Turtle Cheesecake

 

I baked this in my large round mold from Demarle, and below you can see that it has been slipped out of the pan with ease. Set upon my beautiful Candlewick antique plate - it is a sight to behold! 

 I don't usually make any other cheese cake recipe except for my time tested proved to be the best ever cheesecake known to mankind... but I tried out this new Turtle Cheesecake. It is all that and a bag of chocolate chips.... BUT, and that's a big BUT.... the middle fell in. It still was drooled over, and lapped up .. but I think I rewrite it to fit the perfect recipe the next time I make it.

 I made this for Emily's 21st birthday dinner celebration. She didn't like the "magic" candle (heeheehee)... but loved the cheesecake!

Turtle Cheesecake
Crust: 1 9oz pkg chocolate wafer cookies (chocolate graham crackers or chocolate animal crackers) I used the animal crackers).
6 T unsalted butter, melted. (I needed a bit more as the crust was dry and wouldn't stay together.
Preheat oven 350 degrees (340 for Demarle mold)
Finely grind cookies in processor, blend in butter. Press crumbs into bottom and 1" or so up sides of 9" spring form pan.

Filling 4 8 oz pkg cream cheese, room temp. (I forget to pull this out, so took it out of the wrappers and zapped them a bit to soften it)
1 1/4 c sugar
5 large eggs
1 1/2 tea. vanilla
Beat Cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in vanilla.

3 T whipping cream
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips
Bring cream to a boil in sauce pan. Reduce heat to low, add chocolate chips and stir stir stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

Pour cream cheese mixture into crust. Spoon chocolate mixture over by tablespoons, spacing evenly. Using tip of knife, swirl chocolate into filling. Add a bit of cheese mixture to chocolate if too thick.Bake for 1 hr and 5 minutes. Mine too about 8 minutes longer. Cake will crack. Cool in pan on rack. Chill overnight. (I baked early in day, once cooled in oven, I moved it to refrigerator till after dinner, topped and served) This may have been why it fell in the center to much. But since I wasn't entering it in to some contest or cooking show.... my family was happy to have it to eat anyway, no matter how it looked.

Topping
1 c caramel sauce (ice cream topping works great)
1/2 c chopped toasted pecans (I didn't chop mine)
Chocolate Ganache (melt 4 oz chocolate chips with 2-3 T heavy cream) I didn't do this.

Drizzle caramel and chocolate ganache over top of cake. Garnish with pecans.

If you are enjoying the blog posts from time to time, I would love to hear about it. Let me know if you make this!

Enjoy!