Cypress Magazine

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Turtle Dream Cheesecake

Crust:  

Your choice of chocolate or vanilla wafers (We used vanilla wafers on this one – almost the whole bag of Jackson’s Vanilla Wafers.)
½ stick of Butter
2 Tablespoon Sugar

Filling:

2 ½ packages of cream cheese (8 ounce packages), softened
1 cup sugar
1 ½ Tablespoon flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
2 Tablespoon Whipping Cream

Topping directions:
Caramel Topping:  Combine 14-ounce bag caramels and 1/3 cup whipping cream in small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth.  (Make this one first and pour over entire top of cooled cheesecake)
Chocolate Topping: Combine 1 (4 ounces) package German sweet chocolate, 1 teaspoon butter and 2 Tablespoons whipping cream in small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth.
Toasted pecans: Mix ¾ cup of pecans, 1 tablespoon of melted butter on a cookie sheet, then place in 350* oven for about 30-40 minutes – stirring and checking about every 15 minutes.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450*  Combine cookie crumbs, butter and sugar, press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan and bake for 8 minutes. Beat cream cheese in large bowl until creamy.  Add sugar, flour, salt and vanilla; mix well.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in cream.  Pour over crust.  Bake 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 200*.  Continue baking 35 – 40 minutes or until set.  Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Drizzle with toppings, refrigerate. Sprinkle with pecans just before serving. (We refrigerated, then put our toasted pecans on while they were still hot – it makes them stay in place with the caramel on top!)