I started this recipe at 5pm on Thursday evening, hoping I would be able to finish it in time to bring to my friends house at 9pm that night. Please excuse me while I chuckle knowingly at my naiveté. It is Saturday afternoon, and I am only just getting my first bite of this delicious cheesecake.
Granted, this is counting long breaks to sleep, work, and do other various things, but let’s be honest here. This cheesecake, as I made it, involves a batch of cookies being whipped up, baked and ground, a pan of dulce de leche spending 3 hours on the stove, and a finally-filled cheesecake spending 45 minutes in the oven, 2 hours on the cooling rack, and 6 hours in the refrigerator. This is not a dessert for those desiring instant gratification.
But, oh man, was it worth it.
Now, I have stolen this recipe from Smitten Kitchen (again), but have adapted it in a number of ways. Obviously, cream cheese and eggs and graham crackers have been replaced by things I can eat. I also elected to make this as a traditional round cheesecake in a pie dish, rather than in squares, and I omitted the chocolate glaze, wanting a more pure dulce de leche flavor and lacking the resolve to go through one more step.
This recipe is an undertaking, but it is less so if you have fewer allergies than me. You can use store-bought cookies or graham crackers for the crust, and even store-bought dulce de leche (or use the condensed milk recipe, which is much easier, found at the end of the original recipe at smitten kitchen). Good luck, and enjoy your cheesecake.
Gluten-free soy-free egg-free Dulce de Leche Cheesecake with goats’ milk (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Crust
1 cup crumbled gluten free cookies (ginger is delicious) or graham crackers. Or you can use my ginger cookie recipe, below.
2 tablespoons sugar (omit if using a sweet cookie, like my ginger cookies)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, melted
Filling
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (about half an envelope of the Knox stuff) or 1 teaspoon agar-agar (this will make it vegetarian)
1/4 cup whole milk or a creamy milk substitute, such as soy, almond, or hemp milk.
8 oz mild chevre (soft goat cheese) or cream cheese, softened.
2 large eggs or equivalent in Ener-G egg replacer
3/8 teaspoon salt (skip this if using a salty chevre)
1 cup dulce de leche (recipe below)
To make the crust:
Preheat oven to 325, making sure your oven rack is in the centre position. Grease the inside of a 9-inch round pie dish (a heavy glass one works best) with butter or a neutral oil. Take the cookies/graham crackers you have decided to use and grind them up in a food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can put the cookies in a large Ziploc bag, cover the bag with a dish towel, and roll a rolling pin over the towel, pressing down to crush the cookies. When the cookies have been ground down to crumbs, transfer them to a bowl) If using graham crackers, add the sugar and mix in. Add the butter and mix until combined. Press this mixture into the pie dish, on the bottom and up the sides as far as it will go without being too thin. Pop in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
To make the filling:
While the crust is baking/ cooling, pour the milk or milk substitute into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin/agar agar over the surface. Let stand for 2 minutes. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl if you are using a hand-mixer/your guns, add the chevre/cream cheese, the eggs/egg replacer, and the salt, if using. Add the gelatin-milk mixture, making sure to scrape up all the potential clumps at the bottom of the small bowl. Beat at medium speed for about two minutes until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed. Gradually add the dulce de leche.
Pour the filling into the crust in your pie dish, making sure the top is smooth and beautiful. Don’t stress out if the filling reaches above the top of your crust, it will be ok. Place the pie dish in a water bath – a large, 9x13 pan full of hot water. Very carefully place this in the oven, and bake for about 45 minutes, until the center is just barely set. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 2 hours, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Ginger cookies for crust (adapted from All Recipes.com)
This recipe makes way more than you need for the crust. You only need a cup of crumbs, which for me was about half of this recipe. You can easily bake half of these for the crust, then put the rest of the dough (well-wrapped) in the fridge or freezer
for ginger cookie deliciousness later.
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup almond meal/flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt (I omit this because the dairy/soy-free spread I use is salted)
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg or equivalent in Ener-G egg replacer
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar
Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Stir together the dry ingredients – flours, spices, and baking soda. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, with a handheld mixer, or with a whisk and your biceps, beat the butter/margarine until creamy. Add the 3/4 cup sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the egg/egg replacer, and then the molasses. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, adding a little bit at a time.
Put your 2 tbsp sugar in a shallow bowl or on a small plate. Take the dough and form small balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Roll each ball in the sugar before placing on the baking sheet.
If you are making these to eat as cookies, bake them for 8 minutes for a very soft cookie, or 10 minutes for one with more of a crisp to it. Remove the cookies from the sheet immediately and cool on a rack. If you are making these to use as a crust, bake for 12-14 minutes. You want these to get as crisp as possible in the oven without burning them, so monitor them very closely. If using for the crust, you need to let these cool and harden completely on a rack before starting the crust.
Dulce de Leche (adapted from Alton Brown)
1 quart (4 cups) whole goats milk
1 vanilla bean
1 ½ cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Before you start, take the saucepan you are going to use – you want one that seems much too large for the volume of liquid – you’ll see why below. Measure out one cup of water and put it in the saucepan, and note what that volume looks like – how far it goes up the side of the pan. This will help you know when the dulce de leche is done much later. Dump out the water, you won’t be needing it. Water your plants.
Place the milk and sugar in a large saucepan. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the milk, then add the bean.
Turn on the medium heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the baking soda and stir to combine. This is why you want a large saucepan! It will froth and foam like mad!
Turn the heat down to low and simmer at the lowest possible level – you want the surface to be slightly agitated, but do not let it boil. Continue to simmer, uncovered, stirring regularly, watching the liquid slowly take on a wonderful golden hue. After about an hour, remove the vanilla bean.
Continue to simmer about another 1 ½ to 2 hours, until the liquid has reduced to about one cup and has taken on a deep, dark caramel color. Use the color and the volume (remembering what one cup of liquid looked like with the water earlier) to decide when you’re done. Do not use thickness! If you wait until you have a “proper dulce de leche thickness” on the stove, your cooled dulce de leche will be way too firm!
Take the pan off the heat and let cool before using in cheesecake filling. If making ahead, refrigerate in an air-tight container.
