Salted Caramel Pecan Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

First, make the salted caramel:

Add sugar, water and corn syrup to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Allow to boil, continuing to stir, until the sugar just starts to brown. Once it has reached a medium amber color, remove from heat. (Be careful, sugar will continue to brown slightly after removing from the heat and will go from perfect to burned very quickly. You are better to remove it too early and place it back on the heat for a moment than to remove it too late!)

Immediately add heavy cream and butter. Caramel will bubble and foam but keep stirring until well incorporated. Add salt and stir well to incorporate.

Place caramel in a bowl. It may seem thin at this point, but it will thicken considerably as it cools. Cover bowl with wax paper or parchment and place in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours.

As soon as you put it into the fridge you can make the cheesecake:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan with parchment paper and grease the sides of the pan.

In a bowl, combine the crushed pretzels and the melted butter. Press it into the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until the crust is just starting to lightly brown.

While the crust is baking, combine the ingredients for the filling in a blender, processing until smooth.

Pour filling into the hot, baked crust. Return cheesecake to the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Cheesecake is done when the center is still slightly jiggly but has a “done” look to it and the edges have started to pull away from the side of the pan. Be careful not to over-bake.

Allow cheesecake to cool to room temperature, then cover it with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight before assembling.

To assemble:

Toast the pecan halves and the chopped pecans (keep them separate) at 350 F for 5-7 minutes or until fragrant. Cool.

Remove cheesecake from spring-form pan.

Check your caramel. It may be too thick to spread. If so, reheat it in the microwave at 15-second intervals, just until it is warm enough to spread over the top of the cheesecake.

Working quickly (before your caramel cools again), spread the caramel over the top of the cheesecake. Place pecan halves around the edges of the cheesecake, and use the chopped pecans to fill in the center of the ring.

Place it back in the fridge until ready to serve.

A note about the crust: The first day we ate this, the crust was somewhat crumbly. The second day, however, it was pretty much perfect. If you are planning to make and serve this the same day, you may want to add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of butter to the crust to make it less crumbly. Otherwise, allowing it to set overnight before assembling and serving should help keep it from being too crumbly.

Salted caramel recipe adapted from Joy the Baker.