Turtle Swirl Cheesekake of Heaven

Chocolate Teddy Graham with caramel hair

Silly Steph and being with her family and boyfriend. While she was making those delicious looking cinnamon and butterscotch cupcakes, Kate and I had a weekend of turtle cheesecake, chicken 'n peas on rice, and blueberry pancakes. The turtle cheesecake was definitely the highlight.

We knew we wanted to cook over the weekend, and Kate said she had a jar of caramel that needed to be used so we decided a caramel cheesecake would be wonderful, and maybe some chocolate to turn it into a turtle cheesecake would work? Yes. Yes it would.

Turtle Swirl Cheesecake
Crust
9 oz Chocolate Teddy Grahams
6 Tbs butter, melted
Cheesecake
4 8-oz packages of cream cheese, room temp
1 1/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate

Food processor killing teddy grahams

3 Tbs whipping cream
4 oz semisweet chocolate, either chips or chopped
Caramel (our's was Fresh Market creamy caramel from a jar)
Chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Kill the teddy grahams. No really. Chop them finely, such as with a food processor, then mix with the butter. Line a springform pan with the crumbs, about an inch up the sides.

Stephen ladle's cheesecake into the pan

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add in the sugar gradually, beating between each addition. Add each egg separately, beating between each egg. Finally add the vanilla extract. Leave this be while you get the chocolate ready.

You could use the regular double boiler method used for ganache, or if you don't have one: bring whipping cream to simmer, then add in chocolate. Melt.

We had Kate's jar of caramel, so we spooned out some of it then brought it to nice liquid consistency in the microwave.

Before being swirled in

Put about half of the cheesecake into the pan, then put on about half of the chocolate and however much caramel you feel is needed. Use a fork to swirl it through the cheesecake, but don't overdo it or you lose the effect. Then spoon the rest of the cheesecake on top of this layer and repeat with the rest of the chocolate and caramel.

Cheesecake in the oven

Put into the oven and bake for around an hour. I put a cake pan full of water below the cheesecake in the oven to help keep it from splitting. When it's done it should be a little wiggly in the middle.
Place onto a rack to cool, the put it into the fridge. When ready, run a knife around the outer edge of the pan then release the spring.

We only let it cool around 3 hours before eating, and it was delicious, but some more was tried today. Letting it cool for around a day makes it very delicious, letting the caramel and chocolate flavor spread through the cheesecake and the cheesecake become an even better consistency.

The beautiful finished product

Once out an ready to be served, melt some more caramel down and drizzle over the top of the cake. Bring to the table for more drizzle on each slice. Place pecans over cake before cutting.

We had some chicken with Mrs. Dash Onion & Garlic, paprika, and onion flakes for seasoning for dinner along with peas and rice. It was good. Don't be afraid to randomly mix spices together, but do be afraid when Kate has raw chicken and a knife. She's such a zombie.

Kate flips some pancakes!

Monday morning we made blueberry pancakes. Smitten Kitchen's pancake recipe was used for the pancakes and they were very delicious. Blueberries are so good...

Yay baking! Go food! Happy Memorial Day!

Stephen