One Handed Baker

No Bake Cheesecake 

This No Bake cheesecake is luscious, light with a creamy cheesecake filling. Serve as it is, or with fresh fruit and cream. It’s perfect for summer entertaining. No eggs, no baking – super easy! There’s no risk of over beating or under beating the eggs, and the cheesecake’s not going to ‘crack’ in the oven. 

Ingredients

Base:

• 200g biscuits (eg digestives, arrowroot or gingernuts)
• 1/3 cup (65g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 115g unsalted butter, melted
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Filling:

• 300ml thickened cream
• 680g full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 100g white sugar
• 15g icing sugar
• 60g sour cream, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions:

1. Make the crust: Crush the biscuits into crumbs (place in a sealed bag, cover with a tea towel and hit with a rolling pin). Then stir in the cinnamon, melted butter and brown sugar. Mix well. Spoon into the base of a 23-25cm springform pan, pressing down to pack in very tightly. Put in the freezer for 20-25 mins to firm up while the filling is made.
2. Make the filling: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the thickened cream into stiff peaks on medium-high speed. Leave to one side.
3. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and white sugar together on medium speed until perfectly smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a spatula.
4. Add in the icing sugar, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla essence. Beat for a couple of minutes until smooth. If there’s any lumps – keep beating until they’re gone!
5. Gently fold the thickened cream into the cheesecake filling using a spatula. Mix slowly until just combined, being careful not to lose the air in the cream.
6. Take out biscuit base from the freezer and spoon the filling in. Smooth down the top.
7. Cover tightly and pop in the fridge for at least 6+ hours, ideally overnight. (Don’t be tempted to put it in the freezer now, this will affect the texture).
8. Remove from the pan and cut into slices using a sharp knife. Serve as is, or with fruit and cream. Cover and store leftover cheesecake in the fridge for up to 4 days.

This recipe is by Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Tips:

• Use room temperature cream cheese.
• Don’t skip the icing sugar, lemon juice or sour cream – they’re all key to the taste. The lemon juice and sour cream work together to help stabilise the filling. Also, the brown sugar in the base helps it to solidify.
• This cheesecake needs 6+ hours to set in the fridge before serving, overnight is ideal. 
• Don’t be tempted to speed up the chilling time by putting it in the freezer! This will spoil the texture.
• It’s easiest to just have a crumb base, rather than bring the crumb up the sides as well (like I did!). As the base isn’t baked, it won’t be as completely structurally solid like a cooked base would be, and the walls could crumble a little. 

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