Pan de elote is one of the very few things my mom would bake for us every summer when sweet white corn was in season. The best way I can describe this is as a fusion between a pound cake and corn bread. It’s sweet, dense, and creamy, and perfect on its own or with a dab of butter or with a drizzle of honey. The Summer is the perfect time to make this, as sweet white and sweet yellow corn are both in season right now. If you don’t have a copy of my first cookbook, you can purchase Chicano Eats here, it’s a great companion to Chicano Bakes!
If you’re never had chocoflan before, you’re in for a real treat! Chocoflan is sometimes referred to as “El Pastel Magico” (the magic cake) or “El Pastel Imposible” (The Impossible Cake) due to the magic that happens during the baking process! This is a two layer cake, with a moist chocolatey cake layer (with notes of cinnamon and coffee) on the bottom and a rich and creamy dulce de leche flan layer on the top! When you go to assemble the cake, you actually start by adding the chocolate cake batter in first, and then gently ladle the flan mixture onto, and while the chocoflan bakes, the batters swap places so when the chocoflan is inverted, you’re left with the flan on top and chocolate cake on the bottom. This tasty magic trick is just due to baking science, because the chocolate cake is less dense it floats up and the flan sinks!
I’ve been working on this recipe for the past week since I teased it on Instagram, and let me tell you, I am so happy with how this cheesecake turned out! There was a lot of trial and error, testing the cheesecake with a water-bath and without, and then letting it rest in the oven vs taking it out immediately and there were a few things that I learned a long the way after having to bake 6 different cheesecakes. It was really important to bake the cheesecake in a water-bath and let it rest in the oven after it was done baking to make sure that the cheesecake did not collapse or crack. The viscosity of the brow sugar slurry for the swirl was important to get just right as well because if it was too heavy, it would have sunk right into the cheesecake batter.
This cheesecake is comprised of a crust made from canelitas, a beloved cinnamon sugar cookie I enjoyed as a kid with a cinnamon and brown sugar cream cheese filling. To top things off we’re layering this cheesecake with a brown sugar cinnamon swirl that makes it look like you’ve got some serious skill. If you have any extra time, make yourself a batch of home made whipped cream to top your cheesecake with, and if you have any extra canelitas, crumble them over the whipped cream or simply sprinkle in a little bit of cinnamon over it and finish off with a drizzle of cajeta.
With Thanksgiving coming up in two weeks, this decadent cheesecake is the perfect addition to the dessert table. I’ll be making this cheesecake on my Instagram stories tomorrow morning, so if you’d like to follow along, follow me here to bake a long with me!
Today I’m sharing a short recipe for a vegan & dairy-free coconut arroz con leche.
Before you kill me for using vegan and dairy-free in the same sentence as arroz con leche, hear me out for just a sec! It’s actually pretty good! Instead of using regular milk and condensed milk to sweeten the rice pudding we use coconut milk and sweetened condensed coconut milk which are really good alternatives for those of you who are vegan, or have cut dairy out of your diet. This arroz con leche is still just as creamy, warm and spiced, and I promise your abuelita won’t be too upset for skipping out on the dairy.
