White Mocha Caramel Cheesecake

A few months ago, I ran across a contest to come up with a recipe. The only requirements were two ingredients: white chocolate and caramel. I can't even tell you how thrilled I was! I thought the only thing that would make it better would be if coffee was

 involved (I have a soft spot for white mocha caramel Starbucks frapps!). I was also craving cheesecake at the time, so thus this one was born. WARNING: this is not quick. This is legit cheesecake using classic methods, so it's tedious; but it's SO worth it!

White Mocha Caramel Cheesecake

(Printable Version)

Crust:

2 1/4 cups graham crackers (crushed)

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

Filling:

3 8oz pkg cream cheese (softened)

1 cup sour cream

4 eggs (lightly beaten)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 T cornstarch

1 T instant coffee granules

2 T boiling water)

12 oz white chocolate baking chips

2 regular size or 8 fun size caramel-nougat candy bars chopped (I used Snickers)

Topping:

About 3/4 cup of your favorite caramel topping

OR

I made a caramel crunch topping by using:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 T butter

A few cracks from a sea salt grinder

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and grease a 9 inch springform pan.

*Double wrap the outside of the pan in foil to prevent leaks from the hot water bath.

*Combine crust ingredients until moist and press into the bottom and one inch up the sides of the springform pan

using the bottom of a measuring cup.

*Dissolve coffee granules in water.

*Melt chocolate according to package directions.

*Cream the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth. Add in sour cream, vanilla, and corn starch and continue

to beat until smooth.

*Add 4 eggs and carefully beat JUST UNTIL MIXED.

*Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl.

*Stir in white chocolate into one bowl of batter.

*In the other bowl of batter, stir in the dissolved coffee mixture.

*Alternate spooning HALF of each mixture into the spring-form pan. Carefully swirl with a butter knife.

*Arrange candy bar pieces on top.

*Repeat spooning the remaining batters and swirl again.

*Set the spring-form pan inside a larger pan that you can pour water into for a water bath. It needs to be large

enough to be able to cover up an inch on the springform pan.

*Place the pan with the spring-form pan in it inside the oven and using a kettle, or something large enough to hold

a lot of water, pour water to fill up to an inch from the bottom of the spring-form pan.

*Bake at 325 for 50 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave it in the oven for another hour.

*Let rest on cooling rack for 10 minutes and then run a butter knife around the edge to loosen.

*Allow to cool all the way.

*Once it has cooled, place it in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours to chill.

*Once ready to serve, remove from the spring-form pan and top with caramel sauce.

*If you wish to do the caramel crunch, in a saucepan on med-high heat let 1 cup powdered sugar until caramel-

ized. Stir occasionally and allow to come to a golden brown (we're going soft-ball stage here). Add 1 T butter and a few cracks sea salt from a

grinder. Quickly pour over cheesecake.

And if you happen to not like coffee, then just don’t add it and you’ll have a white chocolate caramel cheese-

cake...everyone wins!

Enjoy!

Sign up for the RSS feed to get all new recipes right away!