These Cherry Cheesecake Tacos are adorable summer desserts that are incredibly easy to assemble and offer delicious contrasting textures. Soft and creamy cheesecake filling, fruity chunks of sweet canned cherry, and the crispy fried taco shells make a delicious combination in every bite.
These yummy little dessert tacos are a super sweet spin to the traditional taco Tuesday and can be varied in many ways, whether you want to change up the taco filling, add a different coating to the soft taco-size tortillas or use a different cooking method for your taco shells!
And if you have any leftover cherry pie filling from this recipe, make a batch of these Easy Cherry Pie Bars or a cherry cheesecake dump cake.
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Why You’ll Love Cheesecake Tacos
These cheesecake dessert tacos offer a sweet alternative to the traditional Mexican-inspired street-size tacos we’re all familiar with.
The taco shells are homemade and deep fried using a flour tortilla shell that are then generously coated in a cinnamon sugar mixture (inside and out) for crispy perfection. These tacos satisfy all your deep fried dessert cravings!
Canned cherry pie filling and a no-bake cheesecake filling make assembly a breeze.
🍒 Ingredients:
- Cream cheese – for the delicious taco filling
- Sugar – Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla extract – gives this filling a nice rich flavor
- Cool Whip – joins with the cream cheese mixture for the filling
- Cherry pie filling – buy your favorite can of pie filling at the store
- Flour tortillas – we prefer the soft-taco size
- Oil – for frying the tacos
- Cinnamon and sugar – for that sweet dusting covering the taco shells
For a full list of ingredients and their measurements, 📋 please view my printable recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Substitutions and Variations
- Instead of using cherry pie filling on these dessert taco shells, experiment with different fruit pie fillings such as strawberry, raspberry, or blueberry pie filling.
- Try coating your freshly fried taco shells with cinnamon sugar, use crushed cookie crumbs from Oreos, Nutter Butters, Wafers or Graham Cracker crumbs.
- Make a flavored cheesecake filling for your tacos by adding in cocoa powder, or food coloring and flavorings.
- Adding chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, or hot fudge sauce over the top of the cheesecake filling with some maraschino cherries and colorful sprinkles would make an adorable Chocolate Sundae taco that kids will go crazy for.
- Use fresh fruit instead of canned pie filling is just as delicious. For an explosion of flavor, ad some Lemon Zest to the top of the taco desserts!
🔪 Instructions:
Step 1: Beat together the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl.
Step 2: Mix in the Cool Whip to make the fluffy filling in this luscious cheesecake mixture.
Pro Tip: Make sure that your cream cheese is at room temperature when making the taco filling as this will help to mix the ingredients for a smooth consistency.
Step 3: Heat a Dutch oven or heavy pot filled with vegetable oil or shortening. Pinch a tortilla, folded in half, between your tongs.
Step 4: Submerge the tortilla and fry it until puffy and golden brown, ensuring that it remains folded in half.
Step 5: Toss in cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Step 6: Line up the fried taco shells in a taco shell holder or the back of a cupcake pan works well too. Make sure you have cooled taco shells before you add the filling.
Step 7: Carefully spoon or use a piping bag a strip of cheesecake filling into the center of the taco of each crispy shell. The taco shells do not have a lot of give so I find it easiest to pipe in a line of filling – it doesn’t require that I handle the shells too much or need to open up the shell.
Step 8: Once the cheesecake layer is in there, go ahead and mound some cherry pie filling on top.
GARNISH/SLICE/SERVE: Serve solo or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Tips For Making Easy Dessert Tacos Recipe
- You can use white or brown sugar when coating these taco shells and you can also omit the cinnamon if you wish. Make sure that you coat the shells immediately after frying so that the sugar sticks well to the shells before the oil dries.
- This recipe will make 18 tacos which can change depending on the size of your cookie cutter or if you use store bought taco shells instead.
- Easily double or halve this recipe depending on your needs.
Air Fry The Tortilla Shells Instead:
If you own an air fryer and prefer the health benefits of frying food this way instead of traditional deep frying, then you’ll be pleased to know that these flour tortillas can be added to your air fryer for these dessert tacos!
Whether you’re using an air fryer taco mold or not, it’s advisable to first warm your flour tortillas in the microwave to bring them to room temperature before you cook them in the air fryer. Once at room temperature, spray both sides of your tortillas with olive oil and then position them over taco shell molds and cook for about 6 minutes for perfect crunchy tortilla shells.
If you don’t have a mold, you just need to be slightly more resourceful by crumbling some aluminum foil into cylindrical shapes to drape your tortillas over, ensuring sufficient space between each taco for proper air circulation and for the perfect crunchy taco shells.
Recipe FAQs
You can store leftover fully assembled dessert tacos in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1-2 days but they will taste the best when eaten within a few hours of making and assembling.
The longer you store your dessert tacos, the greater the risk of the taco shells softening.
Don’t freeze your fully assembled dessert tacos as this will spoil the texture of the tortillas and you will end up with a soggy mess once your dessert has defrosted. Eating them frozen will also be tricky and not as enjoyable as freshly made dessert tacos.
You could make the cheesecake filling 3 months in advance and store this in the freezer, ready to be defrosted when you intend making a batch of these dessert tacos.
If you tried this Cherry Cheesecake Taco Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Cherry Cheesecake Tacos
Ingredients
Filling Ingredients:
- 1 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 8 oz. tub Cool Whip frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1 21 oz. can cherry pie filling
Taco Shell Ingredients:
- 18 street taco size flour tortillas or cut soft taco size tortillas to a 4” round with a bowl, glass, or cookie cutter
- Vegetable oil or shortening for frying at least 4 cups
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oil to 350°F in a deep stockpot or Dutch oven.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
- Add in Cool Whip and continue beating until mixture is smooth and fluffy.
- Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with Tip #1M or to a gallon size Ziploc bag. Set in refrigerator to stay cold while preparing taco shells.
- When oil has reached a temperature of precisely 350°, it’s time to fry the taco shells.
- Using long-handled tongs (to keep your hands far away from the oil), pinch together two sides of a tortilla to form a folded taco shape. Holding the sides together, submerge the tortilla into the oil, frying for 1-2 minutes.
- The tortilla will bubble up. If you lose your grip with the tongs, just use them to fold the taco back in half and keep it submerged to brown the inside and outside evenly.
- When the tortilla is lightly browned, remove from the oil and place directly in the tray of cinnamon sugar.
- Use a spoon to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the tortilla (inside and out) and then set on a paper-towel lined inverted muffin tin to help the taco shells hold their shape while cooling.
- When tacos shells are cooled, pipe a line of cheesecake filling across the center of the taco.
- Top with 3-4 cherries (and sauce) from the can of pie filling,
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- You can use white or brown sugar when coating these taco shells and you can also omit the cinnamon if you wish. Make sure that you coat the shells immediately after frying so that the sugar sticks well to the shells before the oil dries.
- This recipe will make 18 tacos which can change depending on the size of your cookie cutter or if you use store bought taco shells instead.
- Easily double or halve this recipe depending on your needs.
Nutrition
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