Cooking Thursday

I made this cheesecake for our office Christmas party and it was so good! It took some time but wasn't hard to make and the time was worth it!  This was a good one for Christmas, but would also be good for Valentines Day.  If you're looking for a good cheesecake, this is it!

White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

28 regular oreo cookies
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 pinch salt
Cheesecake
4 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
8 ounces sour cream
1 1/2 cup white sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
3/4 cup crushed peppermint candy
3/4 cup chopped white chocolate
Ganache
1/2 cup whipping cream
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Garnish
Whipping cream 
Crushed peppermint candy

Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
pulse oreo's in food processor until cookies become a fine crumb. Pour in the melted butter and pinch of salt, blend until combined.
Pour crumb mixture into greased springform pan. Press evenly into bottom of pan and up the sides of pan. Press in well to get a nice even crust.
Bake for 10 minutes and allow to cool completely.

Cheesecake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Add softened cream cheese to mixing bowl and beat at medium/high speed for about 1 minute. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and beat for another 30 seconds or so to make sure cream cheese is as smooth as possible.
Add sugar and sour cream; mix at medium/low speed until just combined. Scrape bowl again and mix for another 15 seconds.
Add eggs and beat at low speed for about a minute, scraping bowl again.
Add vanilla and peppermint extract; beat until just combined. Batter should be smooth and runny.
Using heavy duty foil, wrap 4 sheets of foil around springform pan, making sure foil is up near the top of the pan.
Place your wrapped pan in a deep roasting pan. 
Stir the crushed peppermint candy and the chopped white chocolate into the cheesecake batter. Then pour the batter into the springform pan.
Add very hot water to the roasting pan until there is about 1 1/2 inches of water around the springform pan.
Carefully place the pan onto rack in lower third of oven.
Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Jiggle the pan, it should be jiggly but not liquidy.
Once cheesecake is jiggly, but firm, turn oven off but leave cheesecake in oven for another hour.  Do not open the oven during this time.
After the hour, remove from oven and from roasting pan. 
Chill in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
Ganache:
Place whipping cream in small bowl.
Microwave for 1 minute.
Put chocolate chips into bowl and allow hot cream to cover them.
Let stand for 2-3  minutes, then stir to combine.
Cool for 10-15 minutes in refrigerator, then spread over the top of the cheesecake.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Before serving garnish with whipped cream and chopped peppermint candies.