Decadent Dulce de Leche Cheesecake
Sweet and creamy with touch of sea salt, this decadent dulce de leche cheesecake is quite a treat! All the steps are laid out for you in easy-to-follow visuals so you can achieve this decadent dessert right in your own kitchen.
It’s no secret I love cheesecakes. The taller, the creamier, the better! And preferably with lots of crust.
This time I made one with my all time favorite sweet treat: dulce de leche. I don’t know what took me so long to make this sweet deliciousness, but it did happen. Not once, but twice in one month!
Don’t let the fancy name fool you. Dulce de leche is nothing but cooked sweetened condensed milk. It’s my addiction! So simple, yet so complex. It’s one item I always have in my pantry. Here’s what I do. I buy like 10 cans of sweetened condensed milk at a time (cashiers probably think I have a problem and they’re probably not far off!), stock 5 of them in the pantry, and then boil the other 5 in a large pot of water for a few hours. Boiled cans of sweetened condensed milk are then cooled and stored in the pantry. Easy peasy, right? I also shared other methods of making homemade dulce de leche, check it out for more details.
Now, let’s dive into the cheesecake. Shall we?
This cheesecake is massive! With tall, buttery, crumbly crust and smooth creamy cheesecake filling topped with more dulce de leche. To offset all the sweetness, sprinkle a little bit of sea salt! Decadent, truly decadent!
This impressive cheesecake isn’t that difficult to make. All the steps are laid out right here for you.
Couple of things to keep in mind:
- Start with softened cream cheese for the smoothest filling. Simply bring cream cheese out on the counter about an hour before you start. Bring out the eggs while you’re at it.
- When you start adding the eggs, don’t beat the batter on high speed, because you’ll incorporate too much air into the batter, which is #1 reason for cracked cheesecake.
- Another trick to prevent cracks is to run a knife between the crust and pan soon after the cheesecake is out. But don’t sweat too much about it, because crack or no crack, doesn’t matter. You’ll smear dulce de leche all over the cheesecake. (Just between you and I, this cheesecake you’re looking at actually has a pretty big crack. But who the heck cares!)
- Before serving, I highly recommend sprinkling some sea salt on top, as it balances some of the sweetness of the cheesecake. I love this Maldon sea salt flakes, it’s the best stuff!
Now, invite a few good friends for a coffee, or tea and bake this delicious cheesecake to indulge!
I really, really want you try this creamy sweet deliciousness. You have to have a major sweet tooth though! But I promise you’ll love each and every bite. So many flavors and textures going on here: creamy smooth filling, buttery crumbly crust, salty n’ sweet dulce de leche topping. Ah, I can’t even…
Hope I got you craving some cheesecake. Quick question for you: What’s your favorite cheesecake flavor? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Decadent Dulce de Leche Cheesecake
Sweet and creamy with touch of sea salt, this decadent dulce de leche cheesecake is quite a treat!
Yield: 12-16 servings
Ingredients:
For curst:
- 18 full sheets of graham crackers (about 300gr cookies)
- ¼ cup (50gr) sugar
- 10 tablespoons (140gr) unsalted butter, melted
For cheesecake filling:
- 24oz (700gr) cream cheese, softened (Brick-style, full fat version)
- 1/3 cup (65gr) sugar
- 1 can (400gr/14oz) dulce de leche, divided
- ½ cup (125gr) sour cream
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- Sea salt flakes for dusting, optional (I love this Maldon sea salt flakes.)
Directions:
- To make the crust, crush the graham crackers in a food processor until fine crumbs form.
- Add sugar and melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer the crumbs into a 9-inch springform pan. Press the mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate while working on filling.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- To make the cheesecake filling, in a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until fluffy on medium speed. Stir in the sugar. Then add about ¾ of dulce de leche (the remaining ¼ of the can will be used for spreading on top for decoration) and sour cream. Continue to mix until combined.
- Stir in vanilla extract and salt. Beat in the eggs one at a time and mix just until combined on low speed. Transfer the batter into the prepared crust.
- Bake the cheesecake for 45-50 minutes, or until the edges are set and slightly wobbly in the center. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then carefully run a knife around edge of the pan to loosen; cool for 2 hours. Then refrigerate to set completely for at least another 2 hours.
- When ready to serve, remove springform sides of the pan and spread the reserved dulce de leche on top. Sprinkle some sea salt, if desired. Store the cheesecake in a fridge, covered, for up to 5 days.
For step-by-step photos and additional notes, read the post above.
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Made this for the first time last sunday. It turned out beautiful and very tasty. Everyone loved it!
This cheesecake turned out fabulous for me! I did make an adjustment though, I added an additional 1/2 cup sour cream (for a total of one cup) and added an additional egg, I wanted to counteract the intense sweetness of dulce de leche and I think this level of sour cream was absolutely perfect. I topped it with a generous dusting of fleur de sel right before serving for that great salted caramel flavor everyone loves. Cheesecakes are my specialty, I’ve made hundreds of them in pretty much every flavor you can imagine but this one was instantly declared as a favorite by multiple people who’ve eaten many of my previous cheesecakes, so that’s pretty high praise!
