Make This Regular No-Bake Cheesecake
The cheesecake is excellent. A cheesecake that hardens without the need for an oven is, frankly, fantastic. This no-bake cheesecake is built in a stovetop style that takes away some of the drama of the tall, round variant and replaces it with a welcoming, laid-back vibe. The wide square baking dish makes it easy to spread a thick, fluffy filling, and then it’s even easier to distribute portions. With just a few ingredients, you can make this savory, rich, chiffon-style cheesecake without even fiddling with the oven.
This tile cheesecake is instantly available to both the chef and the eater. All it takes is a combination of a few simple ingredients and a few hours in the fridge before the dish is ready to serve. The texture is luxuriously light and fluffy, thanks to the whipped cream that aerates the base, completely transforming the usual heaviness of a cheesecake into something half as dense and twice as gastronomically exciting. Despite the light texture, all the classic flavors – spicy rich dairy, caramel crumbs from graham crackers and hints of vanilla blessing – are still in the spotlight. It’s inevitable: it’s your new favorite cheesecake.
Lightly oil a 9″ x 9″ or similar sized baking dish. It doesn’t come together in the oven, so you can pull out that fancy one you’ll never use. Mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and press them into a dish to firm them up, forming a crust. Set this in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling. In a large bowl, make the cream cheese base by mixing together the sugar, salt, lemon juice, and hot melted butter. Microwave cream cheese until melted and smooth (more on the secret to smooth cheesecake ). Add this to the sugar mixture. Whisk until it is completely dissolved. Postpone.
Whisk the cream and second addition of sugar together in a large bowl to make whipped cream. Gently fold in the vanilla extract at the end. Whisk the vanilla whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture in three additions. The mixture will be light and wonderfully fluffy. Pour the cheesecake filling into a baking dish and use a spoon or spatula to spread the mixture evenly over the crust. Cover well and leave the cheesecake in the refrigerator for four hours or overnight.
To get sharp edges, cut the cheesecake with a hot knife and rinse between slices – but this is definitely no accident. So I say, if it’s an informal cheesecake, cool it down with a regular square-edged dessert spatula or drop in a giant dessert spoon and let the chaos reign. This weightless cheesecake keeps unopened in the refrigerator for up to five days.
No Bake Chiffon Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust
- 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Cheese base
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter, freshly melted
- 16 oz cream cheese, microwaved until soft and melted
Whipped cream
- 10 oz heavy cream
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Thoroughly mix the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter. Press it into the bottom of an 8-inch or 9-inch square casserole dish or baking dish and refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
Thoroughly mix the sugar, lemon juice, salt and melted butter to dissolve the sugar. Whip the melted cream cheese until it’s combined. Postpone.
Using an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream and the second batch of sugar until stiff peaks form. (This will only take a few minutes, so keep an eye on the mixer.) Gently fold in the vanilla extract at the end.
Gently fold the vanilla whipped cream into the cream cheese base in three additions. The mixture should be much lighter and have some fluffiness. Remove the pan from the refrigerator and spread the cheesecake filling evenly over the crust. Cover the dish and refrigerate for four hours or overnight.