chocolate caramel cheesecake
Let me explain. The store was out of those Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers typically used to make crumb crusts and my husband coyly suggested I use Chocolate Teddy Grahams instead. (He has a soft spot for those chemistry sets of a baked good; I allow them into our apartment only for malicious purposes.) I had to admit that they’d be a decent substitute. Plus, we could have some fun while we were at it.
And, oh, what fun we had.
In the end, they made a surprisingly tasty crust, but the cheesecake stole the show, as cheesecake is wont to do. And I know, I know, everyone’s got a chocolate cheesecake recipe that they or their cousin-in-law swears by, but I’m going have to, yet again, brashly step forward and pronounce this one better than all of them. I’m that gauche. It’s not the teddy bears, though, or the chocolate: it’s the caramelized sugar. That’s the real brilliance of this recipe, as it gets you wondering why you’ve been adding plain old sugar to cakes when you could have first cooked it into a toastier, richer syrup? The taste difference is noticeable in its depth. There’s something more there, even if people can’t immediately place it, and for me at least, that tucking of superior flavors into typical foods is one of my favorite parts about cooking.
Making caramel is a chore, especially this one as it demands you break down the sugar twice. But this small inconvenience is all trouble the cake will bring you. The rest is painfully simple: chocolate, sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Be warned, however: this is not a cake you get away with only making once. In fact, a certain Teddy Graham-loving husband of mine has really not shut up about it since, so for his birthday last week, I went at it again. This time, no teddy bears were harmed but as much as it pains me to admit this, I think they made for a better crust. Must be that day’s supply of calcium.
Cheesecake, elsewhere: Key Lime Cheesecake, Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake, Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake, Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares, Black-Bottomed Cupcakes (with a cheesecake filling) and Cream Cheese Marbled Brownies.
Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Epicurious.com
Serves 8 to 10
1 crumb crust (recipe below)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
8 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Make crumb crust as directed in separate recipe, using chocolate wafer cookies instead of graham crackers.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Cook sugar in a dry heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring slowly with a fork, until melted and pale golden. Cook caramel without stirring, swirling pan, until deep golden. Remove from heat and carefully add heavy cream (mixture will vigorously steam and caramel will harden). Cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until caramel is dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until smooth. Stir in sour cream.
Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy, then beat in chocolate mixture on low speed. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.
Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan. Pour filling into crust and bake in baking pan (to catch drips) in middle of oven 55 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken.
Run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen and cool completely in springform pan on a rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.) Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Do ahead: Cheesecake keeps, covered and chilled, 1 week.
Crumb Crust
Recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine
I actually double crumb crusts; I can never get enough cookie.
Makes enough for a 24 centimeter cheesecake.
1 1/2 cups (5 ounces) finely ground cookies such as chocolate wafers
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.
I’ve never had a cheesecake that didn’t crack. EVER. What’s the secret? Oven too hot, cooked too long, are my guesses. But nothing ever works for me.
Has it been a year since the Teddy Graham Crusade? (Ha.) I can’t believe it.
My cheesecakes always look like Buffy stopped in and slashed them. I’ve heard opening the over door an inch at a time to cool the cake reduce likelihood of cracking. (There’s a funny story, actually, about a friend of my mother’s who did this and then the dog opened the door the rest of the way and ate the cake!) Anyway, I tried that trick this time, and although the crack is smaller than last, still there! The cakes where you use a sour cream topping at the end usually cover this nicely.
You, know, I did not even notice yours cracked. I think it looks beautiful! I love the colors. The dots also really pull your eye away from anything else.
I always make ones that have a topping to hide the million and one imperfections.
I’ll try the oven door thing. Thanks!
(Have you ever heard of baking it in water? I saw that on TV once, but I’ve never tried it.)
Oooo, that cheesecake looks sinfully good! And I love that picture with the teddy bear (I ‘haw’-ed so loudly my brother thought I was choking!), so cute :)
As for the cracking, I’m with Abby, I always use a waterbath to bake my cheesecakes and I’ve never had one crack on me yet :)
oh it seems a bit cruel killing all those innocent little teddies, but I guess when you look at the end result, its worth it!
The cake looks gorgeous and im sure that it tasted just as good as it looks. You almost wouldn’t want to cut into the cake, but then that would be defeating the whole purpose. i guess what im trying to say that its very very pretty : )
my mum and i have tried baking cheesecakes in water before and it works really well. doesn’t crack at all. if you can stephanie alexanders book ‘the cooks companion’ it has a great description of how to do it.
