Tag Archives: pecan

This rich vanilla cheesecake is topped with a thick layer of soft caramel, smooth chocolate and pecans–YUM!

INGREDIENTS:

Cheesecake:

• 9 oz. chocolate wafer cookies (I use animal crackers)
• 1/4 c. margarine (melted)
• 2 (8oz.) packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
• 1/2c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 c. white chocolate chips (melted)
• 1 c. heavy whipping cream
• 2 tbsp. margarine (melted)
• 3 tsp. vanilla

Caramel Topping:

• 32 Kraft caramels (unwrapped)
• 1/2c. margarine
• 1 can (14oz.) sweetened condensed milk

Chocolate Topping:

• 1/4c. heavy whipping cream
• 1/2c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

• About 15 pecan halves.

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Crush cookies into fine crumbs and add melted margarine.  Combine well and press into the bottom of a 9-Inch Springform Pan
  
• Beat softened cream cheese with sugar until smooth.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating in between each one.
• Add remaining cheesecake ingredients, beating until smooth.
• Pour into crust and allow to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
• Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 60 minutes,
• Turn off oven, open oven door a little and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and run knife around edge of pan.  Remove edge of pan. 
• Allow to come to room temperature (make toppings during this time)
• CARAMEL: Put caramels, condensed milk and margarine into a saucepan and melt over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth (6-8 minutes)
• CHOCOLATE:  Put whipping cream into saucepan and heat just until bubbling at edges.  Turn heat off, add chocolate chips, cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, stir until smooth.
• Pour caramel over top of cheesecake, smoothing to edges
• Refrigerate about 10 minutes.
• Pour chocolate over caramel and smooth into a center circle.  
• Place pecan halves around edges and drizzle with any extra caramel you have (if desired)
• REFRIGERATE cheesecake overnight before serving for best consistency. Remove bottom part of pan when cake is chilled.

My thoughts:

I made this for my friends Spencer and Rachel this weekend.  They are having a party to celebrate their baby’s 1st birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASILINN!!!!!  

I haven’t made a cheesecake in awhile and I’ve missed it!  This cheesecake recipe is my staple recipe– the toppings and crust may vary, but the cheesecake recipe stays the same– I haven’t found another that I like better…  The caramel on this is THICK (you may want to half the recipe for it if you aren’t a huge caramel fan like I am).  This might seem like it’s a difficult recipe because of all the steps, but it really isn’t hard– start early in the evening though because its a process!  Hope you get a chance to try this!  ENJOY!   -r