No Bake Cheesecake Which is Also Eggless

Everytime, I make a wonderful dessert, I wonder why I don't make it more often. After I finish more than my fair share, on my own or with some help from my son (particularly if it is a chocolate dessert), then I remember exactly why. The hours on the treadmill to compensate for just one teeny tiny portion of most desserts, makes me wonder if it is really worthwhile. Like someone wisely said, "a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips". But anyway, having a sweet tooth of this magnitude, I guess I just have to grin and bear it. Exercise as much as I can, but still no signs of being able of curb my cravings.

We had family over for a meal recently. And I happened to have cream cheese in the refrigerator (cream cheese is a hard to come by product in Indian stores). So for dessert this was a quick and a delicious option.


This is a really easy easy dessert to assemble. When you combine condensed milk and lemon juice, something magical happens. It gets thick and sets into this wonderful flan/cheesecakey dessert. It takes all of 10 minutes of real whisking and there you go .. a really pretty and light dessert to serve up for your guests. It has a light lemony flavor which lends itself well as a backdrop to the sweetness of most fruit. The cream cheese is also something which can be omitted. It gives the dessert its body. In its absence, the dessert will still set but will be more silky and a lot smoother. And will definitely not have the cheesecake flavor.
Creativity can be given full reign in arranging the fruit in patterns on top.








Ingredients:

200 grams`Marie Biscuits or any digestive biscuits
50 grams butter melted
2 tablespoons sugar

1 can condensed milk
juice of 2 lemons
250 grams cream cheese, softened
200 ml creamed whipped

Assorted fruit ( fresh or canned)



Method :

Crush the biscuits in a blender along with the castor sugar.
Mix the melted butter in it and press into a pie plate to get a crust.

In a separate dish, whip the cream cheese, condensed milk and lemon juice till it becomes thick.
Fold in the whipped cream till well combined.
Pour/ spoon into the biscuit base and level the top.

Top with fruit and chill.

ENJOY !!!!!

Lemon Cheesecake - Celebration of a 1000 hits

I have a problem on my hands now. I promised the kids that if and when I had a 1000 hits, I will make any dessert of their choice and post it. This was when I had 150 hits or so. Then thanks to Food Blog Desam, the numbers quickly climbed and I reached the magic figure. But then I was swamped with work. This morning I noticed I was fast heading for the second thousand. So before leaving for work, I quickly made their dessert of choice - Lemon Cheesecake. But unfortunately they could not eat it all day. Guess why? Because yours truly has not found the time to take the photographs.

Finally, I managed to get everything together, garnished/decorated the cheesecake as quickly as I could, took the pictures.... So here goes.

Recipe:

I packet Marie biscuits( Update: Use one large packet or two small packets. Should be about 200 grams of biscuits)

75 grams butter melted

300 gms hung curd ( 1 litre of yoghurt tied in a muslin cloth till all the whey drains off and it is a solid mass)

500 grams cream

2 tablespoon lime juice

400 grams sugar

1 teaspoon lemon essence

2 tablepoon gelatin soaked in 1/4 cup water

a pinch yellow food coloring (optional)

Powder the marie biscuits till you get fine crumbs. Add the melted butter to it mix well and press into the base of a pie dish. Put into the refrigerator to harden.

With a hand mixer, mix the curd cheese, sugar, lime juice, coloring and essence.

Whip the cream till it gets soft peaks and keep aside.

Heat the gelatin over very very low heat till it melts. Cool it down.

Add to the curd mixture.

Gently stir in the cream into the curd mixture. Mix till well blended. Be careful not to over beat as the cream may split.

Pour into the biscuit crumb base and refrigerate till set.

Garnish and serve cold.