This’s quite the compliment, Tesee! Thank you so much!! Thank you for sharing your adjustment and feedback! I’ll try with more sour cream next time I make this. 🙂
This was delicious and I’ve made it twice within two weeks of each other. I am looking for a good Olin cheesecake recipe. Can i use this recipe just not add the dulce de Leche? Will it make up just as nice?
Wow, that’s great, Savannah!! For plain cheesecake, I suggest using sweetened condensed milk instead of dulce de leche. It’s so good! Thank you for so much for your feedback!!
Hi! I don’t have sour cream where I live. Is there any substitute?
Hi, Renata. Greek yogurt would be a great substitute for sour cream.
I made this for Thanksgiving dinner. First time making a cheesecake it was a success. Family loved it . Only two little pieces remain at the end of the night
Ah, this’s so great to hear. Thank you for your feedback, Cynthia!
This cheesecake is fabulous. I have only made it twice but it turns out perfectly and easy to do. It is delicious and rich so you don’t need much to be satisfied. Thanks for a great recipe!
Awesome!! So happy you loved the cheesecake, Dynna. Thank you for sharing your feedback!
I made this and was delicious can I freeze it before putting on the topping
Hi, Kim. So happy you loved the recipe. Yes, you can freeze the cheesecake.
I want to make this in a 4″ spring form. Do you think if i cut the recipe in half it would work?
Hi, Alexandra! This recipe is made in 9-inch pan, so if you half the recipe, it should work, but it might come out slightly thinner though.
Thank you so much for responding. I want to make it for my boyfriend’s birthday and if i make him a full sized he will inhale the whole thing.
I’m making this for a second time right now! Great recipe, thanks for sharing!
Oh yum! I made this for a dinner party last night and am eating a piece for breakfast right now (delicious with a cup of coffee). It was super easy to make and all of my guests love it. They rated it as one of my best desserts (and I’m a pretty good baker). Thank you for this great recipe that is sure to be in my regular rotation!
Yay, so happy your dinner party guests loved the cheesecake! Thank you for your feedback, Lara. Your comment made my day!
Made this today for my Brazilian daughter in laws birthday! It was delicious!! My husband said it was one of the best things I ever made and not to brag but I’m an accomplished cook and baker. I used nilla wafers instead of graham crackers but followed the recipe otherwise. Thanks for a wonderful recipe! And yes I made my own dulce de leche by simmering sweetened condensed milk in a pot of water for 3 hours -very easy and delicious also.
Thanks for the recipe. I made it for my girlfriends mothers birthday and everyone loved it. Instead of the salt on top I drizzled chocolate over it.
So happy you made this cheesecake and it was a success, Jerry. Thank you for your feedback!
Hi Shinee, made the recipe and it was absolutely AMAZING!!! I would also like to make a plain NY cheesecake..what changes are there in the ingredients for the original cheesecake recipe?
I made this cheesecake recipe, and I haven’t eaten it yet, but of course I got to taste a bit from the knife that I used to cut it. Tastes great! I am putting cajeta on top tomorrow before my friend’s birthday party instead of the rest of the dulce de leche to add the caramelized texture but to introduce a mildly different flavor with the dulce de leche cheesecake base! Hopefully a bit more complexity will help cut through the richness a bit? (As I don’t like putting salt on my sweets personally!) But the cheesecake base recipe is great!
Drake, so glad you’ve tried and liked the recipe!!! Hope the birthday guest will love the cheesecake as well. And yeah, cajeta sounds delish too! Thank you for your feedback!
Amazing recipe! May aunt makes a cheesecake JUST like thisone and it makes all May family crazy! She never wanted to share the recipe though and now i found it! I am a pastry chef and this is definitely not sour at all, she probably used expired cream or measured something wrong. I encourage everyone to try it.
Emilia, SO happy to read your feedback!! Thank you!
Hey Shinee, your recipe loos amazing! Can’t wait to try it out. If I want to bake it using a waterbath, do I need to adjust the baking time? Thanks
Hi, Vivian. I don’t think you need to adjust baking time. It’ll be the same.
I had a guest that could not have gluten so for my cheesecake bottom I used Honey Nut Chex mix which is gluten free. Crushed up chex mix and also added finely chopped pecans and melted butter. Wow it was great!!! This is the only cheesecake bottom I now use!!
Oh my goodness, that sounds like amazing crust! I’ll sure be trying that, Lorraine. Thanks for sharing. Would you mind if I share that crust recipe with my next cheesecake recipe here on the blog?
I can not wait to try this recipe! I didn’t know I could store unopened cans of dulce de leche in my cabinet! Definitely making a few extra cans. I like to cook them on low for 8 hours in my Crock-Pot.
