White Chocolate Cherry Pecan Cheesecake

Ingredients

• 4 oz baker's chocolate white melted (6 oz.)
• 21 oz cherry pie filling canned
• 24 oz philadelphia cream cheese softened
• 4  eggs 
• 1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs 
• 0.3 cup butter melted
• 1 cup planters pecan halves divided toasted
• 0.3 cup sugar 
• 14 oz condensed milk sweetened canned
• 2 tsp vanilla divided
• 1 cup cool whip whipped topping thawed

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• oven
• knife
• blender

Directions

1. Heat oven to 300F.
2. Reserve 16 pecan halves for garnish. Finely chop remaining nuts; mix with graham crumbs, sugar and margarine. Press firmly onto bottom of pan.
3. Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and 1 tsp. vanilla in large bowl with mixer until blended.
4. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended.
5. Pour over crust.
6. Bake 1 hour or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours.
7. Mix pie filling and remaining vanilla; spoon over cheesecake. Top with COOL WHIP and reserved pecans.