Thin Mint Cheesecake Bars

 The Art.
     It is Girl Scout cookie season in my region, which usually means that I will gorge myself on Samoas and Thin Mints whilst watching Downton Abbey. This year, I managed to practice some restraint and only bought two boxes of cookies, so I had to do some rationing. The mere fact that I left an entire box of Thin Mints untouched for baking research purposes demonstrates how dedicated I am to this blog. Said baking research resulted in these delicious cheesecake bars, so I guess it was worth the sacrifice. They have a dark, crumbly crust of crushed cookies that is complimented by a fresh, minty mascarpone filling, then drizzled with melted chocolate and garnished with sprigs of mint. If anything ever embodied the understated decadence of the Thin Mint, this cheesecake is it.

The Science.
    Cheesecake filling is traditionally made with mascarpone cheese, sugar, and eggs, then baked until the filling begins to set. A common problem when baking cheesecake is that the edges of the filling will cook more quickly than the center, causing them to puff up and become overdone. This happened to me the first time I took at stab at making this recipe, but I solved this problem by taking measures to ensure that the filling heats up evenly throughout the pan. The first thing I did was reduce the baking temperature from 350°F to 300°F, and increase the bake time. This gives the center of the cheesecake time to heat up without scorching the sides. I also used my heavy glass 9x13 Pyrex pan, because having a thicker pan will insulate the edges from the high heat. Finally, I placed that pan inside a water bath, to further draw the heat from the sides and allow even baking. Altering my recipe in this way resulted in a beautifully set, creamy cheesecake filling that I was quite happy with.

The Recipe.

Crust:
1 package (10 ounces) Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
green food color

Decorations:
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted
fresh mint leaves

    Preheat oven to 300°F. Place cookies in a food processor and pulse until finely crumbled. Pour crumbs into a glass 9x13 pan, add butter, and stir to combine. Press mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan. In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Gradually beat in cornstarch. Add peppermint extract and a few drops of food color to make the filling a minty green. Spoon filling into pan and smooth with a spatula. Place in a slightly larger pan filled with water, and bake on center rack for 40 minutes. Center of the cheesecake should still be a little bit jiggly. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, then chill overnight.

    To decorate, cut cheesecake into squares and place on waxed paper. Fill a sandwich bag with the melted chocolate, snip off the bottom corner, and drizzle the chocolate over the bars.

    Garnish with sprigs of mint and serve. Cheesecake bars can be refrigerated for 4 days, or frozen in an airtight container for one month.