SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE PIE

(Disclaimer:  this dessert is WAY better than this photo looks!)

Most Mexican restaurants have a limited dessert menu:  flan, fried ice cream, and the occasional leftover piece of tres leches cake. When I decided to serve a Mexican-themed dinner for family, I decided there had to be something different, preferably not a heavy dessert, to end our meal. Browsing through allrecipes.com, I found just the thing:  sopapilla cheesecake pie. A sopapilla is a kind of fried pastry. They're often sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with honey. The recipe sounded incredibly easy and had over 400 reviews, most of them positive. I decided to cut the recipe in half since there were just 4 of us and the recipe made 12 servings. The original recipe for 12 servings is here. Mine follows (NOTE:  I made a few changes as well as cut down the butter and sugar as was recommended in many of the reviews and added an egg):

6 servings

1 - 8 oz pkg Neufchatel cheese

1 egg

1 can crescent rolls

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbs honey

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Beat the cream cheese with 1/3 cup of white sugar, the egg, and the vanilla until smooth.

In a 9X9 glass baking dish, pat one half of the tube of crescent rolls, pinching together the perforations. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture over this. Top with the other half of the tube of crescent rolls which you've already patted into a square 9X9 inches. Place the 1/2 cup sugar, the 1/4 cup butter, and the cinnamon in a bowl and use your fingers to work it into a "crumble." Spread evenly over the top layer of pastry. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle the honey over the top. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

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TASTE NOTES

This is not rocket science, but I have to agree with the majority of the 400+ reviewers and say that this is a delicious and incredibly easy dessert. It IS sweet, even with the reductions I've made. If there is a bit of butter pooled on top when you take it out of the oven, spread it around. After refrigeration, it will just add to the yummy flavors. I'm not too proud to admit that this could easily become a favorite. Just don't tell anyone what the ingredients are!