Peppermint Bark Dessert Shooters

These Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Shooters are made with a no-bake white chocolate peppermint cheesecake piped over a chocolate cookie crust.  Top everything off with crushed candy cane pieces and chocolate flakes for a simple, festive treat!

Only 4 days left til Christmas, and I have so much gift-wrapping to do!

I still exchange gifts with all 5 of my siblings (and my parents) and I have a pile of gifts for Zach stowed away at my parents’ house, and there’s an untouched roll of wrapping paper lying on my dining room table.

I should be wrapping, instead I’m obsessing over dessert shooters, and today I’m sharing these Peppermint Bark Dessert Shooters with you.

I’d been toying with the idea of creating a Christmas/winter-themed dessert shooter (especially after so many people enjoyed my Halloween version!) but I put it off, and put it off, and now, here we are less than a week before Christmas and I’m throwing this one at you.

I seem to have a thing for Peppermint Bark, I think this is my third inspired recipe this year, and on exactly this day in 2015 I posted these Peppermint Bark Cookies.

At least I’m consistent.

Consistently again, this dessert shooter is similar to most (all?) of my other ones in that the filling is cream cheese based.

Partially this is because I just love cheesecake in general, but it’s also because the cream cheese serves as a very stable, rich (but not overly sweet) base.  Its flavor pairs well with… just about anything and it also works nicely when lightened up (texture-wise, not calorie-wise) with homemade whipped cream.

Here, I paired the cream cheese with a white chocolate ganache (just white chocolate and heavy cream melted together) to give it a true peppermint bark flavor.

I used regular Oreos for the crust here, but if you like a little more mint flavor you could substitute Peppermint Oreos (the seasonal ones with the red filling — I don’t recommend the “mint” ones with the green filling).

I chopped up some chocolate chips along with the cookies (tossed them into the food processor) for an extra rich chocolate crust.

I wanted a “present, but subtle” and certainly not overpowering amount of peppermint flavor and used less than a teaspoon in the whole batch.  For me, this was plenty — enough to evoke the flavor of its Peppermint Bark namesake, and I accented it with just a dash of vanilla.

As with the Oreo cookies, make sure to use “Peppermint” flavored extract and not “Mint” extract for an authentic peppermint taste.

Enjoy — and while you can always find my dessert shooter recipes on my site, make sure to subscribe and find all 8 of my previous dessert shooter recipes neatly compiled in my FREE E-BOOK!

Peppermint Bark Dessert Shooters

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Shooters are made with a no-bake white chocolate peppermint cheesecake piped over a chocolate cookie crust.  
I always use these 2-oz plastic shot glasses from Amazon (affiliate link)

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: 24 dessert shooters

Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

Crust

• 10 Oreo Cookies
• 1/4 cup mini semisweet or dark chocolate chips (45g)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted still warm (28g)

Filling

• 1 cup premium white chocolate chips (170g)
• 2 cups heavy cream divided (475 ml)
• 16 ounces cream cheese -- softened to room temperature (454g)
• 1 cup powdered sugar (200g)
• 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (*NOT "mint" extract)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Topping

• crushed candy canes for sprinkling
• mini semisweet chocolate chips or finely chopped dark chocolate for sprinkling

Instructions

• Prepare your crust by combining Oreo cookies and chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until completely pulverized to crumbs.
• Add warm butter and pulse again until completely combined.
• Set out 22-24 plastic 2-oz shot glasses and portion 2 teaspoons of Oreo crumbles into each shot glass.  Gently tamp down with small spoon or rounded end of teaspoon.  Set aside.  
• Combine your white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup (118ml) of heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stir frequently until chocolate is completely melted.
• Pour into a large heat proof bowl and allow to set until cooled to room temperature (pouring it into a large vessel other than the saucepan will help it cool faster) -- about 30 minutes.
• While white chocolate mixture is cooling, pour your remaining 1 1/2 cups (357 ml) heavy cream into a clean, dry bowl and whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
• Once white chocolate mixture has cooled, place your softened cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl & use an electric hand-held mixer) and beat until smooth.  
• Add white chocolate mixture and beat until well-combined.  
• Gradually add powdered sugar until well-combined.  Stir in extracts.
• With mixer on low speed, stir in whipped cream mixture.  Increase speed to medium-high and beat until well-combined.
• Transfer mixture to a large Ziploc bag and snip off about a 1" corner*.  Pipe (squeeze) filling through the snipped corner, filling each shot glass to the rim.
• Top dessert shooters with chopped chocolate and crushed candy canes just before shooting (if you add them too far in advance the candy cane pieces will dissolve).  Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Notes

*I used a piping bag and a large Ateco 846 to pipe the swirls on the top of each shooter.  If you overfill the shot glasses above the rim as seen in the pictures you will only get about 20 dessert shooters.

Tried this recipe?Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!

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