Caramel Crunch Cheesecake

This one here wasn't very successful because it was made amidst of a baking frenzy and some last minute order. But luckily, this was made for domestic consumption, so it was alright. And because of that, here's the recipe to be shared...

The Cheesecake

125 g plain chocolate biscuits (I used Tiger Chocolate Shortbread)

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 x 250 g packets cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 tsp grated lemon rind

3 eggs

1/3 cup cream

1 tbsp plain flour

50 g bar chocolate-coated honeycomb (I used Cadbury Crunchie), chopped coarsely

1. Line based of 21cm springform pan with foil, line the sides with baking paper.

2. Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter, process till you get the texture of damp sand.

3. Press crumb mixture evenly over based of prepared tin. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until firm.

4. Preheat oven to 150C. Beat cheese, sugar and rind in medium bowl with electric mixture until smooth. Beat in eggs, one t a time. Add cream and flour. Beat again till smooth.

5. Stir honeycomb and the caramel filling into the cheese mixture.

6. Place tin on oven tray. Pour cheesecake mixture into tin. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until just firm. Cool in oven with door ajar.

7. Spread chocolate topping over cheesecake. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Caramel Filling

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk

1 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp hot water

1. Combine ingredients in small saucepan, stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Boil, stirring occasionally about 4 minutes until a deep caramel colour is reached. Let cool.

Chocolate Topping

150 g dark eating chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup cream (I only had like 2 tbsp leftover cream from my previous bakes so I used just that)

1. Combine chocolate and cream in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Cool.

Important note : If I were to make this again in the future, I'll omit the lemon rind and I won't use the Tiger Shortbread. The lemon rind interferes with the caramel flavour and the shortbread doesn't taste good at all! I'll use some other brand of chocolate biscuit next time. And of course, I will make sure I have that 1/4 cup of cream to go with the chocolate topping. This one I made was as hard as a bar chocolate when it sets. Haha!