Popular St. Patrick’s Day Dessert Recipe – Chocolate & Mint Cheesecake Bars

While Corned Beef and Cabbage may be a popular item for traditional St. Patrick’s day dinner – what about a great recipe idea for a ‘green’ St. Patrick’s day dessert?

We did some online searching for our readers to find some green and delicious recipes for this St. Patty’s day, and one of our favorites and tastiest is an online recipe for St. Patrick’s Chocolate & Mint Cheesecake Bars. They taste as good as they look and they are really quick and easy to make.

We found this particular St. Partick’s Day dessert recipe online at Allrecipes.com. The recipe takes about 20 minutes of prep time, about 55 minutes in the oven and then time to cool. Overall about 3 hours from start to eat.

Ingredients
Original recipe makes 24 servings

1 (18.25 ounce) packagechocolate fudge cake mix with pudding (such as Betty Crocker® Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix)
1/2 cupbutter, softened
3 (8 ounce) packagescream cheese, softened
1 (16 ounce) containercream cheese flavored frosting (such as Betty Crocker® Rich and Creamy)
3eggs
6 dropsgreen food coloring, or as needed
3 dropscreme de menthe candy flavoring (such as Wilton®), or as needed
1 (10 ounce) packagedark chocolate and mint chips (such as Nestle® Toll House® Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels – or Andes Mints)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.Beat cake mix and butter with an electric mixer on low speed in a bowl until crumbly, 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside 1 cup for topping.
3.Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of an ungreased 9×13 inch pan.
4.Place in preheated oven and bake until edges begin to crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly.
5.Beat cream cheese and frosting with an electric mixer on medium speed in a bowl until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
6.Drop eggs one at a time into the cream cheese mixture and beat until blended, 2 to 3 minutes.
7.Pour in 6 drops green food coloring, or more for a darker color; beat until color is blended, about 2 minutes.
8.Beat in creme de menthe candy flavoring until thoroughly blended, about 2 minutes. Taste and add more flavoring if needed.
9.Pour batter over the chocolate crust in the 9×13 pan.
10.Sprinkle 1 cup reserved crumb mixture over cheesecake batter.
11.Top with 1 cup chocolate and mint morsels; reserve remaining morsels for finishing touches.
12.Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake until set, 42 to 45 minutes.
13.Remove pan from oven and cool completely.
14.Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.
15.Pour reserved chocolate and mint morsels into a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave morsels in 45 second intervals; stir until completely melted and smooth.
16.Pour melted chocolate into a resealable plastic bag.
17.Clip a small bottom corner of the bag. Gently squeezing the bag, drizzle melted chocolate over the cooled cake through the clipped corner.
18.Cut cake into bars to serve.