Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake

This is the dessert that I brought over to our friends house this past weekend. I saw it in the Kraft Food and Family magazine and drooled over it. I only discovered I like cheesecake about 8 years ago on a family trip to Duluth. We were having dinner at Grandma's (which is an icon in Duluth) after a day spent by Lake Superior. We were treating ourselves to a nice dinner and the Dude ordered cheesecake for dessert. As I have stated in the past, I'm not a really big dessert fan, but I tried his dessert and have been hooked since. I made a half recipe as there were only 6 of us for dinner-plus one for 2 corn casserole-so I made a small pan. Plus, knowing my lack of self control, I didn't want a huge amount in my fridge taunting me every time I opened it and giving in to temptation! I will list the full recipe here. It needs a 9x13 pan for full recipe; I used an 8x8 pan.

Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake
1-1/2 cups crushed Nilla Wafers (I think you need more as I had to add another 15 to cover bottom of pan
3/4 cup chopped pecans, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
32 caramels, unwrapped
3 TBSP milk
4 packages of 8-ounce each cream cheese, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
8 squares semi sweet chocolate, divided (I used Baker's-have great luck with it)



Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Mix wafer crumbs, 1/2 cup nuts and butter; press onto bottom of 9x13 baking dish. Microwave caramels and milk in microwavable bowl on MEDIUM (50%) for 4-5 minutes or until caramels are melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every two minutes. Pour over crust; spread to within 1 inch of edge.





Cool. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each until just blended. Melt 7 chocolate squares. Stir into cream cheese batter; pour over caramel layer. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Refrigerate 4 hours. Sprinkle remaining nuts on just before serving. Melt remaining square of chocolate and drizzle over top.




I didn't do the drizzle of chocolate because I left the square on the counter at home. The only problem I had was when I cut the dessert, the chocolate cream cheese layer slid off the caramel layer. I don't know why. The hubs loved the crust and the caramel; not so much the chocolate, but he is not a big chocolate fan. More for me!

Off to have lunch with the ladies from my former shift at the cereal plant. They work days as they have been there for many years. I started as a temp so I was able to work days back then. I of course just got off at 6 and haven't slept yet as the youngest is having a surprise party for one of her BFF's and I had to make a cake and pick up some. After lunch I will frost the cake and take a quick nap so I can handle ten 15 and 16 year olds here. I better make sure there is wine in the fridge!

11 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

Looks awesome!

The sliding might have happened because the caramel is too smooth for the cream cheese layer to adhere to, or the caramel layer might not have solidified enough.

But in the end, who cares? It's the taste that counts, right?

Bob said...

Man that looks good. I looooove cheesecake!

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

Don't you ever wish you hadn't discovered that you like cheesecake? I wish you hadn't posted this, because now I have to make it and gain who knows how many pounds...but man wll it be good and make me happy! And you had to make it a turtle cheesecake didn't you? lol ;-)

Jeff said...

Man as a single kidless male I hear 10 16 years and I want to run into the woods and hide to avoid the inventiable scream fest that will happen.

Cheesecake is my fav and this looks awesome!

Heather said...

mmmmm. that sounds amazing! i absolutely adore cheesecake, this sounds so delicious!

Sara said...

Wow, this looks so good! I have to say, I have a weakness for desserts that involve caramel.

Donna-FFW said...

Holy Good Lord does this ever look delicious!! Scrumptious. LOVE this .. the pictures have me drooling..

vanillasugarblog said...

that does sound good and fattening! oh yeah! I'll have to try this on my cheat days.

Missy said...

I think you need a vacation to Florida, then you can come to my house and cook. This looks yummy

Claudia said...

Cheesecake makes my heart sing - what a lovely recipe. Duluth (not in the winter) also makes my heart sing! Although am a Grand Marias girl at heart.

Ali said...

I love cheesecake! Sometimes I think about buying those tubs of cheesecake filling and eating it right out of the container--but that would be bad. Very bad.