No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
A buttery cookie base, a creamy filling of cream cheese set with gelatin, and a glossy topping of fresh strawberries. It comes together in 40 minutes and the refrigerator does the rest — no water bath, no oven and no cracks.
This is the dessert with the best ratio of impression to effort in the whole catalogue.
The one place it goes wrong is the gelatin. It goes in lukewarm and in a thin stream while you keep mixing: added hot it cooks the cream, and added cold it seizes into threads you cannot get out again.
Ingredients
- 200 g sweet cookies (biscuits), such as Marie or ladyfingers
- 100 g butter, melted
- 400 g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 400 ml heavy cream (double cream), chilled
- 120 g powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 g unflavored gelatin (1 sachet), bloomed in 50 ml cold water
- 400 g strawberries, 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch (cornflour) and a squeeze of lemon (for the topping)
Method
- 1
Blitz the cookies to a fine crumb and mix with the melted butter. Press into the base of a 22 cm springform pan using the bottom of a glass, and refrigerate.
- 2
Bloom the gelatin in the cold water for 5 minutes, then dissolve it with a few seconds of heat (microwave or water bath) without letting it boil.
- 3
Beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar and the vanilla until smooth.
- 4
Separately, whip the chilled cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cream cheese.
- 5
Add the lukewarm gelatin in a thin stream while mixing, so it does not set into lumps.
- 6
Pour over the base, smooth the top and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (better overnight).
- 7
For the topping: cook half the strawberries with the sugar, the cornstarch and the lemon for 5 minutes, until it thickens and turns glossy. Cool and fold in the rest of the strawberries, halved and raw.
- 8
Spoon over the set cheesecake, unmold carefully and serve cold.
More Recipes with Strawberries
Peak season depends on where you are — late spring to early summer in the northern hemisphere, spring in the southern one — but you will find them in the shops most of the year. They are at their best in cakes, shakes and homemade jam. Recetop tip: buy them in season, wash and dry them well, hull them and freeze them in zip bags; that way you always have a handful ready for smoothies.
