No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

I can’t decide if I like cheesecake or not – I think my opinion is best summed up fussily by saying I like cheesecakes that aren’t baked, and can take or leave those that are. And really not at all a fan of Japanese cheesecakes (and yes, I’ve had the authentic ones, from Japan). If I eat a cheesecake, I really like to be able to taste the tart sharpness of the cream cheese, and prefer citrus ones to sweet. Probably because the cream cheese is so cloying, I need that sharpness to cut it. I’m so fussy, maybe this is why I generally stick to chocolate – you can’t screw chocolate up.

So anyway, from that, you can probably guess I’m making cheesecake, and most likely of the non-baked, citrus variety. Ten points! Wait, that’s for running over old ladies. Or is that just a New Zealand thing? I think it is. Just to reassure you, it’s just a joke, we don’t really go around violently driving over elderly people. Carrying on!

No Bake Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base
1 c biscuit crumbs (I used malt biscuits)
50 g butter

Innards
1 tbsp gelatine powder
3 tbsp water
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
2 large egg yolks
Zest from 2 lemons.
3 – 5 tbsp lemon juice
150ml cream, whipped

Method

1. Find one of your many spring form pans, that your sister in one of her last cleaning binges, relocated to some obscure realm of the kitchen and then neglected to tell you (probably in hopes of you never using it again, and therefore not making another mess ). Then line the bottom with cooking paper.

2. Mix the biscuit crumbs and butter in a bowl, then press firmly into the tin. Into the fridge to set, whilst you make the innards. I mean, ... what do you call it? We’ll stick with innards until my brain starts working. After all, it is only midday as I write this (maybe not as I post it).



3. Mix the gelatine and water together, making sure you combine them properly. Just set aside and forget about it.



4. Cream the cream cheese (hehe – I’m sad) and sugar together.



5. Zest the lemons and separate eggs. Grumble because somebody took apart your awesome zest catchy tool, and you can’t get it back together. Give up and use the normal grater. Then add the zest and separated yolks to the cream cheese mix. It’s already looking more cheesecakeish! Eee.



6. Now do something weird. Remember the gelatine? It’ll look weird now. Anyway. Get a small sauce pan and set up a double boiler, setting the bowl of gelatine stuff on top. Apparently it needs to dissolve again.

7. While that’s happening, squeeze some lemon until you have 3 – 5 tbsp of lemon juice. I like lots of lemon flavour, so... we can guess which way I’m going.

8. When the gelatine is dissolved again, take it off the heat and mix it into the ... innards. It will look quite runny here – but this is why we’ve added gelatine. Then follow with the lemon juice. Set aside for five minutes.



9. Use your five minutes wisely and whip some cream to soft peaks – no over whipping, students!



10. Very gently fold the cream into the rest of the mixture, and marvel at how cool it looks. Resist tasting it, and fail. Make stupid noises.



11. Pour onto the refrigerated base, then shake gently to even it out and cover with glad wrap. Shove it back in the fridge, for at least four hours!



Many hours later, during which I went to work, thought about the cheesecake, did some shoping, thought about the cheesecake, tidied stuff up, and thought about the cheesecake some more.

This cheese cake is delicious. Really tart though - so if you're not a huge fan of citrus, make sure that you don't put a lot of lemon juice in it. My family especially enjoyed it because whilst it may have a high fat content, the sugar in this cheesecake is relatively low. Which makes it pretty good for diabetics (which my mother just happens to be), so it was cool that she could actually enjoy some of my baking for once. Especially awesome with even more fat. I mean whipped cream.