We celebrated my mom’s birthday this weekend with some sushi, champagne and these delightful dulce de leche cheesecake bars. My mother is a huge cheesecake fan so I knew I couldn’t go wrong with this recipe. However, she also appreciates lower fat and lower calorie desserts (as I think a lot of women do). Luckily I was able to make some healthy substitutions without compromising taste.
The recipe can be found here. The substitutions I made are as follows:
– low fat graham crackers instead of regular
– butter and 1/4 cup prune puree for the butter
– reduced fat cream cheese instead of full fat
– only used 2 tbls of heavy whipping cream
– used fleur de sel caramels from Trader Joes and didn’t sprinkle any salt on top
The cheesecake bars were well received by party goers as well as the birthday girl. Most were surprised to learn that they were lower in fat than traditional cheesecake. I am always so happy when an experimental healthy recipe is a success and these bars were no exception.
In other news, I will be starting a professional baking class in LA next week and couldn’t be more excited. It’s 9 weeks and covers everything from breads to ice cream. I’m nervous but also eager to learn and share my experience with you. Wish me luck and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend.
kellybaked 
These sound and look decadent. How come you didn’t add salt on top, I’ve liked the salted caramel trend. Can’t wait for you to share your learnings from baking class with us. Enjoy!
Since I used Fleur de Sel caramels instead of regular I thought more salt might be overkill.