Turtle Pumpkin Cheesecake

Submitted by CookingONTheSide

"This recipe is from Pillsbury's Thanksgiving Classic Cookbook."

 

• Ready In: 9hrs 25mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• Crust

• 1 1⁄2 cups thin chocolate wafer crumbs (about 30 cookies)
• 1⁄4 cup butter or 1/4 cup margarine, melted

• Filling

• 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2⁄3 cup granulated sugar
• 5 eggs

• Topping

• 1⁄2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 2 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup caramel topping

directions

1. Note: To toast pecans, sprinkle in ungreased heavy skillet.
2. Cook over medium heat 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently until pecans begin to brown, then stirring constantly until light brown.
3. For cheesecake, heat oven to 300 degrees F.
4. Wrap foil around outside bottom and side of 9-inch springform pan to prevent drips.
5. Spray bottom and 1 inch up side of pan with cooking spray.
6. In small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and melted butter.
7. Press crumb mixture on bottom and 1 inch up side of pan.
8. Bake crust 8-10 minutes or until set.
9. Cool at room temperature 5 minutes.
10. Refrigerate about 5 minutes or until completely cooled.
11. Meanwhile, in another small bowl, mix flour, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin; set aside.
12. In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
13. Gradually beat in brown sugar, granulated sugar and eggs, one at a time, just until blended.
14. Gradually beat in pumpkin mixture until smooth.
15. Pour filling over crust.
16. Bake 1 hour, 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes or until edge of cheesecake is set but center still jiggles slightly when moved.
17. Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake.
18. Turn oven off, open oven door at least 4 inches.
19. Let cheesecake remain in oven 30 minutes.
20. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes.
21. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.
22. Just before serving, sprinkle pecans over top of cheesecake.
23. In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate and oil uncovered on high 1 minute to 1 minute, 30 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted.
24. Drizzle chocolate over pecans.
25. To serve, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake, carefully remove side of pan.
26. Drizzle caramel topping over each serving.
27. Store covered in refrigerator.

Reviews

[Julie Julie Julie]

This was AMAZING and a complete hit at Thanksgiving. Turtle Cheese Cake is my husband and I's FAVORITE dessert, and I wanted to do something with pumpkin, so naturally I had to try this. I've never made a cheesecake before, and this was very easy. Thank you SO very much for this posting, I will be making this again! Also, on a side note, this dish is PERFECT with Butter Pecan Icecream (because the cake is SO rich).

 

[fayberrie]

DELICIOUS! I used Sweet POtato (1 1/2 cups) instead of pumpkin since I live in Sweet Potato Country! YUMMY! I did a couple of tweaks to make it even easier, and it tastes just like I bought it at the baker's! I used premade graham cracker crusts (makes 2 of them with one recipe) and just put 1/2 cup of semi sweet Nestle chocolate chips on them after they finished cooking. ONce cool, I put caramel and toasted pecans. BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! I lessened the cook time since I split the filling to 1 hour, then followed the rest exactly! You WON'T be disappointed with this one.

 

[I_luv_sweets]

This cheesecake was fabulous! It will be my go to pumpkin cheesecake from now on! Yummy!

 

[TLP5521]

This cheesecake was the hit of Thanksgiving. Everyone loved it.

 

[jamiekridge]

This cheesecake is delicious!!! I really don't care for pumpkin but this was very good.