Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake Bars

This looks insanely delicious in the magazine photo (recipe taken from the spring 2009 Foods & Family mag. from kraft foods)...it is really easy to make up, delicious to eat, just one catch that I found after making it...the caramel made it really hard to cut through the crust...not sure if you could add a little more milk to it to make it softer or if it would be better to use the caramel topping from Smuckers in pace of what they call for...up to you what you try.  Our crew inhaled it, harder crust & all...

1 1/2 c crushed Nilla Wafers (about half a box)
3/4 c Pecans, chopped
1/4 c butter, melted
32 Kraft caramels
3 Tbs milk
4 pkg (8oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
1 c sour cream
4 eggs
1 pkg (8 squares) Baker's Semi-Sweet chocolate, divided (we used wilburs wafers instead)

Heat oven to 300. 
Mix wafer crumbs, 1/2 c nuts & the melted butter (I used my processor to get the nuts & wafers chopped up).  Press onto bottom of 13x9 baking dish. 
Microwave caramels & milk on MEDIUM 4-5 min. until caramels are melted & mixture is blended, stirring every 2 min.  Pour over crust; spread to within 1 inch of edge.  Cool.
Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended.  Add sour cream; mix well.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended
Melt 7 chocolate squares.  Stir into cream cheese batter; pour over caramel layer.
Bake 45-50 minutes (mine took an additional 15 min. so use time as a guide, but watch your cake to make sure you cook as long as it needs for your oven).  The center is to be almost set (not much jiggling, but a little).
Refrigerate 4 hours (or overnight).  Sprinkle remaing nuts over top just before serving, melt remaining chocolate & drizzle over cheesecake.

I left off the last part of this because, well, I forgot!  It was yummy, but like I said above, I might try again but use the Smuckers Caramel topping instead of the milk/caramel mix to see if it remains softer so you can easiy get a piece of crust with the cheesecake.  They do add in that if you want it to be "lighter" you can use the Neufchatel Cheese in place of full fat cream cheese, and reduced fat or light sour cream...if you do these things, you can cut off 60 calories & 8 g of fat per serving...I did 2 blocks reg. cream cheese and 2 blocks of the lighter, the cake came out really nice, not too heavy but not too light either.

If you try this & use a different caramel or ingred. let me know how it comes out!  This does say it should make 16 servings...I got 15 with 3 rows cut into 5 pieces each row...this was generous, but not too big.