To celebrate the 4th of July yesterday, Mother cooked an American dinner at home. We had Meatloaf & Buffalo wings with mac & cheese as the carbo. AND I made a simple dessert: A Non-bake Cheesecake. It was my very first time doing it without much help so I decided to take pictures and write down every important step so I'll be able to do it again in the future:) We found this recipe on the back of a Philadelphia Cheese stick, but recreated it our own way. It's damn easy as well as it requires no oven, just your refrigerator. So for those wannabe domesticated women, this is a good recipe to follow! hehe.
NON BAKE CHEESECAKE
Suitable for 5-6
Estimated time: 4 hours
(including waiting time)
Estimated time: 4 hours
(including waiting time)
8 Digestive Biscuits
3 Tablespoons butter
3/4 stick of Philadelphia cheese
Fresh/canned fruits
Optional ingredients:
3 Tablespoons condensed milk
Gelatin
Cooking Materials Needed:
15cm square/15cm in diameter round baking tray
Measuring equipment (I used just a tablespoon)
A Spatula
A Mixing Pan/bowl
A Rolling pin
A large zip lock bag
An aluminum foil/cover (big enough to cover the baking tray)
A fridge!
**Remember to thaw the entire stick of butter for at least an hour before hand, so it will be easy to mix in with the digestive biscuits. At the same time, take out the Philadelphia cheese and allow it to soften, so it will be easy to spread later.
METHOD:
Non-bake Pie Crust
1. Place digestive biscuits into large zip lock bag. Use rolling pin to roll our the biscuits till they become crumbs. Do it 2-3 at a time for a finer texture.
2. Add 1 tablespoon at time of butter with crumbs in mixing pan. Using a large spoon, mix the crumbs and butter together the butter has melted into crumbs. Then, add 2 other tablespoons only when the first spoon has been nicely mixed it. Mix till crumbs and butter have combined and moist, just like a soft dough-like paste. (Eye ball the amount of butter needed. If there is a need for more, estimate the amount and make sure it melts into the crumbs nicely. Adding too much may cause it to be too moist.)
Non-bake Cheesecake
3. Place mixture into baking pan and spread evenly, covering the base and side of baking pan. Place aluminum foil over baking pan and place in fridge for 20 minutes, or till crust hardens.
4. Once out of the fridge, use a spatula and spread Philadelphia cheese around the pie crust evenly. The pie crust should fill at least 1/2 of the baking pan together with pie crust. Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil again, and place entire baking pan into the fridge for at least 1 hour for cheese and crust to harden.
Meanwhile, you may slice the fruits if they need to be sliced. Fruits are mainly used for decoration so choose the right fruits that will add color to your cheesecake.
** For a sweeter taste of cheese, you may add 3 tablespoons of condensed milk to Philadelphia cheese. Mix well with no lumps before spreading onto pie crust. Alternatively, if you are buying canned fruits, you may add 3 tablespoons of syrup water with the cheese, similarly mix with no lumps and spread onto pie crust. Gelatin may be added to cheese for a better and quicker composition to the crust.
5. Lastly, place (with a little force so that it doesn't move around) the fruits on top of the cheesecake and place it into the fridge again. Keep in mind that the way you will have to slice these cheesecake into pieces, so ideally, you would want to arrange the fruits into a pattern so that every fruit will be on every slice of cake. Finally, cover cheesecake with aluminum foil and place into fridge for 1 hour before serving.
BON APETITE! =P