My caramel never got that bubbly on moderate low heat – was everyone else using the moderately low heat setting? It just sort of slowly turned darkish gold immediately rather than bubbling.
This was an amazing cheesecake! It was absolutely delicious, and the only desert at tonights huge thanksgiving dinner that got completely eaten up, and many people said it was one of the best deserts that they had ever eaten. I really loved your suggestion of using teddy grahams; the crust was really, really tasty, and it was much more enjoyable to grind up little bears than boring round, flat, wafer cookies. Thanks also for the suggestion to double the crust; this was the first time I’ve ever had a cheesecake crust that was able to come up the sides of the pan, which, admittedly made it harder to cut, but tastier, and prettier.
I also thought it was interesting, but this was the first cheesecake that I’ve ever baked that did crack at all on top. I didn’t add any water bath like many suggest, either, though it did leak enough oil into the baking dish that I thought someone had put some water into while I was gone…
LOVE this cheesecake. I have made it in the past (off epicurious) and it was delish although it would have liked it better with just a touch more caramelly goodness. There are only 2 ways I have had success with a cheesecake not cracking. The first one is the hot water bath as others suggested, with the water reaching about halfway up the pan. The other thing that has worked is to use half mascarpone cheese and half cream cheese (I don’t know that the mascarpone cheese would be a good flavor in this one though). Oh, I almost forgot…I have heard this works but never tried, when the cheesecake is almost set turn the oven off and leave it in there. It will continue cooking to creamy perfection but there won’t be a big temperature change to cause cracking.
that poor little teddy graham!!!! seriously, that’s a little bit of a shocking photo! i’m sure the end result makes up for it though. :-)
This is one cheesecake I have made repeatedly for years. I doctor it up with a Grand Marnier Ganache or a simple chocolate ganache and finish it off with swirls of caramel on top. It is supremely smooth, creamy and incredibly light.
The recipe says to cook the caramel after you melt the sugar…how much caramel do you use?
You use all of it.
I made this over the weekend for my sister’s birthday. There were no leftovers. Even my incredibly rude and unpleasant aunt wrapped up a piece to take home with her, and it probably killed her to do it as she was paying me a compliment, but she did it anyway! Ha! That’s how delicious this is. I used chocolate Teddy Grahams for the crust and Ghirardelli chocolate. We served it with lightly sweetened whipped cream to spoon on the side.
I made this!
I modified it, but I made it!
And the cracks in the center are relatively easy to remedy….if you consider tin foil and a water bath relatively easy :)
You saved the day – http://salubrioustryst.blogspot.com/2008/10/snickers-cheesecake.html
Wow!
I’ve been banking on this cake to give the finishing touch to our Sukot meal, and it did so with a flourish! People were practically licking the pan.
I will definitely make this again, chocolate teddy bears and all.
Thank you so much!
Made this last night, and to my disappointment, it did in fact crack as it cooled, but my husband did test a piece this morning and man, was it fantastic. I think I cooled it too quickly? I’m going to try leaving it in the oven with the door open to cool for an hour. My last resort will be a water bath, or always having a topping for my cheesecakes!
I made this for my birthday, and it was absolutely amazing. We usually like wowing the guests with really good food, but that night they were in awe. Then, I took the last slice to the boss who had hired me just that week, and she said (via email), “This is the best cake I’ve had in as long as I can remember. That definitely made my afternoon.” Recipes like this give people far too much confidence in my cooking abilities.
I had a real struggle carmelizing the sugar – although I stirred regularly there were patches of clumps stuck to the pan that weren’t burnt but I couldn’t dislodge. Once i introduced the cream it took ages for the caramel and cream to incorporate. If there is a tutorial on this (probably) very basic technique it would be much appreciated! The cheesecake is now in the oven…reading the other posts it sounds like it will be worth all the trouble!!
i couldnt find the nabisco wafers so a got off brand oreos and scraped out the middle. if had bought real oreos the crust wouldve never been made….lol i made this for a charity silent auction. it sold for $100.
i had trouble with the caramel also. i suspect it was the humidity. it worked but took for ever! what i pulled off the spoon and scraped out of the pot was delish…
Cheesecakes that have no starch need to be cooked in a water bath to avoid cracking, and slowly cooled, left in a turned off, unopened oven. For cheesecakes that will not be cooked in a water bath (aka any cheesecake in a springform pan) add 3-4 tablespoons flour. You will not notice the flour taste or texture in the final result, but the starch of the flour will keep your cheesecake from cracking. Seriously, it WORKS.
you put the pan in a larger baking pan to bake, but do NOT add water for a water bath? Is that right? (Looks gorgeous btw!)
