Dulce De Leche Cheesecake and Milk Almond Chocolates

 

Cheesecake is one of our favourite desserts.

If you ask me which kind do I prefer, the baked one or the no bake one, it’s very difficult to reply because I like both but if I were to chose only one, I would say the baked one.

 

Today it’ s my eldest son’s birthday.  He is on holidays here in Athens for a few weeks, as he is now working in Cyprus and he had arranged his leave to be here during his birthday.

 

Since he loves dulce de leche, I made this cheesecake for him.  Dulce de Leche, which is a caramel sauce, popular in South America, flavours the cream cheese filling, making it so velvety and creamy.

I’ve mentioned this many times in my posts that I don’t like my desserts to be overly sweet.  When you beat the cream cheese, dulce de leche and Greek yoghurt, before adding the eggs, taste it.  If you want it sweeter, you can add some brown sugar, honey or grape or carob syrup, which will even make it darker.

The whipped cream was slighly sweetened in order to balance the sweetness of the remaining dessert.  If you like it sweeter, you can add more icing sugar.

For the decoration on top, I had some leftover dulce from another recipe.  It’s not worth opening another can or jar just for the decoration.  You can use nutella, or melted chocolate, petimezi (grape syrup), carob syrup, threpsini (grape cream) or make caramel from scratch, which we mix with the caramel.  See how you can make it here (see caramel decoration).   Let it cool for a few minutes and then add the whipped cream.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake and Milk Almond Chocolates

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: about 1 hour

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

• 400 grams Digestive biscuit crumbs
• 80 grams butter, melted
• 50 grams milk chocolate almonds, ground

Dulce de Leche filling:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk, made into dulce de leche
• 600 cream cheese
• 400 grams Greek yoghurt
• 2 tbsp petimezi (condensed grape syrup)
• 4 eggs
• 20 grams corn flour
• 100 grams milk chocolate almonds, ground

For decoration:

• 330 grams heavy cream
• 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 vanillin

Additional ingredients:

• 1 tbsp dulce de leche
• 1 tbsp whipped cream
• 1 milk chocolate almond, ground
• 6 milk chocolate almonds, cut in the middle

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in the microwave on low, a minute each time or in a frying pan until it starts melting and turn off the heat.
2. Put the biscuits in a food processor and powder.
3. Put it in a bowl.
4. Powder the milk chocolate almonds as well and add them to the other crumbs.
5. Add the butter and mix until well combined.
6. Cover the base of a 28 cm spring form pan with aluminium foil.
7. Transfer the biscuit mixture in the baking tin and press it with a spoon into the bottom and sides of the pan. (see video).
8. Refrigerate until you prepare the cream.
9. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Directions for the filling:

1. Empty the cream cheese, dulce de leche and Greek yoghurt in a bowl.  Using a hand mixer whip the cream until all the ingredients are combined.
2. Add the petimezi and mix.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until combined.
4. Finally add the corn flour and continue mixing until combined.
5. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and add the milk almond chocolates scattered all over the cream.
6. Cover the pan with aluminium foil
7. Put the spring form pan in a larger baking tin and add hot water untill it reaches the middle.
8. Bake for about 45 minutes.  Remove the aluminium foil and continue baking for 10 – 15 more minutes uncovered.  The cheesecake will still be wobbly but it will set in the refrigerator.
9. Set aside until it cools completely.
10. Beat the heavy cream with the sugar and vanillin until peaks form.
11. Decorate the cheesecake using a piping bag.  At this stage the cheesecake is ready and you can serve it with caramel sauce on top.
12. Alternatively reserve 1 tbsp whipped cream in which you dilute the dulce de leche to make it into a cream.
13. Put this cream in a piping bag and make horizontal lines.  Using the back side of a skewer or the back side of a fork, make horizontal lines, alternating from left to right and right to left.
14. Cut the almond chocolates in the middle.  If any break, pound them and scatter them on the top.  Decorate with the chocolate halves, almond facing up.
15. Refrigerate for a few hours before removing the ring of the spring form pan.
16. Serve with additional caramel syrup (optional).

You can find many Greek recipes in my cookbook “More Than A Greek Salad”, and “Mint, Cinnamon & Blossom Water, Flavours of Cyprus, Kopiaste!” both available on all Amazon stores.

 

Other relevant recipes:

Dulce De Leche Banoffee Cheesecake

New York Cheesecake with Mars Chocolate and Fig Preserve

Strawberry Cheesecake with Greek Yoghurt

Agriovyssiono (wild cherries) Cheesecake

No guilt Apricot Cheesecake

Orange Chocolate Cheesecake

Kopiaste

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi,

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