Wow your holiday guests with this mouth-watering cheesecake!
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 – 8 oz. container of gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies (or use regular snickerdoodle cookies, if not making gluten-free)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 tablespoon butter
Filling
- 3 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 lightly beaten eggs
Dulce de Leche
- 1 – 14 oz. can or jar of dulce de leche
Equipment
- 9″ spring form pan or other removable bottom pan
- Mixer
- Rubber spatula
- Metal spatula
Crust Preparation
- Grind the snickerdoodle cookies in food processor or crush in a ziplock bag, with the cinnamon and the cayenne pepper.
- In a bowl, mix the melted butter and cookies crumbs until the crumbs are coated with the butter.
- Sprinkle the crumbs evenly in the bottom of the pan and lightly press in the pan.
- Set aside.
Filling
- Mix the cream cheese for two minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl several times during the mixing.
- Mix the sugar, cinnamon and cayenne pepper together; add this to the cream cheese mixture and mix for another four minutes on medium speed.
- Scrape down the bowl and run the mixer for another minute. Check for large lumps in the batter; if none are present, continue by adding the heavy cream and mix for a minute more on low speed.
- Add the eggs and mix on low speed until the eggs are incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and finish mixing in the eggs with a rubber spatula.
- Pour half the filling into a separate bowl leaving the other half in the mixing bowl.
- Warm the dulce de leche and add half to one part of the cheesecake batter and mix evenly.
- Pour this mixture into the bottom of the springform pan then pour the reserved batter over that batter.
- Spoon the remainder the dulce de leche on top of the cheesecake; use a knife to swirl it through the batter.
Baking
- Bake in a 250 F oven in a water bath for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the center is set.
- Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
- Run a wet paring knife around the edge of the pan before releasing the cheesecake from the pan side. Finish the cooling in a refrigerator overnight before removing from pan bottom.
- Once completely cooled, carefully run a stiff metal spatula under the crust to release the cheesecake from the pan.
- Slide onto a serving dish, slice and serve. Plates can be garnished with fresh raspberries or strawberries.
Recipe by Keith Rogers
©Michelle Rogers, Inc.
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