My family’s favorite cheesecake is hands down the Apple-of-your-eye Cheesecake by Taste of Home. Google it and try it, you will love it!
Hi! I made two cans of dulce de leche last night and put it in the same container to store! I’m going to make the cheesecake tonight, but don’t know how much dolce de leche to put in! Do you have an approximate measurement? Thanks!
Hi, Shanna. Sorry for delayed response. It’s about 1 cup of dulce de leche in cheesecake batter and about 1/4 cup for topping. Hope this helps.
Thank you!!! I think that’s about what I put in. I’m excited to try it tomorrow!
Great. Hope you enjoyed it today, Shanna.
Yes! It is so good! I’ve made lots of cheesecakes, and my husband said this is the best one yet! Thanks for the recipe!
Yay, so happy you guys enjoyed it! Thank you for your feedback!
Hi – I am having a really hard time finding canned dulce de leche, and don’t have time to make my own. Have you ever used dulce de leche from a glass jar? Do you think that would work in this recipe?
Hi, Alex. I don’t think there’s a difference between canned and glass jar dulce de leche. So I’m sure glass jar one will be just fine. But to be honest, I’ve always made homemade version.
I made this recipe and everyone loved it.
Yay, so glad you loved the cheesecake, Chris! Thank you for your feedback!
Hi Shinee! I really want yo try this recipe because it looks delicious! I have a pro and a con. The big pro is that as I live in Argentina dulce de leche is a very common thing to buy here… but the con is that there is no thing such as sour crean. Or it is very dificult to find in a market. My question is, can I replace it with another ingredient?
Thanks! Im already following you on IG😉
Cecilia, hope you saw my response on IG that you can use greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Hope you’ll give it a try, and let me know how it turns out. Thanks!
This cheesecake was terrible! It tastes sour! Seriously, the worst thing I’ve ever tried.
Interesting. I’m wondering what could have caused extreme sourness? The little bit of sour cream in the recipe sure won’t cause that much sourness, so I’m pretty puzzled. You did add only half cup of sour cream, right? Sorry to hear yours turned out that way, Sarah. But thanks for leaving your feedback.
Yes, I followed the recipe exactly. It wasn’t extremely sour, just sour. It’s just not a good recipe. Did anyone else actually make this?
Yeah, that’s weird. No one in our family found it to be sour. I’m just baffled why yours turned out sour. And I’ll also say, if I found the recipe bad, I don’t post it. I’d be curious to hear others’ opinion too, if anyone tried it.
I buy dulce de leche at our local grocery store in the mexican isle, its sooo good and no need to use all that electricity! The cheesecake looks really good! Great pictures! You should try dolce de leche macarons, sooo good!
Hi, Olya! I’ll have to check out our local grocery store for dulce de leche. Thanks for the hint! And yes, dulce de leche macarons are awesome. I sometime use it as filling in plain macarons. I should make a new variation for the blog though.
Hi, how do you make the dulce de leche from the condensed milk?
Thanks
Hi, Cenk! I’ve shared all the details in this post (scroll to the middle and you’ll get my tips there).
This cheesecake is amazing, Shinee! Love dulce de leche so much. Wishing I had a slice of this right now! 🙂
I’m wishing the same thing. 🙂 Thanks, Jess!
Oh my goodness, your photos are simply stunning!! I usually go for cheesecake that has some type of chocolate component…but honestly…this might be my new favorite 🙂
Thanks, Erin! Yeah, agreed on chocolate cheesecake. This one is just as good though.
I really appreciate your cheesecake making tips! I haven’t made a cheesecake in a very long time, so it’s very helpful!
I’ve basically forbidden myself from buying sweetened condensed milk because I have no control, hehe 😉
Haha Janice, I have to exercise serious self-control to buy those sweetened condensed milk, so I know what you mean. 🙂
oh my gosh! what i wouldn’t do for a slice now Shinee! looks AMAZING.
Thank you, Thalia! I kind of wanna bake it again…
So decadent, but worth every calorie! This looks fabulous and your pictures are stunning!
Aww, thanks so much, Kristen! I totally agree, calories were totally worth it!
I learned how to make the condensed milk caramel from a Peruvian friend of mine and it quickly became one of my favorites! I love any excuse to use it, and love that you put the Maldon salt on it to help balance the sweetness! I can’t wait to try this!
Thanks, Mackenzie!
This looks absolutely delicious and like a great dessert for parties! I think i may be making this soon!
Perfect for parties as it’s such a rich dessert. Hope you give it a try, Safira. Thanks!
Oh my gosh, this looks amazing!! I love dulce de leche, I can just eat it by the spoonful, so I just know I would love this!
Me too, I eat it by spoonful on the regular. Thanks, Annie!
This cake looks so pretty and tasty! I love Dulce de Leche!
Thanks, Rika!
This looks absolutely fabulous! My dad is the baker in the family – I’m sending him this recipe to make!!
That’s awesome, Mary Ellen. Let me know you guys get to try it. Thanks for visiting!