Baking with Brown Sugar...Caramel-Topped Cheesecake with Oat-Pecan Crust

This is a good way to change your cheesecake flavor. The Oatmeal, Pecan crust is excellent and the cheesecake itself has no flour so it is also Gluten Free if you check that your ingredients like the oatmeal and vanilla are gluten free. 

 The recipe is from quakeroats.com and they have quite a few recipes on their web site. I cut the recipe in half and made 9 servings . The cups will look very full but it shrinks some in the baking and the cooling. In the three empty cups in my cupcake pan I added some water. Hot water in the oven while you are baking cheesecakes will help reduce the cracking. 

 It calls for purchased caramel sauce on the tops but we ate them both ways and thought they were fine without it. There is brown sugar in the cake part which gives it a caramel flavor.

Caramel-Topped Cheesecake with Oat-Pecan Crust

Servings 9

Ingredients

¾ cup quick or old fashioned oatmeal

¼ cup finely chopped pecans

6 tablespoons packed brown sugar divided

⅛ cup butter melted

8 ounces cream cheese softened

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ large eggs at room temperature (1 egg-1 egg yolk)

¼ cup sour cream

⅜ cup caramel ice cream topping

Directions

 Heat ovens 375°F. Line 9 medium muffin cups with foil liners. In large bowl combine oats, pecans. ½ of the brown sugar, and the butter, blending well.

 Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the mixture into the bottom of each liner and press evenly and firmly to form crust. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool. Reduce oven temp to 325°F. 

 In large bowl beat cream cheese on medium speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy scraping the bowl occasionally. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and vanilla. Add eggs beating until just blended. Add sour cream; mix well. 

 Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or just until set. Cool in pans on wire rack. Chill at least 2 hours.

 Just before serving top each one with scant tablespoon of caramel sauce. 

Sprinkle with a few grains of coarse salt (optional)