If you’re a mint-chocolate chip ice cream fan, this is your cheesecake! Chocolate extract can be a little hard to find, but it’s worth it for this. If you can only find “flavoring,” not extract (you’ll know because flavorings are in teeny little bottles), keep in mind that these are far more concentrated, so taste as you go.
YIELD: 12 servings
INGREDIENTS:
CHOCOLATE LAYER
- 3 sugar-free dark chocolate bars (about 1.5 ounces each)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 Almond Crust or Hazelnut Crust, prebaked in a springform pan
GRASSHOPPER FILLING
- 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup Splenda
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chocolate extract
- 1 or 2 drops green food coloring (optional, but pretty)
- 4 eggs
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. In the top of a double boiler over hot water (or in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over the lowest possible heat), melt the chocolate. Whisk in the cream until smooth. Spread this mixture evenly over the crust and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Beat in the Splenda and sour cream, mixing well. Add the peppermint and chocolate extracts, food coloring (if desired), and eggs one at a time, beating until smooth and creamy.
- Pour the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate-coated crust. Place the cake in the oven, and on the oven rack below it or on the floor of the oven, place a pie pan filled with water. Bake for 1 hour.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack. Chill it well before serving.
PER SERVING:
- 9 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 7 grams of usable carbs and 18 grams of protein. (Analysis includes crust, but omits the polyols in the sugar-free chocolate.)
