Caramel Apple Cheesecake

By Addie

This recipe won the Grand Prize in an apple recipe contest. With caramel both on the bottom and over the top, this cheesecake is ooey-gooey good.—Lisa Morman, Minot, North Dakota

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (about 8 whole crackers)
• 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 package (14 ounces) caramels
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, divided
• 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups chopped peeled apples
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation

Step 1

Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan.

In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of prepared pan. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir caramels and milk until melted and smooth. Pour 1 cup over crust; sprinkle with 1/4 cup pecans. Set remaining caramel mixture aside.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, 1 tablespoon flour and remaining sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Combine the apples, cinnamon and remaining flour; fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour into crust.

Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Reheat reserved caramel mixture if necessary; gently spoon over cheesecake. Sprinkle with remaining pecans.

Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until center is just set. Remove pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Yield: 12 servings.
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REVIEWS:

Made this cheesecake for Thanksgiving - whole family loved it! I have made alot of different TOH cheesecakes and they said this was the absolute best!!

This was a great cheesecake. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it!

Taste was wonderful! Rich but not too sweet. I did think the crust could have used more butter as it was very crumbly to work with. I also had to bake it longer than the recipe called for.

Amazing! I made it without the pecans and it was delicious! I am still getting rave reviews on it!

I made this for Thanksgiving dinner last year and got nothing but rave reviews!

This was AWESOME!!!!! Everyone at my fall party raved about it! It's very rich and I served it in 16th's! YUM!!!

Everybody loved it, disappeared before the pumpkin and apple pies, making again for turkey day.

This was wonderful - can't wait to make it again this year. YUMMMMMMY

This is such a delicious cake! We love it and will make it again and again!

This was beyond delish, it tasted like an expensive, store bought cheesecake.

This is nothing but yummy. However, I didnt have large heavy duty foil and didnt really understand when I was making it what it was for, so I just took regular foil, double 2 pieces and set them to make 18in (so there was an overlap in the middle) it wasnt water-proof, so when I removed the foil I realized water had gotten to the crust. It made it soggy on the outside bottom, but was still delicious. I will definately make this again, but I will be sure to have the right size foil. I also followed the recipe times and temp exactly and no trouble with it setting. Oh and I also made about a 1/4 cup more crust, just because I like alot of crust.

I am making this recipe now but am confused as to what temperature I'm supposed to bake it at. I know it says 350 in the beginnning for the crust, but is that true for the final baking. I baked it at 350 for the times noted and I still have soup. So I'm guessing the temperature isn't 350. Guess I will have to bump it up to 400 and see what I get.