recipe: delicious caramel cheesecake

I adapted a caramel cheesecake recipe I found in a magazine and took it to a family gathering. It got rave reviews, so I thought I'd post it here. (I've never really taken pictures of food before, so I didn't know how to make it look all "pretty"--trust me, it's amazing!)

Caramel Cheesecake

Crust:
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Cake:
3 (8 oz.) bricks 1/3 less fat (Neufchatel) cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz.) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (12 oz.) jar hot caramel sauce (this is thicker than regular caramel sauce)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix crust ingredients in a small bowl. Press into bottom of 10" springform pan.
3. Using stand mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.
4. Mix in sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and vanilla.
5. Stir in caramel sauce. (This may take a while.)
6. Pour into pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until top is light brown and only the middle is jiggly.
7. Cool on countertop for four hours. Run knife around the edge of the pan to loosen cake. Refrigerate overnight.

While cheesecake is always full of calories and fat, this version does shave 12 fat grams off of the original 28 per serving.