Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Mar 9th, 2008 by Paul
Dulce de Leche is the decadent creamy caramel originating from South America. It’s made by simmer milk and sugar and a few other ingredients, but a brave cook can cheat by boiling a can of condensed milk for two hours. The water must always cover the whole can, and there is the possibility of the can exploding. There are other ways of doing it if that scares you, just google it.
I’m not usually a cheesecake fan, but I actually didn’t mind this too much, the caramel hide the cheesyness that usually turns me off.
Cut into 1-inch squares, these make excellent petite fours.
For crust
- 200g gingernut cookies
- 4 tablespoons soft brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
For filling
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 225g cream cheese, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 3/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dulce de leche
For glaze
- 100g 75% lindt chocolate broken up
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 2 teaspoons glucose ( light corn ) syrup
Make crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 160 C. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with 2 sheets of foil (crisscrossed), leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.
Finely grind cookies with sugar and a pinch of salt in a food processor.
With motor running, add butter, blending until combined. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of baking pan. Bake 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.
Make filling: Sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small bowl and let stand 2 minutes to soften.
Beat together cream cheese, eggs, salt, and gelatin mixture in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until well combined, about 2 minutes.
then stir in dulce de leche gently but thoroughly.
Pour filling over crust, smoothing top,
then bake in a hot water bath in oven until center is just set, about 45 minutes. Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 2 hours. Chill, covered, at least 6 hours.
Glaze cake within 2 hours of serving: Heat all glaze ingredients in a double boiler or a small metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until smooth,
then pour over cheesecake, tilting baking pan to coat top evenly. Chill, uncovered, 30 minutes.
Lift cheesecake from pan using foil overhang and cut into 1-inch squares with a thin knife, wiping off knife after each cut. (Don’t skip this step! A clean knife is essential for uber-neat squares.)
Note: Cheesecake (without glaze) can be chilled up to 3 days.
