This Snickers cheesecake is the perfect dessert to bring to your holiday party! Cheesecake is pretty universally loved, but a plain cheesecake can be forgettable on a table full of holiday food. In this recipe we’ll make a homemade Snickers crust, and pair it with a smooth scrumptious cheesecake. Then we’ll top it with homemade salted caramel sauce, Snickers and fruit. It’ll truly be a sight to see!

Cheesecake itself originated in Ancient Greece. Aegimus, the Greek physician mentions cheesecake in the 5th century BC in his book on the art of making cheesecakes.

Cheesecake hasn’t always tasted like cheesecake. Yes, it always had some kind of crust you would bake separately. And it included some sort of cheese like ricotta. But sometime in the 18th century, Europeans began adding beaten eggs into their cheesecakes, and removing yeast. The removal of the yeast and yeast-like taste brought cheesecake to another level, and it jumped into the dessert world.

And so people began calling this dessert cheesecake, instead of the old fashioned Greek names of afore: libum, savillum, and placenta. Placenta was the style of cake most resembling today’s modern cheesecake.

Now I love cheesecake. It’s a fairly simple dessert to make, and it can be flavored easily. There are strawberry, chocolate, raspberry, lemon, caramel, even peanut butter cheesecake varieties that exist! And it’s great because they all come out tasting amazing no matter the flavor.

So today I’ll let you in on a little secret of how I came up with the idea to make a Snickers cheesecake and it will make you laugh. See, I didn’t know that Snickers cheesecakes were a thing. But I raided my pantry one day and realized I didn’t have any graham crackers, cookies, or a prepared crust.

I did however, have a few Snickers bars that my dad had brought over. So I figured I’d run the Snickers bars through the food processor and see how it goes! Well, it was spectacular. And I didn’t even need to cook the crust first. I did however make sure to butter the cake pan.

So if you ever find yourself in a pickle where you are missing an important…no, crucial ingredient, have no fear! There’s almost always a replacement out there! You just need to get a little creative. Now let’s jump into this recipe!

What You Need:

For the cheesecake:

5 Snickers bars

8 oz cream cheese (2 packages) – room temperature

1 large egg

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Fresh strawberries & mint for garnish

For the salted caramel sauce:

1/3 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp butter

Salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 350. Now pulse 4 Snickers bars in a food processor until the mixture resembles crumbles. Butter a pie or cake pan and use your fingers to press the crumbles to make a crust.

It’s important to note once more that the cream cheese must be soft so leave the cream cheese out for about 30 minutes to 1 hour prior to getting started, so that the cream cheese is at room temperature. Add the soft cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract, and sugar to a bowl. You may use a hand held electric mixer to combine ingredients until smoothly blended, or you may use a mixer such as a Kitchen Aid.

Pour the cream cheese batter on top of the Snickers crust in the cake pan. We’re going to bake this Snickers cheesecake in the 350 degree oven for approximately 50 minutes. I always chill my cheesecake for at least 1 hour prior to serving.

So now let’s get started on our homemade salted caramel sauce! It’s super easy and quick to make, and it’ll be incredible drizzled on top of our Snickers cheesecake!

Add the water and sugar to a saucepan over medium heat. This is the base of our caramel sauce. Stir frequently until the sugar has dissolved completely, and the mixture begins to bubble. What we’re looking to achieve is a beautiful amber color, and once we get there we need to take the caramel off the heat.

Whisk in the heavy cream, butter, and vanilla extract slowly. Add salt to taste. Refrigerate the caramel sauce. Refrigerating the caramel sauce will also thicken it nicely. Once your cheesecake and caramel sauce have cooled, we can begin the decorating.

Now for the toppings! This part can be super fun and creative. The remaining Snickers bar we have, let’s chop it into 1/2 inch cubes and sprinkle them on top, around the perimeter of the cheesecake. You may also put the Snickers chunks in the center of the cake, and use whipping cream around the edges to decorate.

I love strawberries, and I think red is super beautiful with caramel and white colors. I like to add a few strawberries to the center of the cake and garnish with a fresh mint leaf. Use a spoon to drizzle our homemade caramel sauce all over the Snickers cheesecake, and we are ready to serve!

So there are a ton of other options in terms of garnishes. You may use any fruit that is in season, whatever is your favorite. Blueberries, blackberries, currant, raspberries- they’re all perfect. You may sprinkle the top with chopped pistachios, or grated chocolate. There’s no right or wrong way to decorate and garnish this delicious Snickers cheesecake!