Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake

Ever notice how versatile cheesecake it? You can have a plain cheesecake, cheesecake with fruit, cheesecake with chocolate, coffee-infused cheesecake…Basically, cheesecake is so forgiving that you can pair it with just about anything sweet and you’ll come out with something amazing.

Take the recipe below. There’s chocolate incorporated throughout–from the cookies in the crust to the chocolate in the filling to the chocolate on the top, this is truly the cheesecake for the person who never turns down chocolate. And don’t worry if you don’t have a spring form pan (see note below); you’ll still be able to make this with whatever pan you do have.

What You’ll Need
Crust

• 4 cinnamon graham crackers
• 8 sandwich cookies, filling removed
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

• 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 4 packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 ¼ tablespoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• ¼ cup flour

Topping

• ½ cup milk chocolate, crush (I used a chocolate Easter bunny!)
• ½ to 1 cup caramel sauce

A quick note about the pan

Ideally, cheesecake should be cooked in a spring form pan. But if yours is leaking, or you just want to try something different, there’s nothing stopping you from using a regular ol’ pie pan or a tart pan. The one I used has a glass bottom and removable silicon sides. This produced a thinner cheesecake (see pictures below) and cook time wasn’t as long, but this recipe is written as if you’ll have a spring form pan. If you use anything other than a spring form, don’t sweat it–you’ll just have leftover filling.

How You Do It

Crust

1. Using a food processor, combine graham crackers, sandwich cookies, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of butter. Pulse until texture is crumb-like. Mixture will hold its shape when pressed. If not, add another tablespoon of butter.
2. Press crust into pan.

 

Filling

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cut up semi-sweet chocolate into desired chunks and sprinkle over crust. I left larger chunks, but the size is up to use. The smaller the chunks, the more likely they are to melt into the crust, creating a fudge texture, so it’s completely up to you.
3. Mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. When combined, add in milk.
4. Adding one at a time, beat in eggs until combined.
5. Add sour cream and flour into the filling. When fully combined, spoon filling over prepared crust. If there are a few lumps in the batter, that’s okay. *Remember, if you’re using a pie pan instead of a spring form pan, you’re going to have some extra filling. If you’d like, save it and make another cheesecake!
6. Bake for 65-75 minutes (about 45 if not using a spring form). Remove from oven and let cool for at least 1 hour at room temp. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours afterwards. Note: if there are cracks, don’t worry–that’ll be covered up later.

 

Topping

1. After cheesecake has cooled, remove the rim of the pan.
2. Begin to decorate. The pattern is up to you, but I created a cross-cross pattern using caramel sauce. Make sure the sauce is warm enough to easily spread/ drizzle over the cheesecake. If not, put it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.
3. Break the milk chocolate into desired chunks and sprinkle around the rim.
4. When you’re done, cut into it, and enjoy!

Can we talk about the crust for a moment? Look how gorgeous!

So much chocolate; I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Truly a cheesecake you won’t want to share.

That’s all for today, but what do you think? Are you big on chocolate cheesecakes, or are you more of a strawberry cheesecake person? If you give this a try, let me know how it goes. Until next time,

♥Danielle

Mix it Up: Prefer dark chocolate? I bet it would be amazing, especially it you use a sea salt caramel sauce.