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Hi Bold Bakers!
You can’t go wrong having a recipe for a Big and Bold cheesecake in your arsenal. You will love this decadent, velvety cheesecake. And it doesn’t get any easier than a No-Bake Cheesecake. Your homemade dulce de leche will add amazing sweetness to this cheesecake, but feel free to use store-bought and you will achieve the same effect.
This No Bake Dulce De Leche Cheesecake is all about the layers! The crust is buttery and delicious with a salty hint from the pretzels. It’s filled to the top with Dulce De Leche Cheesecake and then some sneaky Almond Brittle hidden in the middle for extra flavor and texture.
Bold Baking Tips
If you don’t have a food processor at home, just place the crackers and pretzels in a sealed plastic bag and smash it with the bottom of a pot until it’s as close to a fine powder as possible. Additionally, you can use a hand mixer to blend the cream cheese with the dulce de leche and heavy cream.
Now for the sneaky center…the Almond Brittle. You can make it a day ahead if you are strapped for time. Additionally, you can use sliced almonds for a refined look or if whole almonds are easier to find, chop them slightly for something more rustic. The browned butter in this recipe lends to a lovely, nutty aroma that is sure to peak the interest of anyone around while you are baking. Once the brittle has hardened, you can break it up into smaller bits and then it’s ready to go in your cheesecake.
Spread a layer of brittle over the cream cheese mixture that you’ve already put into your cake tin. Make sure to reserve some brittle to decorate with on top. This middle layer will look so beautiful once you cut a slice of your cheesecake.
My Cheesecakes are No Bake so I find it’s best to make this cake a day ahead so that it can stand in the refrigerator for a full 24 hours before cutting into it. This will help the slices stand firmly and look beautiful on the plate. Decorating this cheesecake is so easy, just use some of your reserved brittle and sprinkle over the top. If you want a little more pizazz, drizzle some of your dulce de leche on the cheesecake, and add dollops of whipped cream.
I think you’ll find that the combination of cream cheese and dulce de leche is pure magic, a flavor that is sure to win over the tastebuds of the whole family.
Get more Cheesecake recipes:
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Watch The Recipe Video!
No Bake Dulce De Leche Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 3 cups (5oz/145g) biscuit crumbs (graham crackers or digestive biscuits)
- 1 cup (1.5oz/45g) pretzels (optional)
- 9 tablespoons (4.5oz/130g) butter, melted
- 3 cups (1lb 8oz/675g) cream cheese
- ½ cup (5oz /150g) Dulce de leche
- ¾ cup (6oz/177ml) fresh double/heavy dairy cream.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Almond Brittle
- 1/2 cup (4oz/115g) butter (1 stick), softened
- 1/2 cup (4oz/115g) sugar
- 1 cup (4.5oz/125g) whole or sliced almonds, toasted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Start out making the Almond Brittle Line an 8″ x 8″ pan with aluminum foil
- Add butter and sugar to saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- Continue cooking and stirring until mixture is golden brown.
- Stir in the toasted almonds, vanilla extract and salt into the butter mixture and pour out onto aluminum foil. Let it sit at room temeperature and harden, roughly 10 minutes.
- Once hard, break it up into big and small pieces with a rolling pin. Store in an airtight container until needed.
- To make the Cheesecake: Blend the biscuits and pretzels in a food processor until ground to fine crumbs, and combine with melted butter. Cover the bottom of a 8 or 9 inch springform with the mixture and put in the fridge while preparing the filling.
- Using a food processor, blend the cream cheese and dulce de leche until smooth.
- Pour in the whipping cream, vanilla and salt; continue blending until your mix has thickened up well.
- Pour 1/2 the batter over the prepared crust, scatter on a generous amount of Almond Brittle and then top that with the rest of the cheesecake mix.
- Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge overnight. (because the cheesecake does not contain gelatin, it’s best left overnight to set and firm up)
- Decorate the cheesecake with whipped cream, dulce de leche and some brittle on top.
- Store the cheesecake for up to 3 days in the fridge. It also freezes well. Decorate with more lovely things on top to create an impressive dessert.
- (For this recipe fresh dairy cream is best. When you use other types of cream you may need to use gelatin or agar agar to set it. follow the instructions on the pack for your gelling agent).
Recipe Notes
Hi gemma , awesome recipe ! I was wondering : if instead of 675 g of cream cheese i put 750g ( my 3 packets) will that ruin the recipe ? What difference will it makes in the cake ? Texture or else. Should the dulce de leche be room temperature?
Thanks
I made the cheesecake last night. Hopefully it’s ready for Thanksgiving. In your instructions it says have it set overnight in the fridge, but in your video you said at least 24 hours. I checked mine this morning, it looked like it was getting thicker/firmer but should I still let it set 24 hours?
By the way, I am a huge fan of your videos. You are an amazing baker. I wish I could meet/learn from you one day. Happy Thanksgiving Gemma. ????☺️????
How many blocks of cream cheese specially does this recipe call for?
Hi, I was wondering if this can be frozen?
This recipe acted as a wonderful guideline. I ended up halving the salt though a 1/4tsp would’ve sufficed. I added about a 1/4 cup powdered sugar 2tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp sour cream and I whipped the cream before folding in. I mixed some of my dulce de leche with some heavy cream and plopped on top before swirling a butter knife for a marbled effect. I also used a graham cracker crust made using melted butter, sugar, salt and prebaked for 10min then cooled and added in the cheesecake mixture. It was ready to eat 3hrs later. I suggest… Read more »
Hi Gemma!
The sugar in this recipe seems a bit less, should we possibly increase the amount of Dulce De Leche or sugar in this recipe. Thanks!
Hey Gemma, this Reminds me of an Argentinian desert called chocotorta. It is like tiramisu but instead of ladyfingers, you use chocolate biscuits (preferably Chocolinas but since I do not live in Argentina, I used some other chocolate biscuit). Instead of the Mascarpone, it is a cream mixture of cream cheese and Dulce De leche. Just assemble it like Tiramisu and you are done.
Would I be able to make this into little bites using a muffin tin? Would I ruin the dish?
This recipe is too salty… dulce de leche is supposed to be sweet… I did the cake for my girlfriend’s birthday a d she didn’t like it… and she loves dulce de leche… disappointing.
Hi Gemma, I’m going to try this recipe this week – it’s looks amazing! Do you think using ‘dollop’ cream which is quite thick, would minimise the possibility of the mixture being to runny?