Ingredients

• 12 oreo chocolate sandwich cookies, about 1 cup finely crushed, gluten free cookies work fine
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup caramel sauce, I used this homemade caramel sauce
• 3 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted if desired

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Crush the oreo cookies in a large freezer weight ziploc bag. You can use a rolling pin or mallet to crush them. Or, you can quickly pulse them in a food processor.
3. Combine the crumbs with the melted butter and press the mixture into the bottom of a spring-form pan.
4. Pour 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce over this crust and spread it across the crust lightly with a spatula.
5. Refrigerate this crust for 10 minutes.
6. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
7. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed just until each one is blended.
8. Pour this mixture over the refrigerated crust.
9. Place the spring-form pan on a large baking sheet prior to placing it in the oven. (If you line the baking sheet with foil first, clean up will be a breeze.)
10. Some of the caramel in the crust will drip through the pan onto your oven if you forget this step.
11. Bake 65 – 70 minutes, until the center is almost set. Run a knife around the edges of the pan while it is still warm.
12. Let cool at room temperature and then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight before removing the sides of the pan.
13. Once the sides of the pan have been removed, sprinkle the pecans across the top of the cheesecake and then drizzle with the remaining caramel and the melted chocolate.
14. Store remaining cheesecake in the refrigerator.

Homemade Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of kosher salt

Preparation

1. In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and the water. Stir to combine and then cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves; about 4-5 minutes. There is no need to stir, simply swirl the pan over the burner occasionally as the sugar dissolves.
2. Raise the heat to medium high and cook the sauce, swirling the pan occasionally, until it is amber colored; about 7-8 minutes.
3. Add the butter, be prepared for it to bubble and sputter, lightly stir or swirl to melt, do not scrape the sides of the pan or splash sauce up the sides of the pan. (This will cause crystallization, if you scrape the uncooked sugars back into the sauce.)
4. Once the butter is melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla, heavy cream and salt. It will bubble again, but will calm quickly.
5. Stir to combine (again, not scraping sides of the pan) and then let cool before transferring to a jar and refrigerating for storage.