Turtle Cheesecake with Caramel and Chocolate

Ingredients

• 12 oreo chocolate sandwich cookiesabout 1 cup finely crushed
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup 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
• * optional 1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted i

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Crush the oreo cookies in a large freezer weight ziploc bag.
3. You can use a rolling pin or mallet to crush them. Or, you can quickly pulse them in a food processor.
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. Place the spring-form pan on a large baking sheet prior to placing it in the oven.
8. Some of the caramel in the crust will drip through the pan onto your oven if you forget this step.
9. Bake 65 - 70 minutes, until the center is almost set.
10. Run a knife around the edges of the pan while it is still warm.
11. Let cool at room temperature and then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight before removing the sides of the pan
12. 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.
13. Store remaining cheesecake in the refrigerator.