Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my most favorite desserts. Often my friends want to go to The Cheesecake Factory for girls nite. My husband has often said, "Why don't you make a cheesecake and let them pay you?" And I have considered it. But I have yet to charge my friends for cheesecake.. But I love cheesecake and love to make them. I found a basic recipe and have played around with it to make a lot different kinds.

My husband's favorite is this Dulce-de-Leche cheesecake. I made it last year for his birthday and he was in Heaven. It is sooooo good. Very rich and yummy! My oldest child has even started requesting it as her birthday cake.

This year when I asked my husband what he wanted for his cake he told me that I should already know the answer. So I made another Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake. This time I saved a little caramel to write Happy Birthday on the top.

Dulce-de-Leche Cheesecake

1 Graham cracker crust (see recipe below)

4 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 T. unbleached flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 T. dulce-de-leche flavored syrup

1 t. vanilla

2 T. whipping cream

1 bag Kraft caramels

1/4 c. whipping cream


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wrap the outside of your springform pan with heavy duty foil and place in a large baking pan with sides at least 2 inches high.

Unwrap the caramels and place in small sauce pan. Add 1/4 c. whipping cream.
Heat over medium-low heat and stir occasionally until completely melted. Let cool about 15 minutes. Pour half of the caramel sauce over the bottom of the crust.


Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat for 1 minute until creamy. Add sugar and beat for 1 minute or until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix in the four. Add the eggs two at a time, mixing completely after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl twice during this process. Add the flavored syrup and the vanilla.
Add the whipping cream.

Pour batter over caramel in crust. Shake slightly to remove any excess bubbles. Drizzle caramel over top.

Place in oven and pour boiling water into baking dish about 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 75 minutes. Remove from oven when the cheesecake wiggles but is firm in the middle. Place on cooling rack, in water bath and cover with paper towels for 1 hour. Remove from water bath and remove towels. Cool for 1 hour on cooling rack. Remove the side of the springform pan. and let cool until cool to the touch.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight. Serve with extra caramel or chocolate sauce.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

6 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter sides and bottom of pan. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Stir with fork until moistened. Press evenly into bottom of pan and up the side about an inch. Bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Tips:

• Invest in a good springform pan. You will have better success with making cheesecakes with the proper tools to make one.


• Be patient and plan. This is the hardest part of making a cheesecake. I get my eggs and cream cheese out of the refrigerator early in the morning, around 6am. I start working on the cheesecake at about 10 am. And I let it cool completely before we eat it. Trust me it is so much better nice and chilled than warm in the middle.


• Make sure you give your ingredients time to come to room temperature. If it is cold or you add cold ingredients the batter can become lumpy. This gives the cheesecake a strange consistency.


• Boil the water as you are making the cheesecake. You do not want to wait for the water once you have poured the batter into the pan.


• We use the Torani's or DaVinci flavored syrups. We love them for a lot of recipes. And they have so many flavors, you are bound to find a few you love.


• I use store brand cream cheese for a lot of recipes, but for cheesecake I only use Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It really does make the best cheesecake.