I made a half-size recipe (normal size crust recipe, of course) of this and baked it in a steep-walled pie tin, because the only place I know for sure I can get a springform pan from is in Manhattan, and I didn’t feel like taking the subway for an hour and a half (at least) excursion. I just adjusted the cooking time down a little bit, and it turned out fine.
I had quite a bit of difficulty caramelizing the sugar, and actually had to throw out the first attempt because most of it simply would not dissolve in the cream. I believe I burned it. The second try went a lot better, though there were still a couple clumps that simply wouldn’t break down. I ended up fishing them out and trashing them, and then using the batch anyway
I haven’t had a chance to try this yet (but I most certainly will!), but I wanted to comment on the cracking issue. Many years ago I clipped a cheesecake recipe from the Washington Post which used the technique of cooking the cheesecake at a very low temp for a very long time – 200 degrees for 8+ hrs. I have used this recipe at least once a year since then (10+ yrs) and have never had a crack nor have I ever poisoned anyone with salmonella. It works with any cheesecake recipe.
Made this yesterday and it is AMAZING. I did not have any trouble with the caramel…. and I was totally thinking that I would. It was a snap. Saw some posts about cracking. People… I have to tell you… cracked or no cracks once you taste it, nobody cares about these trivialities. I sprinkled the top with powdered sugar and laid on fresh strawberries and it looked sublime. My boyfriend can not stop raving about how great this cheesecake is! Take it for any dinner party and you win score massive points for sure.
So, Shavu’ot is coming up, and I mentally marked this recipe as something I want to make (my sister is usually not a big fan of cheesecakes, but I’m hoping the caramel and chocolate might change her mind)…
One problem, though, is that we don’t have anything that resembles those chocolate wafers. Not that I can think of, anyway. For a while, I toyed with the idea of making them from scratch with the recipe you gave here a while ago, or maybe using that recipe for a cake base without making wafers out of it, but to be honest, it seems like too much work.
So I tried to think of what other cookies might work – something crispy and not too sweet – and suddenly thought of the Lotus caramelised biscuits. Are you familiar with them at all? They might not be available in the US… which is a shame. Here’s a little info about them: http://www.lotusbakeries.com/frontoffice/basepage.aspx?control=speculoos
Thought they might work, because of the caramel flavour, but not sure (too much caramel, perhaps – or rather, not enough chocolate), so wanted to get a second opinion from you and/or your readers. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Hi Yael — I haven’t tried them but I am sure they would work. You’re looking for something simple and not too sweet, and dry… like a graham cracker or digestive biscuit (you can always grind in some cocoa for color/flavor). Good luck!
Yael – dealing with the exact same problem (also live in Israel)! I have a feeling that the lotus biscuits might be a bit too sweet? have you tried shops that sell a lot of imported stuff (tiv ta’am etc?). I’ll have a look today and update you if I find anything that might be relevant.
Hi Goni, thanks! Definitely waiting to hear your update. :)
I’m in Jerusalem, and don’t think we have Tiv Ta’am here. Also, there’s a limit to how much trouble I would go to, for a crumb crust to a cake (especially since the cake is the centre of the show, after all). I don’t know if Lotus are too sweet; not sure how sweet the Nabisco wafers/teddies are, so can’t really make a comparison. I will probably look over the supermarket shelves, try and figure out what might work, but unless I find something totally amazing I will probably do Lotus, and perhaps add a bit cocoa powder to make it more chocolaty and less sweet. Wish me luck… and good luck to you too, in your searches!
Made the cake today, and we have eaten it not long ago (less than 6 hours chilled, but we couldn’t wait that long!) – it is very very good. Even my sister liked it; said it did not taste like cheesecake, which from her is a compliment. :)
And two notes on the making, for future readers:
(a) Used Lotus biscuits for the crust, with some cocoa (did not measure how much) and a little less sugar than the original recipe. It is a very tasty crust.
