Dulche de Leche Cheesecake

I had totally planned to show you guys our completed master bath this morning but yesterday we pulled weeds and trimmed the crap out of our palms, oleanders, esperanza, bushes…everything, nothing was safe.  We finally got that “cold” front down here, bringing it into the low 80s and even the 70s so we had to take full advantage of those temps before we’re back into the 90s for another month or so.  Our poor beds haven’t been touched all summer cause it’s been eight thousand degrees outside.  So we unleashed on it.  If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this mountain of trimmings at the curb to be picked up tomorrow, which is as tall as the boat on the trailer next to it.

And then I made the mistake of sitting down and the soreness and non-working back set in.  I got one coat on the bathroom closet door (the last thing that needs to be done) and called it, I needed some Aleve and the couch, and this cheesecake.  That and a Dr. Pepper were my reward for this mountain of biomass.  Oh, who am I kidding, I would have had them anyway.  For sure this cheesecake.

*please pin from original recipe, thanks!*

This, my friends, is the dulche de leche cheesecake with caramelized peaches from Karen at The Food Charlatan.  I swear she can read my mind food-wise, her recipes always have my most favorite foods and ingredients, and this is Exhibit A:  caramel, peaches, cream cheese.  Yes please.

So the first time I made this, I was just focusing on finding the Nestle “La Lechera” brand and didn’t pay enough attention that they make multiple milk baking products.  I had gotten their sweetened condensed milk like a dope.  And didn’t notice until my “cheesecake” turned out like “cheesepudding”.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still glorious, but not right at all.

So, I set out to make it again, this time getting the right thing.  Muuuch better.

I doubled the recipe so I could take one to work and keep one for ourselves, that was ALOT of dulche-cream-cheesy-goodness!

Look at those adorable little peaks!!

This was my first foray into caramelizing anything other than onions so it was a bit of trial and error.  First, my peaches were still really hard (how can I not ever get RIPE peaches at the grocery store in TEXAS?!?) so even after blanching, only one of them would peel easy and I ended up having to cut the skin off the rest.  And what Karen mentions about spacing in the pan is totally right, they didn’t do anything until I took some out and gave them some room.  Then it was on.

You don’t have to add the peaches if you don’t want but they add a whole other dimension to the cheesecake as they still have their sweetness but you can taste the caramelized sugar too which is kind of a tart/burnt-ish taste.

It seemed to be a much welcome treat after lunch for the coworkers…and we actually just ate a piece as I am writing this :)  If you are a cheesecake fan, make this now.  Do it.

So Wednesday I’ll have the full breakdown of the master bath for you guys, hopefully I’ll be able to paint tomorrow evening without needing to have my husband help me back up :/