Gluten Free Grasshopper Cheesecake (Chocolate Mint)

Having nothing to do at work is going to make me fat. I sit there all day browsing the internet and poking around on Recipezaar making lists of tasty sounding recipes to try. Anyway, this year's St. Patrick's Day is my friend's 21st birthday. He isn't actually Irish, but everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day! So I decided to make him a cheesecake (or is it really for me?).

Here is the recipe I chose to base my cake off of: Grasshopper Cheesecake. I made a few changes along the way, which are all detailed below. My buddy is mildly allergic to chocolate, so I tried to keep as little chocolate on one half of the cheesecake as possible. My crust was half graham cracker and half chocolate and 100% gluten-free. I recommend making it with a full chocolate crust. To the cake!

Ingredients:
Crust:

• 1 1/2 cup Chocolate Cookie Crumbs (I used Kinninkinnick Kinnitoos)
• 8 pieces Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates
• 1/4 cup Butter
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Filling:

• 1 lb Cream Cheese*
• 1 cup Sugar, divided
• 1/3 cup Green Creme de Menthe*
• 3 tbsp Creme de Cacao
• 2 tbsp Flour (gluten-free*)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 6 Egg Whites
• 1 cup Sour Cream*
• 16 pieces Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates, coarsely chopped

Topping:

• 1 cup Sour Cream*
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 3 tbsp Green Creme de Menthe*
• 1/4 cup Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates, finely grated

Notes:

• I used low fat creme cheese and sour cream and the cake came out great.
  
• If you don't have green Creme de Menthe, add some green coloring to the batter and use clear Creme de Menthe.
• For the 2 tbsp flour, I used Bette Hagman's Bean Mix: 2 parts garfava flour, 1 part sorghum flour, 3 parts cornstarch, and 3 parts tapioca flour. Feel free to substitute with your own mix.
• Make sure the eggs and cream cheese are room temperature before mixing.
  

Directions:

1. Combine chocolate cookie crumbs, Andes Mint crumbs, butter and cinnamon. Mix well.
2. Press into bottom and about 1 inch up sides of 9 inch springform pan.
3. Put cream cheese into mixing bowl and beat until creamy.
4. Add 3/4 cup sugar and mix well.
5. Stir in Creme de Menthe, Creme de Cacao, flour and salt.
6. Beat until well blended.
7. Stir in egg yolks, sour cream and beat until smooth and well blended.
8. In separate bowl, combine egg whites and 1/4 cup sguar. Beat until whites stand in soft peaks. Be 100% certain that there is not 1 tiny speck of yolk in the whites.
9. Fold beaten eggs whites and coarsely chopped Andes Mints into cream cheese mixture by hand.
10. Pour batter into crust and bake until toothpick or knife inserted into middle of cake comes out almost clean, or about 1 hour, in oven preheated to 325F. The top will puff up. Do not worry; this is normal.
11. Do not overbake and don't worry about cracks.
12. Remove from oven and place on wire rack. Cool for five minutes and run slim knife around outer edge of pan.
    
13. Let cool for about 2 hours and place in fridge for 4 hours.
14. Prepare topping by mixing together remaining cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tbsp Creme de Menthe. Mix until sugar is fully dissolved.
15. Pour topping onto fully cooled cake. Spread topping evenly, being sure to cover any cracks.
16. Bake in oven preheated to 350F for about 10 minutes or until topping is firm. DO NOT BROWN.
17. Sprinkle grated Andes Mints onto cooled cake.

I used a piece of paper to block part of the topping and made a 4 leaf clover design. Use your imagination.


Nutritional information:
12 Servings @ 2.35" each