Toffee and Caramel Cheesecake

For crust:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Finely grind ground cookies, pecans and sugar in processor. Add melted butter and blend until combined. Press crust mixture onto bottom of 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides.

For cheesecake filling:

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in flour and butter, then eggs, 1 at a time, until just blended. Beat in vanilla.

Pour 1/2 of batter over crust in pan. Sprinkle 1/3 cup toffee bits over the batter. Then pour remaining batter over the bits.

Place a large roasting pan or jelly roll pan on lower shelf of oven. Pour water 1/2 way to the lip of the pan. Place cheesecake pan on the middle shelf. Bake cake uncovered for 15 minutes at 350F. Turn oven down to 250F and bake 30 minutes. Bake at 350F for another 15 minutes and then turn down and bake at 250F again for another 15 to 30 minutes.

The edges will puff up and the center will move slightly when pan is gently shaken. Total bake time is 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Slide a knife around the sides and then cover with foil and refrigerate for 6 hours to overnight.

For topping:

2 hours before serving, spoon caramel over the top of the cake just to the edges (do not allow caramel to drip down sides). Garnish top edges with chopped English toffee. Chill at least 2 hours.

TIPS:

* Adding flour helps it not to crack.
* Make sure the cream cheese and sugar are really beaten well before adding eggs. Overbeating eggs will add air, which causes cracks.
* I never do a waterbath as it always made the crust soggy when I tried it, so I have done the water in the pan below. Supposedly, the moisture in the oven helps to prevent cracking also.
* The reason I do the weird turn up and down of the oven temperature again is to prevent cracking and also overbaking the cheesecake.
* Doing this cheesecake 24 hours before eating is always best. It just seems to taste even better after 24 hours in the fridge.