This cheesecake was born out of two desires:
1. To make a Mexican-inspired cheesecake to go along with a meal.
2. To use up a can of Dulce De Leche I bought unexpectedly.
For more information, see below:
Collin and I are part of a marriage group that meets once a week, and it’s always an adventure to figure out how to make dinner for 12 as opposed to our usual 2. Things get even more interesting when you have a couple doing the Whole30 (obviously not us; I’m sharing a cheesecake recipe for pete’s sake!). After some recipe scrutinizing around the internet, I settled on this pork and decided to make it a Mexican night, having everything on hand for salads, cauliflower rice bowls, or tacos. Long before I planned out dinner, I was pondering what to make for dessert. I knew I wanted to make something churro-y, but I wasn’t up for frying the dough or going through the process to make actual churros. So I started thinking, hmm… cinnamon and sugar… what goes well with cinnamon and sugar?
This led me on a search for something to pair with these flavors. I had made Mexican Chocolate Cheesecake before with cayenne pepper and chocolate, but I was hoping for all sweet and no spice-except for the cinnamon. So I stumbled across this can of Dulce De Leche while in search of salted caramel sauce (none to be found) and determined to figure out how to use this mystery ingredient. I had heard of it before from students, most of them being Latino, but hadn’t tried it myself.
This was my first venture in using Dulce de Leche, but I highly recommend it. This stuff is delicioso!
So I ventured into cheesecake baking with a little help from Taste of Home and Sally, and lo and behold, this beauty was born! It’s a smooth, gently spiced cheesecake, and the dulce de leche within and on top of the cheesecake bring it together with a caramelly sweetness. The cinnamon graham cracker crust takes the churro-spice flavor over the top.
My husband, who basically opposes all non-chocolate desserts, took a bite of this cheesecake and declared it, “Your best one yet!” I highly recommend that you make it yourself; then you can let me know if you agree!
Here’s the crust mixture! I used a food processor to crush the ingredients to bits!
This is a trick I stole from Sally’s Baking Addiction: Use a measuring cup to press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
Since I was on Spring Break and had a little more time than usual to shoot, I tried to have some fun with it and use a few different backgrounds.
Dulce De Leche & Churro-Spiced Cheesecake
- Prep Time: 30m
- Cook Time: 1h
- Total Time: 1h 30m
- Serves: 16
- Yield: 16 slices
Ingredients
Crust
- 9 cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
- 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling & Topping
- 24 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/8 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 can (13.4 ounces) dulce de leche
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Wrap a 9-in. springform pan securely in aluminum foil, covering the bottom and sides of the pan, and spray the interior of the pan with non-stick spray.
- In a food processor, crush graham crackers and walnuts into fine crumbs. Then add melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Pulse until evenly combined. Once mixed, press the crust mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes until golden brown.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth (about 1.5-2 minutes), scraping down the sides as needed. Mix in milk, flour, cinnamon, and vanilla. Add eggs and beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into crust.
- Heat about 1/2 of the can of dulce de leche in the microwave until softened and pourable. Drop dulce de leche by tablespoonfuls over batter. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl.
- Bake the cheesecake at 60-65 minutes or until center is just set. Allow the cheesecake to cool.
- Once cooled, microwave the remaining dulce de leche until pourable and spread across the top of the cheesecake. Allow to set before serving (at least 2 hours).
- Refrigerate until ready to serve. Keeps in the refrigerator up to one week.
And here’s a little peek behind the scenes for you!
This sounds wonderful, Jenny! I might have to try it when something special comes up, but not right now…got to get a few pounds back off and if I make it, I’ll eat it!
Let me know when you do, Tammie! It’s worth every bite!