Caramel Cheesecake Chocolates

I saw the new cream cheese from Kraft in the store and thanks to the front of the package immediately thought of making chocolate truffles. I love chocolate truffles, all smooth and creamy. Who can resist...I mean really? I whipped up some of my homemade caramel sauce and put it all into a shell of chocolate that is completely irresistable. Unless of course you don't like caramel...or chocolate. That would be sad :(

I make a mean grey salt caramel cupcake with this caramel that I am quite well known for. Maybe that recipe will come someday but for now lets talk about other things. :). These little beauties could easily be made in mini muffin cups then chilled and peeled if you don't have the nifty silicone pan. They would look like little peanut butter cups but surprises like this aren't bad right?

The cream cheese comes in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. I'm not going to lie, I totally wanted the dark chocolate. Unfortunately one store near me doesn't carry it at all and the other store only carries milk and white. I obviously went with milk. It's pretty good if I do say so. The package recommends dipping pretzels, cookies, or fruit in it. I could see that and how it would be good. I actually did dip a few pretzel sticks in it and that was tasty. I might do it again.

I might try the white chocolate one as part of a filling for lemon cake, or maybe a frosting. I might be feeling wild one day and so something else crazy with it. I wouldn't use it to try to make a cheesecake because it doesn't seem like that would be it's best use. You can make chocolate flavored cheesecakes just as easy. The caramel in this recipe is more of a butterscotch caramel sauce and not a chewy caramel. It makes an excellent ice cream topping when it's fresh or warmed up (it should be stored in the refrigerator) and would be delicious drizzled over pancakes or french toast.

Caramel Cheesecake Chocolates

Ingredients:
Caramel Sauce:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup heavy cream

- semi-sweet chocolate chips

- Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese - chocolate flavored

Directions:
1. Make caramel sauce: In a 3 quart saucepan heat sugar over medium heat until it starts to melt then whisk constantly until completely melted. The mixture will clump up but keep stirring and it will smooth out as it heats up more. Add in butter, stir until melted. Add in heavy cream slowly while stirring (mixture will bubble up so be careful it doesn’t overflow the pan). Set aside to cool for several minutes then put into a jar or glass container. Cool completely.
2. Melt chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Brush chocolate into mini muffin cups or silicone molds to create a thin shell. Reserve some chocolate over double boiler to keep warm. Chill mold in refrigerator about 15 minutes.
3. Remove from refrigerator and spoon or pipe ¼ - ½ teaspoon of caramel into shells.
4. Stir cream cheese to smooth mixture. Spoon or pipe cream cheese over caramel into shells being careful not to overflow the shells. I don’t recommend putting more than a 25% ratio of caramel to 75% cream cheese because the caramel can overpower the cream cheese.
5. With more melted chocolate pipe or spoon chocolate over the cream cheese to seal the chocolates.
6. Once they are chilled enough (about 30-45 minutes) you can pop them out their molds and put them on a plate or in cups. Drizzle chocolates with caramel if desired. Store in refrigerator.

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