No-bake Cheesecake

I recently started writing for Dawn.com and, while it has been a lot of extra work, I'm enjoying the process. 

I don't keep a regular schedule for this blog. I've tried to in the past but struggled to keep up with it. So I like that this project has forced me to make time to cook and bake, and to write on a regular basis.

This is the very first piece I wrote and was published a couple of weeks ago. I am posting the recipe here but to view the original article in full, click here.

The recipe was born from a desire to create a simple dessert recipe that didn't require the use of an oven. It's a basic cheesecake but requires only four ingredients. I topped mine with lemon curd but you could use whatever topping you like.

No-bake Cheesecake.

Ingredients

150g Digestive biscuits (about 10 biscuits)

75 g butter, softened or melted

400g cream cheese (see note below)

½ cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

1. Prepare the cake tin (or Pyrex/ceramic serving dish) by greasing it with butter or oil.
2. Add the biscuits to a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs.
3. Add the butter and process again until the butter is evenly mixed into the biscuit crumbs and the mixture begins to clump. (You can do this without a food processor as well; add the biscuits to a plastic/Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin, then mix in the butter with a spoon.)
4. Tip the biscuit mixture into your prepared tin/dish and press evenly into the base, using your fingertips or the back of a spoon.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and icing sugar. Beat with an electric mixer, or by hand, just until the mixture is smooth and no lumps remain. This should only take about a minute with an electric mixer; don’t overbeat.
6. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the biscuit base.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill overnight, or at least 4 hours.
8. If you have made the cheesecake in a cake tin, then remove it from the tin, add whatever topping(s) you’d like and return to the refrigerator until it is time to serve.
9. Twenty to 30 minutes before serving, place the cheesecake in the freezer to firm up. This will make slicing it easier.

Note: I use cream cheese spread for most recipes calling for cream cheese, because the box packages are mostly impossible to get hold of in Pakistan. I use either Philadelphia 200g tubs or Happy Cow 150g tubs