Goddess Of Scrumptiousness

Vanilla Cheesecake: Just straight forward and No baking

I have thoroughly self-examined and self-observed my behavior and resolve to eating desserts and chocolates. I realized that I only crave desserts and chocolates when I am stressed or emotional or even distraught (I eat desserts often nowadays and YES, I am an emotional eater).

I am really a salt person, I crave salty food more than sweets. Although I eat M&Ms (peanut or almond or both) when I am somehow bored or is thinking of some things to which I put my right hand in auto-pilot (that is, mindlessly shoveling Ms in my mouth).

As much as I am really a baker, I must admit that I hate making too complicated desserts, too elaborate, too time and labor consuming and too much pain in the butt to decorate. This is also why I hate making fondant cakes, and even more, I hate fondant cakes!… No one should eat cakes covered with fondant!… that thing is way too much handled and tweaked by other peoples hands! (Yes, I suffer from OCD too… which is why I also don’t eat other peoples birthday cake after they blew their candle and made a wish)… I am easy to live with, but I still have some reservations and some foodie “prejudice” when it comes to food overly man-handled, e.g Fondant and those cute animals or whatever shape and form bakers make it!

Ohh, I think I have to reel back myself to my cheesecake… pardon my mild ranting about fondant… so No Bake Cheesecake, right!!!

I really don’t believe that one should make heavy an already heavy and rich food. Although a lot of people love Baked cheesecakes, I find the addition of eggs on top of cream cheese and sour cream and heavy cream (on some recipes) is just plain murderous! (ohh, I still sound ranting!).

The cheesecake I prefer is light and non-baker friendly. This cheesecake recipe is as rich and smooth as its baked counterpart.

OK… I’ll stop yapping now… So here is the recipe.

No Bake Vanilla Cheesecake

400 g (2 tubs) cream cheese, softened

240 g sour cream

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 ml cream

2 envelopes unflavored gelatine, dissolved (bloomed in) + 1/4 cup cold water

juice of a quarter lemon

Crust:

1 cup graham crackers, finely crushed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup melted butter

*8 inch springform pan

Procedure:

1. Make the crust: Using a fork, mix crushed grahams, sugar and melted butter until the mixture resembles moist coarse sand. Press this crust mixture firmly into an 8 inch springform pan. Set aside.

2. Sprinkle unflavored gelatine powder over cold water, mix briefly and let the gelatine bloom (2 minutes). Place the cream into a small sauce pan over low heat, just enough to heat through but not boil or simmer. Add the bloomed gelatine and let it completely dissolve into the cream. Remove from heat.

3. In a mixing bowl, gently beat cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice, make sure to not create air bubbles in the mixture.

4. Combine the sour cream mixture and the cream-gelatine mixture by gentle whisking.

5. To make sure the cheesecake filling is smooth, pass the mixture into a strainer or a sieve as you pour it over the prepared crust.

6. Chill cheesecake for 8 hours or better overnight.

You can put any topping on this cheesecake because it is just really basic recipe, but here are my suggested toppings;