No-Bake Dulce De Leche Cheesecake - Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Ep 141

Hi Bold Bakers! Are you ready for another Big & Bold Cheesecake? Per your request, today we are making a no-bake dulce de leche cheesecake. So let's get no-baking. For those of you who have made my no-bake cheesecakes, you will know how simple they are. I'm going to make mine on my food processor to get it all done in the one machine but you can also do it on a stand mixer or even by hand. Into my food processor I'm going to add in my graham crackers. Now you can also use any kind of plain biscuit, digestive biscuits, rich tea, whatever you like. It's up to you. So I have a little bit of a sneaky ingredient. Because this is a caramel cheesecake, I'm going to add in some pretzels. Because they've nice texture, flavor, and they've got that little added bit of salt. Now if you don't want to add these, don't worry about it. You can just leave them out and then replace the weight with graham crackers. So throw those guys in there. On with our lid. And then all you want to do is pulse it up until it's nice and fine. There you go, nice and fine. I left a little few bits of chunky pretzel in there because that's the way I like it. Into our cookie base, we're going to add in some melted butter. You guys know the base is my favorite part of desserts. On with our lid, and we're just going to blend it up again until it kind of comes together and the butter is all the way throughout the crumbs. So as you can see, this looks really good. I didn't make it really super fine because I wanted a little bit of texture from the pretzels. And remember, if you don't have a food processor, you can always just put the cookies in a bag and bash them up with a rolling pin and then mix in the melted butter. That works really well too. Okay, our base is ready, so now we're going to pop this into our cheesecake tin. So the cheesecake tin I'm using is 8 inches, but you can also use a 9-inch tin. But I'm going to put a link, along with the recipe, on BiggerBolderBaking.com of where you can buy these. Pour your cookie base straight into your cheesecake tin. And then go in with your hand, and then just press the base into your tin. For this cheesecake, I'm actually going to bring the cookies up the side of the tin just to give it a bit of a different look. Okay, so in no time at all, we made the base for our cheesecake. I'm going to pop this in the fridge, and then we're going to get started on our cheesecake filling. Okay, so this is the dulce de leche yummy, creamy part. Into our food processor, we're going to add in some cream cheese. Next we're going to add in our homemade dulce de leche, and I did say homemade because there is a recipe for this on my website, along with how to make your own cream cheese. So I have got you covered for everything you need for this recipe. Okay, so what we're going to do here is pop on the lid. We want to blend this up until it's really lovely and smooth and there's no lumps in the cream cheese. If you want to use a regular caramel sauce for this recipe, you can. Just make sure that it's really lovely and thick, otherwise it will make your cheesecake really soft. Okay, it's been around two or three minutes. It's lovely and blended and smooth. Into this, we're going to add in some cream, some salt, and then some vanilla extract. Okay, on again with our lid, and we're just going to whip this mix up until it gets really lovely and thick. So in my cheesecakes, I don't add eggs or gelatin. So you want to make sure this mix whips up really lovely and thick so it sets without using those things. Okay, so this is what your cheesecake mix is supposed to look like. Rich and really thick. This is why we don't use gelatin or eggs. This is perfect. Now, we're actually going to set this mix aside in the fridge and keep it nice and cold because our next step is we're going to make a secret layer for the center of our cheesecake. So we've made our base and our cream cheese filling. Our next step is to make some almond brittle. It is going to go in the center and on top of our cheesecake. It is going to add wonderful texture and flavor. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add in some butter and sugar. Over a low flame, heat until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, let this mix simmer until it comes to a caramel. It won't take long. While you're creating your caramel, stay close by and give it a little bit of a stir so it doesn't burn. It's been around 3 or 4 minutes and already it looks like this. So we're almost there. Once your caramel is a rich color like this, we're going to turn off the heat and add in some toasted chopped almonds. Then we're going to add in some vanilla extract and some salt. Just stir it all together until the almonds are coated and then that's it. Then straight away, remove it from the heat and then on a tray lined with tinfoil, just carefully pour it out. And then just with a spatula, just even it out a little bit. Sometimes when I make this, it gets a little bit oily but don't worry, that's only natural. After around 5 minutes, your brittle will go hard so then you can just bash it up into those small pieces. Okay, and that's it! I have all of my bits and bobs ready for my cheesecake so now it's time to assemble. To assemble into your cheesecake base, add in half of your cream cheese mix. And then just gently spread it around with a spatula. Then just take a big handful of your homemade brittle and scatter it all over the top of your cheesecake. This is not the time to be shy, be as generous as you can be. Once that's got a nice coating, then we're going to go in with the rest of our cheesecake mix. Spread the cream cheese filling out as evenly as you can, just covering all of that secret center. If you want to go in with a palette knife and then just flatten out the top to give you a nice, clean finish. So now this guy is ready for the fridge. Now because there's no gelatin or eggs, you want to make sure that he gets really nice and cold so you want to put him in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours. So this is the cheesecake that I made yesterday because I wanted it to be set in time so you could see what it would look like firm. So as you can see, it's not wobbly, it's kind of firm in the middle, so it's perfectly set. So I'm going to take a spatula, just something with a thin edge, and then very gently go around the rim of your tin. All we're trying to do is release it. Then carefully open up the tin and shimmy out your cake. Look at that. Gorgeous. So I have my serving platter here, I'm just going to go ahead and slide my cheesecake directly onto it. In true big and bold fashion, we are going to make the top as beautiful as the rest of the cake. I'm going to drizzle over some more Dulce de Leche caramel sauce all over the top. Then I'm going to take some of my crushed up praline and just scatter it all over the top. I love cheesecake and whipped cream together, it's the two different textures, the sweet and the creamy. And then for a little extra touch, I'm just going to sprinkle over a little bit of the brittle over the cream. And that's it. Simply decorated cheesecake that looks over the top. Now I want to show you the secret center on the inside. Look at that. You see the brittle in the middle and the thick layer of cream cheese and a nice big bit of crust. That's my favorite part. This cheesecake is definitely a showstopper. As they say, the proof is in the pudding. This is so delicious. It's salty, it's creamy, it's sweet, it's rich and decadent. There is nothing you're not going to love about this cheesecake. I want to see lots more photos from you so share them with me using the hashtag Bold Bakers and I'll see you back here next week for more Bigger Bolder Baking. Then just take a big handful of your homemade brittle and scatter it all over the top of your cheesecake.