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Epicurious

Cajeta Cream Cheese Brownie Tart

4.3

(4)

Marbled cajeta cream cheese brownie tart.
Photo by Elizabeth Coetzee, Food Styling by Sean Dooley

One of my favorite things to bring back home from trips to Colima were candies. I’d bring back a little bag filled with rollos de guayaba (guava rolls), borrachitos, and bolas de tamarindo (spicy tamarind candies), but my most favorite candy of all were these little boats filled with cajeta. Cajeta is related to caramel but is a much closer cousin to dulce de leche. It’s luscious, sticky, and so sweet. It is essentially goat’s milk that has been reduced to a very thick and viscous syrup that you can enjoy as a topping on your favorite desserts. If you happened to be in Colima or Jalisco, you could enjoy cajeta de sayula, which would be packaged in a little wooden boat . My mom used to tease us when we were growing up, telling us cajeta came from “leche de burra,” or donkey’s milk, but that never deterred my sweet tooth, or me from eating any less.

In 2017, when I went to my first pop-up event as a vendor, I was armed with cajeta cream cheese brownies. I wasn’t sure how they’d do since I was debuting them there. But within a few minutes, my entire pan was empty. People kept coming back for more cajeta brownies, even placing special orders; they were that good! The beautiful swirling appearance of the brownies truly makes them a work of art you can eat.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘Chicano Eats' by Esteban Castillo. Buy the full book on Amazon.

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