Sopapilla Cheezecake

If there were ever Heaven on earth, it would be found in a fresh pan of Sopapilla Cheezecake. For those of you who don't know what Sopapillas are, don't feel bad. I didn't know what they were until we moved to New Mexico. It's basically fried dough that is fried in such a way that it puffs out and becomes hollow in the middle (unless you're me and you screw it up the first time you make them...). Traditionally, you slather them with honey and enjoy them while they're hot. Almost every meal you get here, you get with sopapillas at the end. Yesterday for lunch, I got a stuffed sopapilla, covered in refried beans and green chile sauce. Yummmm!!!

Anyway, I stumbled across this recipe for Sopapilla Cheezecake. Even though it's not good for you or all natural, it's vegan and tastes delicious. I couldn't get over how easy they were to make and how delicious they were. (Seeing as I made my first not-good dinner, wheat meat that had the texture of something inappropriate to talk about on a blog, I needed a good dessert to make nice with the family!)



Sopapilla Cheezecake
Prep time: 10 minutes, max
Cook time: 35 minutes

1 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp cornstarch
2 (8 ounce) packages Tofutti Better-than-cream-cheese
2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls (Pillsbury has the new crescent creations and yes, they're vegan! Hallelujah!)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup soy butter
1/4 cup honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or fruit syrup (I use honey. Yes, it comes from bees. I just don't consider it to be a non-vegan item.)

1. Preheat an oven to 350° F.

2. Lightly oil a 9x13 inch baking dish with canola oil.

3. Mix cornstarch into 1 cup sugar. Beat together the Tofutti cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar/cornstarch, vanilla extract and lemon juice, in a bowl, until smooth.

4. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.

5. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.

6. Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the pastry.

7. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 - 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey or syrup of choice.

8. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares.

I'm not putting nutritional value on here. They're not good for you. But sometimes the best things in life aren't. :) It's good to treat yourself to something NOT good every once and a while! I didn't get a picture of the inside that came out well. The batteries were dying, the flash was too bright, and these things were too good to worry about replacing batteries! So all you get to see is the top. But the bottom looked similar and in between the two layers was the tastiest, creamiest, cream cheeze filling ever. These were gobbled up. I was so impressed with how easy and tasty they were, I can't wait to make them again!