Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake & other St. Patrick's Day chocolate recipes

Lots of fabulous St. Patrick's Day Chocolate Recipes. Everyone's blogging chocolate with whiskey, Guinness or mint!

Love & Butter has a really simple recipe for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies. She does add a bit of green food coloring, but there are some very natural edible food dyes if you search. Be sure to read the notes.

Keeping with the mint for the green for the Irish for St. Patrick's Day, Laura at Real Mom Kitchen has a recipe for Chocolate Mint Brownies. These are incredible with a layer of mint frosting and a layer of ganache.

Last week Love & Butter had another recipe that works for St. Patrick's Day. Not sure the name is P.C., but Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes have been around for awhile, and lots of people make them for St. Patrick's Day. Love & Butter did a great blog with a recipe for Irish Car Bomb Brownie Bites, made with Ghirardelli Chocolate's Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix, Guinness, Jameson, and Bailey's Irish Cream. How Irish can you get?

Tartelette has an incredible recipe for very cool Chocolate Whiskey Pots de Creme.

Stephanie Rosenbaum posted a Chocolate Irish Whiskey Cake recipe on Bay Area Bites. In her recipe, she used Ghirardelli Chocolate, but says Tcho and Guittard work well. She suggests other local chocolate for the cocoa. She used Ghirardelli, but Scharffen Berger, Valrhona or Droste work just as well. As I've mentioned before, your chocolate desserts are only as good as your chocolate. Use the Best!

What's Cookin' Italian Style Cuisine has a different recipe for Chocolate Irish Whiskey Cake. Just as there are lots of different whiskeys and chocolate, there are a lot of recipes for this St. Patrick's Day favorite.

Chocolate.com has a wonderful Chocolate Irish Coffee Mousse with Baileys Whipped Cream. Why drink your Irish Coffee when you can eat it?

Last year I blogged recipes for Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes and Chocolate Stout Cake, and an easier Chocolate Guinness Cake for St. Patrick's Day. Last week I blogged a great recipe for Guinness Stout Brownies.

I thought one more recipe would be good, just to round out the possibilities. I love this easy to make and decidedly Irish recipe for Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake that I adapted from Allrecipes.com

Bailey's Irish Cream Chocolate Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (whirl them in a food processor)
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened Ghirardelli or Scharffen Berger cocoa powder
1/4 cup sweet butter (I use Irish butter)
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cups white sugar1/4 cup unsweetened Ghirardelli or Scharffen Berger Cocoa powder
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the cookie crumbs, confectioners' sugar and 1/3 cup cocoa. Add melted butter and stir until well mixed. Pat into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes; set aside. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, white sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa and flour. Beat at medium speed until well blended and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the sour cream and Bailey's; mixing on low speed. Pour filling over baked crust.
3. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees F, and continue baking for 60 minutes.
4. With a knife, loosen cake from rim of pan. Let cool, then remove the rim of pan. Chill before serving. If your cake cracks, a helpful tip is to dampen a spatula and smooth the top, then sprinkle with some chocolate wafer crumbs.

You can also add a Bailey's whipped cream topping. I don't usually do that, but some people like it!