Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

My husband loves cheesecake. For his birthday this year, I asked him to pick a cake that he would like me to bake, and sure enough he picked a cheesecake, and not just any cheesecake, a rich dulce de leche caramel cheesecake!

Indulgences are meant for birthdays, so I scoured a lot of different sources to settle on a recipe to make this cheesecake. It is a slight adaption of a recipe that I thought sounded decadent and awesome, and sure enough it didn't disappoint. 

And I was thrilled that the cheesecake did not crack or over-bake in parts! It was perfect. Here are the tips to ensure that your cheesecake doesn't crack. 

1. Wrap the spring form pan in which the cheesecake bakes with a generous round of aluminum foil. 
2. Do not over beat the eggs. Gently beat the eggs just until combined. 
3. Bake the cheesecake in a water bath. Place the aluminum wrapped spring form pan inside a baking tray filled with about 1 inch of hot water. This allows the cheesecake to bake gently.

I made a standard graham cracker crust using the below ingredients

For the Crust:

1. 2 cups worth graham cracker crumbs (plain honey graham crackers)
2. 3 tablespoons sugar
3. 7 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Preparing the crust:

1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs with sugar. Slowly pour in butter and mix well (I used a spoon and my hand to mix everything). Mix until the crumbs are moist and start to clump when you press.
2. Transfer to a 9 inch spring-form pan and pat the crumbs down the bottom of the pan and a little above the sides of the pan. 
3. Bake for about 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven at 375 F. 
4. When baked, let it cool completely on a cooling rack. 

Filling was adapted from this recipe
For the filling:

1. 3, 8 ounce packages of soft, room temperature cream cheese (total of 24 ounces)
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 1/4 cup 2% milk
4. 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6. 3 eggs (at room temperature)
7. 1 can Nestle's Dulce de Leche (13.4 ounces) + 4 tablespoons extra dulce de leche

Preparing the cheesecake:

1. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until fluffy and smooth. 
2. Add milk, vanilla extract and flour and beat until combined
3. Gently warm the dule de leche in the microwave (about 15 to 30 seconds) until it is soft and pourable. Add one can of dule de leche into the batter and beat until combined.
4. Add the eggs one at a time until just combined. Do not over beat. 
5. Pour filling into the cooled crust
6. Finally dollop 2 tablespoons of dule de leche into the filling and swirl it around with a knife. 
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 60 minutes until the center is jiggly when you shake it. Refer to my tip above on baking this in a water bath. Add hot water to a deep enough baking tray, transfer the aluminum wrapped pan into it and bake.
8. Let cheesecake cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. When cool, pipe out some more dule de leche onto the cheesecake in a pattern of your liking. 
9. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Then refrigerate it for at least 8 hours before serving.