Chocolate-Mint Cheesecake

I've been looking for a really good cheesecake recipe for a while now. And, honestly, I've thoroughly enjoyed the search which has resulted in a number of cheesecakes being baked and taste-tested. :)

I'm really looking for something that's just a plain, basic cheesecake. However, chocolate lover that I am...I wasn't going to pass this one up. and I'm glad I didn't. Great flavor, rich and cheesy taste and texture. I think it was slightly undercooked, but that's more my fault than the recipe. Every oven varies and you just kind of have to watch it and judge-by-the-jiggle with a cheesecake.

Chocolate-Mint Cheesecake
1 C Chocolate cookie crumbs
2 Tbls butter, melted
1 1/2 C cream cheese
1 C sugar
1 C cottage cheese
1/4 C plus 2 Tbls unsweetened cocoa
1/4 C flour
1/4 C creme de menthe
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1 egg
2 Tbls semi-sweet mini-morsels

Preheat oven to 300°.
Mix melted butter and chocolate cookie crumbs. Press into 8" spring-form pan. Set aside. Add cream cheese and next seven ingredients; blend until smooth.
Add egg; stir until just blended. Fold in chocolate morsels.
Pour into pan over crumbs. Bake 45-50 minutes.
Let cool. Cover and chill at least 6 hours before serving.

Variations: I'm always tweaking recipes. I had leftover Christmas candy canes; so I pulsed 3 or 4 of them in the Magic Bullet and added them into the cookie crust. I didn't have creme de menthe. So I did a mix-n-match swap with the mint and vanilla: I used 1/4 C of vanilla syrup (like you'd put in a coffee drink) with 1 tsp of mint flavoring. I also ran the cottage cheese in my Magic Bullet blender so it was really smooth and creamy...no turds! :) I didn't do it, but with a dark chocolate cheesecake--I buy DARK chocolate cocoa powder--white chips would add visual interest (nice), but a sweeter taste (I prefer dark, semi-/bitter-sweet chocolate). Feel free to fiddle!