• Cooking Time: 45
• Servings: 8
• Preparation Time: 10
• 2 cups of crushed chocolate cookies (I use Famous Wafers, but this time forgot to buy them so I used Oreo’s)
• ½ stick butter, melted
• 20 ounces or cream cheese (2 1/2 packages), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 1 ½ tablespoons of flour
• 3 eggs
• 2 ½ tablespoons heavy or whipping cream
• Topping
• 10 ounces caramels
• ¼ cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. In a food processor, pulse cookies to crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, I have also used 2 metal bowls and mashed the wafers/cookies by putting them in the big one a dozen at a time and crushing/grinding them with the little one. Or get your kids involved and have them whack away at them in sealed plastic baggies.
3. Combine cookie crumbs and butter in a medium bowl, stir well.
4. Pour into a greased 9 inch spring form pan. Use your fingers to evenly spread and mash down the crumbs.
6. In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Add in vanilla, flour and eggs one at a time. Beat well. Blend in the cream. Pour batter over the crust.
7. Bake 12 minutes at 450 degrees then lower oven temperature to 200 degrees for an additional 35 minutes or until set.
8. Once removed from the oven, cool for 10 minutes, and then gently go around the side of the pan with a butter knife to loosen any parts sticking. Loosen pan gently and remove rim. Cool and refrigerate. Cool for at least 2 hours before topping. Then refrigerate cheesecake for a minimum of 6 hours total prior to serving.
10. Melt chocolate in the microwave for 40-60 seconds depending on your microwave. (Start with 30 seconds…nothing worse than burnt chocolate) Stir until smooth.
11. Scrape chocolate into a small sealable plastic bag, snip off a bit of one corner and squeeze chocolate across the cake…any pattern you want.
13. In a small saucepan heat the caramels and cream over medium heat stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat, let cool for a few minutes (melted caramel is hot!!) then do the same as the chocolate to squeeze onto the cake. Sprinkle pecans over cake.
14. Can’t you just see this at your holiday open house or table??
16. If you are taking the cake on the road…put the rim back on to protect it.
18. Enjoy!

Turtle like the candy, not the reptile, just thought I’d clarify as one never knows lol! (You don’t even want to know the story I heard involving a turtle used as food over Thanksgiving Dinner from a new Argentinean friend, who by the way is a hoot)I have been making this cheesecake for a very long time. So easy to make and it holds up great if you are taking it to a party or gathering. This one went out of state with me to Connecticut and arrived looking just as good. Another good thing is it is not a height cheesecake so you get a nice piece and it’s not too much, just enough. Oh yeah and who cares if it cracks…not me!! Any cracks will get covered up with the chocolate, caramel and pecans! My husband has never even tasted this…he (and his family) will not look at “corrupted” cheesecakes. No topping, flavors or sauce…Nothing but a virgin creamy cheesecake for them!! Enjoy!