is always tricky and time sensitive. I don’t eat much white chocolate, but it’s always so beautiful to decorate with. While the topping isn’t as pretty as I wanted, it still looks quite festive. My husband likes white chocolate and peppermint and cheesecake, so he has no complaints.

Happy holidays everyone! Adapted from Allrecipes

White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

Ingredients
CRUST
12 Oreo cookies (1 cup)
3 tablespoons butter, melted

CHEESECAKE
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cups white chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

TOPPING
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3 tablespoons heavy cream
6 candy canes, chopped 

Directions
CRUST: Preheat oven 350F. In a medium bowl, mix together cookie crumbs and melted butter. Press mixture into the bottom of a 6 inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes then set aside to cool.

CHEESECAKE: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a small bowl melt 3/4 cup white chocolate chips with heavy cream by putting in in microwave heating in 30 second increments. Stir occasionally until smooth. Do not let it burn. 

In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese, yogurt, and 1/3 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla extract and melted white chocolate. Pour into your baked crust. Place cheesecake in a water bath and bake for 50 minutes, or until the edges are set and the center jiggles.  Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 8 hours before removing from pan.

TOPPING:
I recommend chopping the candy canes with a knife (not crushing it because the peppermint becomes a powder dust).

After your cheesecake is chilled, make the topping. In a small bowl melt 1/3 cup white chocolate chips with heavy cream by putting in in microwave heating in 30 second increments as above. Take your chilled cheesecake out, remove from springform pan. Top the cheesecake with white chocolate layer and place it in the fridge. Let it chill until the white chocolate starts to firm. Remove from fridge just before the white chocolate layer becomes solid, and add the chopped candy canes on top (if you put the candy when the white chocolate isn’t firm enough, it will sink! Too late the the candy won’t stick to the white chocolate). 

In a small bowl melt the 1/4 dark chocolate chips with heavy cream by putting in in microwave heating in 30 second increments as above. Drizzle the chocolate over the peppermint topping. Serve chilled. Enjoy!