If you have a craving for cheesecake, but on a warm summer day you don’t want to turn on your oven to bake one, there’s a solution: Don’t bake it.
That’s exactly what you do when you make a dessert that’s logically called a no-bake cheesecake. There are a few techniques to make one, but all accomplish the goal of replacing the eggs added to a baked cheesecake with something else that will allow the cake to set without going anywhere near an oven.
The method I use involves beating firm cheese, warmed to room temperature, with sugar until smooth. Whipping cream and flavourings — vanilla extract and lemon juice — are whipped in, followed by some unflavoured gelatine dissolved in hot water.
The cream cheese mixture is then spooned and spread into a spring-form cake pan that has a chilled graham cracker crust in it. The cake is covered and chilled several hours or overnight. While that occurs, the cream cheese, whipping cream and gelatine cool, firm up and cause the cheesecake to set beautifully.
To get clean slices of cheesecake, once it is unmoulded from the pan, dip a thin, sharp knife in hot water and wipe it dry before cutting each portion of cake.
To create a seasonal dessert, I served the cheesecake with fresh summer fruit, which could include such things as whole and cut berries, cherries, apricots and plums.
No-bake Cheesecake with Summer Fruit
Rich and silky, no-oven-required cheesecake you can serve with a selection of your favourite summer fruits. You can make the cake the day before you serve it, giving it plenty of time to chill and set.
Prep time: 30 minutes, plus chilling time
Cooking time: A few minutes
Makes: 10 servings
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp (1/8 cup) butter, melted
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 (7 gram/2 tsp) packet Knox brand unflavoured gelatin (see Note)
2 (250 gram) bricks firm cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• whipped cream, to taste (optional)
• fresh summer fruit to taste, such as whole or cut berries, cherries, apricots and plums
Make crust mixture by combining graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl. Firmly press crust mixture into bottom and about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of 9-inch spring-form cake pan. Refrigerate crust while you make the cheesecake filling.
Pour 1/4 cup water into a very small pot. Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand five minutes. Now set pot over low heat and stir just until gelatin dissolves, then remove from the heat.
Place cream cheese, granulated sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat cream cheese until very smooth and well combined with the sugar. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat again.
Remove the paddle attachment and put on your stand mixer’s whipping attachment. Add the 1 cup whipping cream, lemon juice and vanilla to the bowl and whip until well combined with the cream cheese. Scrape the sides of the bowl and whip again, until the mixture is very smooth. Now whip in the dissolved gelatin until well combined.
Spoon and spread the cheesecake filling into the graham cracker crust. Tightly cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate cheesecake until set, at least four hours or overnight.
To serve, neatly run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake, and then remove the cake pan’s outer ring. Cut the cake into wedges and plate. Top each wedge of cake with a dollop of whipped cream, if using, and some fresh fruit.
Note: Small boxes of Knox brand gelatin, containing four seven-gram packets of gelatin, are sold at most supermarkets.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
