Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Pecan Cheesecake Bars

I dare you to try to say that mouthful 3 times fast.....

Last week I mentioned a dessert recipe that I tried over Labor Day Weekend that WILL be made again at our house....over and over again.  It was probably one of my most favorite desserts that I've made in a long time and it got 2 thumbs up from Eric. I actually set out to make one of my Mom's recipes that is similar to the one I made but she and my Dad were on the road and the recipe was in a cookbook at home.  I did what any rational woman would do....I plugged the ingredients into my Pinterest search bar and found a recipe - the Pinterest search has become my new "google" when it comes to anything handy, crafty, or recipes.  A few hours later I had a culinary masterpiece.

original recipe here

What you need:

For the crust-

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup butter melted

Cheesecake- 

1-8oz package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose four

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup caramel sauce

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping-

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

12-15 Kraft caramel candies

1 Tbsp milk or heavy cream

1/4 tsp coarse sea salt

How to make it:

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together crust ingredients: graham cracker crumbs, pecans and butter; and press into the bottom of a foil lined and lightly greased 8" by 8" baking dish.   Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

In a mixer (I used my KitchenAid Mixer) beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Combine sugar and flour in a small bowl and gradually add to cream cheese. Beat until just blended. Add sour cream and caramel sauce and beat until just blended.  Add egg and stir in vanilla extract and beat until combined.  Pour mixture over crust, spreading evenly to cover the entire pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until set.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle pecans and chocolate chips over cheesecake.  Cover and chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Place caramel candies, salt, and milk (or cream) in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth, stirring after each 30 second interval.  Drizzle over cheesecake and serve!

Yes at first glance it looks like a long, complicated recipe, but it's far from that.  I am the queen of passing up a recipe because it has too many steps or a ton of ingredients.  This one is VERY easy to make and only takes a while because the cheesecake has to be refrigerated before you can drizzle the caramel mixture on it.  Trust me when I tell you that you will NOT regret making it.  The only suggestion I have would be to DOUBLE the recipe.  Since it only makes and 8" by 8" pan it will not feed a large group. We had a group of 6 adults and a few kids over when I served these had we had a few left, but I cut them into really small pieces so they would go further.  If we'd had 10-12 adults plus kids we would have run out quickly!

Enjoy!