(b) I decided to warm the cream before adding it to the caramel, so it will not harden. That worked. It still bubbled quite ferociously – amazingly, it reached the very edge of the pot, but didn’t spill -but I did not have to break the caramel again. So this is definitely recommended.
Thanks for the update!
I didn’t bake the cake in the end (was asked to cook something else for shavuot dinner) and really glad to hear that the lotus biscuits worked, will try when i finally get to bake the cake… (and I didn’t find any other alternatives for the crust in the shops). Was good to swap notes with a fellow Israeli :)
I didn’t read all the comments but I’ll let you know the secret of no cracks. Low and slow baking works great. Better than a water bath in my opinion. Water baths are messy and hard to deal with. Instead I lower the heat in the oven and bake it longer. You get a more creamy cheesecake and the lower temperature and longer baking time sets it more gently so it tends to crack less. Another trick is stopping the baking while there is still a little jiggle in the center, turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake in it as it cools. It allows the cheesecake to finish baking but gently and cool slower to avoid cracks. My last trick is using a food processor instead of a mixer to mix the batter. The cream cheese doesn’t have to be as warm and soft and you don’t get those tiny little beads of cream cheese that stubbornly want to stay in there. You also don’t incorporate as much air so you avoid some of the problems with cracks and density because the batter isn’t whipped so much as cut together smoothly. Just some ideas for fellow-cheesecake lovers. I can’t wait to try this one!
Normally I’m a firm cheesecake snob, but cakes like this make turn me into the world’s biggest liar. Looks just incredible. Also please SK if you get the time and wherewithal please try out the Heath Bar Almond Crunch Cheesecake courtesy of the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. I haven’t tried this recipe myself but I love Heath Bars and absent of a “Suggestions Box” on this site, I thought I’d recommend.
I uploaded some food pictures to Fotki, and this cake is on there, so figured I’d share: http://public.fotki.com/LadyPennywhistle/food/chocolatecaramelche-2.html
I made this for my boyfriend’s birthday. I live in England an can’t get a hold of these teddy crackers (nor graham crackers – tear!), so I used digestives with cocoa powder instead – a recipe by Nigella Lawson. I doubled the base recipe and filled the tin super high with crust – it looked brilliant! Difficult to cut without breaking, but it was so tasty that no one cared. Awesome awesome cheesecake! Making caramel for the first time was petrifying (no sense of perspective, here), but it worked and tasted wonderful. Thank you so much!
Hi, Abby #1 & Deb! This may have already been answered further in the comments but just want to share that Cooks Illustrated has a very informative tip/article on preventing cracked cheesecakes. Their contention is that it means the cake has been overbaked; that anytime temp goes over 160 degrees, it’s going to crack. They recommend an instant read thermometer for testing doneness of cake–take out of oven when center reaches 150 degrees–and cooking in a water bath to prevent overheating. I’d send you a link to the info but don’t know how. Sorry. Hope that helps someone. Love your site, Deb! Thanks again! :-)
I have also had many successes with a hot water bath to prevent cracking.
I’ve never made caramel before and didn’t know the sugar would take SO long to caramelize. And when it did caramelize I had little lumps in it as well. I mixed this up in a food processor and I could hear the blades grinding down hard lumps of caramel as it mixed! The cake came out perfectly smooth though and was extremely tasty, if a bit rich. The 12 of us who ate it could only manage to finish about half of it!
Careful… this recipe may induce labor!
Well, I’m only kidding, but I made this last night and it turned out great! I added 4 Tbsp of Flour when I mixed in the Chocolate sauce. I also used 2 Tbsp of water and some drops of lemon juice in the sugar before caramelizing it.
It was perfect after the main cooking cycle, just about 190 degrees and just a bit wobbly in the center. I cooled with the oven cracked and cooled further on the counter. The only strange thing was that the grease (Crisco) I used to line the springform pan (9″) leaked from the pan when I pulled it from the oven. The baking sheet below was a very good idea!
After I finished it last night (later than I expected because my sugar would not caramelize without water) my wife started having contractions. (It’s not time to go in to the hospital yet…). The cake looks great wrapped in the fridge now and will be served to the guests coming to watch my son. (I was PLANNING on freezing it until it was time).
I made this for a party last night everyone loved it. My only issue was you cant really taste the caramel. Anyone else have the same experience? Maybe you are not supposed to taste it?