Dulce de leche cheesecake

Though I haven't been blogging as much, I've still managed to get elbow deep in doughs and batters every week. I've been baking for the masses at work, for birthday parties, and for fun. It's been really nice to get back into a kitchen and bake and not feel like you're going to get screamed at if you accidentally burn a batch of cookies. However I do find myself defaulting to American recipes, since it's a lot harder to find French ingredients here.

One of my favorites? Cheesecake. Of course I often try to kick things up a notch, so I swirled some dulce de leche in the batter. My favorite recipe uses a simple graham cracker recipe, a batter that has less than 5 ingredients, and is quick to whip together.

Since the base recipe is so simple, you can improvise with the filling. I've added chocolate chips, made a tuxedo cheesecake, and this time I decided to swirl in leftover dulce de leche. The key to this cheesecake is that you cook it at a low temperature for a longer-than-average bake time, which gently cooks the protein molecules in the egg, instead of expanding them and then quickly shrinking them when they cool. This is why most cheesecake recipes call for a water bath, to regulate the temperature since water can't get hotter than 100 degrees Celsius. Plus who wants to deal with a pan of boiling water anyways?