Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Cheesecake
This Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Cheesecake is filled with chocolate chip cookie dough. Both the cheesecake and the cookie dough has plenty of salted caramel in it for that sweet and salty bite. It's topped with a chocolate ganache and additional cookie dough too! Don't forget to check out the rest of the cheesecake recipes too.
How to make Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Cheesecake
To make this salted caramel cheesecake, you'll first need your cheesecake ingredients.
- Salted Caramel Sauce, store-bought or homemade
- cream cheese - use full-fat cream cheese and make sure it's room temperature for easy mixing
- sugar - I used granulated sugar
- cookie dough (recipe below) - store-bought cookie dough that's meant to be baked will NOT work for this recipe. This will be mixed into the cheesecake!
- vanilla extract - For extra flavor. I used this pure vanilla extract.
- eggs - always use large eggs unless the recipe specifies a different size. You can have the eggs are room temperature, but it's not necessary.
You'll need to do your prep work before started on the cheesecake recipe. If you're making your salted caramel sauce from scratch, do that now. It's a total bonus if you use my recipe.
Then, in order to make this a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake, you'll need to make your cookie dough. It's going to be a little sticky so chill it while you're working on your cheesecake. Again, please don't try to use cookie dough that can be baked into cookies. It's going to be a mess.
Next up, beat your cream cheese so it's a smooth and creamy consistency.
A tip to always remember is to scrape down the bowl constantly so you're not missing any lumps of cheesecake. Even if the recipe doesn't say it, do it just because you don't want your cheesecake to be lumpy.
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Add in the sugar and mix until it comes together.
Add in 1 cup of cookie dough and beat until the cookie dough is completely incorporated into the cheesecake batter.
Add in the salted caramel sauce, vanilla extract, and then the eggs one at a time. Beat just until the egg is worked in. Scrape down the bowl and add another egg.
Pour it into a 9 inch springform pan. Scoop the cookie dough into small balls. You can use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop or just eyeball it.
Salted Caramel Cookie Dough
The edible chocolate chip cookie dough isn't grainy from the sugar. It had all melted in perfectly. The small cookie dough balls added the perfect surprise in every bite of cheesecake.
I used store-bought salted caramel sauce but homemade salted caramel sauce works great as well.
The sweetened condensed milk helped provide sweetness to the salted caramel cookie dough as well as a creaminess to it.
I added mini chocolate chips to the cookie dough instead of regular sized chocolate chips so that it wasn't such a hard crunch when biting into one.
How to Decorate a Cookie Dough Cheesecake
Okay, so I like the presentation of the balls of cookie dough stacked on the center of the cheesecake, but it was a mistake. It squished the center and made it hard to cut.
If you want to add the cookie dough to the top of this salted caramel cheesecake, first add the ganache and then place the balls of cookie dough around the edges of the cheesecake instead of the middle.
To add the cookie dough on top of the ganache, you need to have your cookie dough already rolled into perfect balls. Place them on wax paper until you're ready to use them since they will be slightly sticky.
More Must-TryCookie Dough Desserts ↓↓
- Monster Cookie Dough Dip
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip
- Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Grahamwiches
- Edible Gingerbread Cookie Dough
Salted Caramel Cookie Dough Cheesecake
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup salted caramel sauce
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
Oreo Crust
- 1 ½ cups oreo cookie crumbs about 20 cookies
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
Cheesecake Filling
- 32 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup cookie dough
- ¼ cup salted caramel sauce store-bought or homemade
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs
Ganache
- 1 ¼ cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- In a mixing bowl, add the butter and brown sugar. Mix on medium with hand mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add the salted caramel sauce and continue mixing on medium.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix on medium until incorporated.
- Add the flour and mix on low until combined. The batter will be somewhat sticky from the salted caramel.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir with spatula.
- Place in the refrigerator until the cheesecake batter is ready.
Crust
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the sides of the 9-inch springform pan with nonstick baking spray. Wrap the sides of the pan with a strip of parchment paper.
- Add the cookies to the food processor and pulse until the cookies have become crumbs. You can also put them in a storage bag and smash them with a rolling pin if you don't have a food processor.
- Add the butter to the crumbs and pulse until the crumbs are all coated with butter.
- Press the crumbs evenly into the bottom of the prepared springform pan.
- Place into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes until firm. Work on the cheesecake batter.
Cheesecake Batter
- Add the cream cheese in a large bowl. Using a hand mixer on medium, beat until the cream cheese is smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add in the sugar and beat on medium until combined.
- Add in the cookie dough and beat until completely incorporated.
- Add in the salted caramel, vanilla, and then the eggs at a time. Beat in each egg completely before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl after incorporating each egg.
- Just before adding the cheesecake mixture, wrap the outside of the springform pan with 2 layers of heavy-duty tin foil.
- Pour the batter on top of the crust.
- Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough into small balls and place on the top of the batter. Cover the entire cheesecake with these balls of cookie dough. You can roll into balls if you prefer them to be perfectly round.
- Once all the cookie dough balls have been placed into the cheesecake batter, push the balls down so they're completely covered with cheesecake.
- Place the springform pan in a slightly larger baking pan. Fill the outer pan with 1 inch of water. This will keep the cheesecake from cracking.
- Place in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until done. To make sure the cheesecake is done, gently give it a wiggle. If it slightly jiggles in JUST the middle like jello, then it's done. If it jiggles all over, it needs to bake longer. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door slightly. Let it cool in the oven for 1 to 2 hours until it reaches room temperature and then place in the fridge to chill overnight.
Ganache
- Scoop the remaining cookie dough into with a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop and roll them into perfect balls. Set on wax paper.
- In a small microwave safe bowl, add the chocolate chips and heavy cream.
- Microwave for 45 seconds and stir with a whisk until it all looks like chocolate.
- Pour on top of the cooled cheesecake. Spread the ganache to the edges so the cookie dough will stick.
- Place the cookie dough balls around the edge of the cheesecake.
- Place back in the fridge until the ganache has set up, about 30 minutes.
- Cut and serve!
Nutrition
(Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice.)
This post was originally published on May 28, 2013.
Hello, in the instructions for the cheesecake you say to beat the cream cheese and flour; however an amt for flour is only listed in the cookie dough ingredients. How much flour should be used in the batter? Thanks!
Hi Natalie! That was a mistake on my end and is fixed now. I updated the recipe and missed taking the flour out of the directions. You won't need any additional flour other than what's in the cookie dough.
FYI ... Allowing your cheesecake to completely cool in the oven (turn oven off and leave door open) is the secret to not having cracks in your cheesecake. I usually just let it cool overnight. You don't need to go to all the trouble of a water bath!
Thank you for the great tip, Janet! I'll be using that in the future. 😀