Explosive Turtle Cheesecake

Explosive Turtle Cheesecake

Each and every day out in the blogosphere I come across a recipe I feel the urge to try. I bookmark them and hope that I get around to making each and every one. How are you doing with that Val? Right now I have enough recipes from the Internet and the blogosphere to make something different for the next 2 years!!

From the time my daughter was a year old I would try my hand at making fancy cakes for her birthday. She had teddy bears for a teddy bear picnic; individual Hawaiian girls for a Hawaiian luau; little girls for a fancy tea party; swimming pools, school buses, unicorns.... She always delighted in each and every one. One day when she was about 8 she mentioned the fact that she didn't like icing...so then it was ice cream cakes and ice cream pizzas from Dairy Queen. Now she has moved on over to cheesecakes. It was inevitable this weekend when she was home from university that I should spoil her with her favourite Turtle Cheesecake...it was not her birthday of course...but the spoiling was inevitable.

I discovered this recipe at Elly Says Opa as an entry to her Eat to the Beat event. It was submitted by Amber of Amber's Kitchen . This is a "new to me" version of my daughters favourite Turtle Cheesecake that I thought I would give a try...caramel, chocolate. pecans...certainly droolworthy.

Speaking of Elly I won the latest cookbook "Cooking from the Hip" from Cat Cora on her site. Yay me!!! Cat was raised in a small Greek community in Jackson, Mississippi, by a family for whom cooking and eating were the center of life. It is no wonder she has become on Iron Chef on the Food Network. Look forward to some delicious and droolworthy recipes from the book!!

This version of cheesecake was delicious. I changed the original recipe ever so slightly.

**Explosive Turtle Cheesecake**

Recipe courtesy Jacob Thomas

• 1 -1/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (recommended: Oreo or chocolate graham crackers)
• 4 tablespoons sugar for crust
• 1 cup sugar for cheesecake4 T unsalted butter, melted, plus 3 T
• 2 -1/2 lbs. cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 more cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 more cup semisweet chocolate chips, for topping
• 1 cup caramel, for topping
• 1 cup pecans, for topping

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Lightly grease the bottom and side of a 9-inch springform pan. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the cookie crumbs, 4 tablespoons of sugar, and the melted butter and mix together well. Pour the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and press them out evenly. Once completed, set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, the rest of the sugar, and vanilla. Beat together until light and creamy. Add the flour and blend until smooth. Pour in a melted cup of the chocolate chips and sour cream and mix well. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing each at low speed. Fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips. Pour the filling into prepared pan, bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the center is almost set. (To prevent the cheesecake from cracking you can try several things; allow cake to cool in the oven once it is turned off; invert a large bowl over the springform pan to create an environment) Let cake cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the sides and remove rim of the pan. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

4. In a small saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and pour in remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips. Mix together on medium-low heat. Once chocolate and butter is combined, pour warm mixture onto chilled cake. Refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes.

5. In another small saucepan, pour in caramel and chopped pecans, bring to a boil. Let mixture boil for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Let mixture cool for 3 to 5 minutes, and pour onto cake. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

10 to 12 servings

(I drizzled both the caramel and chocolate onto the cake and also put a border of pecans around the bottom outside layer)

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