To make the crust, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium sized bowl, mix your crust ingredients together and press into the bottom of a 9 or 10 " springform pan. Bake the crust for 8 minutes. Cool the crust out on the counter while you are making the filling and turn down the oven temperature to 325 F.

To make your filling: In a large bowl, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the sugar. Add your eggs and beat until the batter is a smooth consistency. Scrape down your bowl occasionally to make sure that batter is evenly mixed. Add the salt, pure vanilla extract and Amaretto to the bowl and continue to beat the mixture until smooth. Add the sour cream and beat until it is just blended in.

Pour filling into your cooled crust. Gently stir in 3/4 of the caramel topping to the top half layer of the cheesecake. Make sure that the caramel is only going through the top half, so that you ensure none of the crust is being broken up by the stirring. I like to make a swirl effect, but you may choose to just add it as one even layer across the top. Arrange pecan halves around the edge of the cake in a circle and then drizzle the remaining caramel over the pecan halves.

Bake the cheesecake for 50 minutes, then shut off oven and leave in oven for about 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and continue to let cool slowly on the counter for another 1 1/2 hours. Then, refrigerate for 6 hours. When almost ready to serve, put cake in freezer for 1/2 hour to finish setting up. When ready to slice, dip a knife into hot water between each slice to be cut. This allows for nice clean slicing. You may refrigerate any leftovers covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 or 4 days, but I doubt it will last that long !