Salted Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Dulce de Leche

1. Pour the coconut cream in a medium pot and add the brown sugar.

2. Heat over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and any lumps in the coconut cream have melted.

3. Simmer on a medium heat with the lid off for 30 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt.

5. Pour into clean glass jar(s) and set aside to allow for cooling at room temperature.   Putting it in the fridge will result in lumpy dulce de leche.  Let it cool completely before adding it to the cheesecake (so you may want to make this a day ahead of time).  It makes a whole lot more than you need, so you can use it with other recipes as well.

Crust

1. Combine pecans, sugar and margarine in a medium bowl.

2. Mix until well combined.  You can also use a food processor to get it extra fine.

3. Press mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9" pie pan.

4. Bake for 15 minutes.

Filling

1. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2. Add egg replacer, dulce de leche and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated.

3. Pour batter onto crust and spread even.

4. Bake at 350ºF for about 55 minutes or until center is just set and edges are puffy and slightly cracked and golden.

5. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before topping with dulce de leche.

Topping

For the topping, drizzle the dulce de leche over the top in a fairly thin layer. Once chilled, it creates a nice almost crunchy layer.  Before serving, sprinkle a little sea salt.