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Chill out with this easy no-bake cheesecake

Recipe: Fresh strawberry no-bake cheesecake just needs a fridge

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 9, 2021

Pink strawberry cheesecake on white plate with pink flowers and green leaves

No oven was turned on in the making of this fresh strawberry cheesecake. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

It was too hot to bake this Mother's Day weekend -- and I needed to make a special dessert.

Newly vaccinated, our family was gathering for the first time in many months. I had all the ingredients for a conventional cheesecake (the original plan) topped with home-grown strawberries.

Instead of turning on the oven, I mixed the strawberries with the cream cheese for a light and delightful no-bake cheesecake.

This recipe was inspired by one featured recently in Relish magazine. (The magazine called it "Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart.")

Made in a springform pan, it looks like a baked cheesecake, but has a fluffier texture -- it has no eggs and only one package of cream cheese. It can also be made in a 9-inch pie pan.

Pile of fresh strawberries on a cutting board

Strawberries have done well this year in the garden.

Fresh strawberry no-bake cheesecake

Makes 1 cheesecake; 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 cube (8 ounces) butter or margarine, melted
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

Grease 8-inch springboard pan or 8- or 9-inch pie pan.

In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press crumb mixture into pan. Put pan in freezer and chill at least 1 hour.

Put strawberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in food processor or blender and puree. Transfer strawberry puree to saucepan and bring boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until strawberry puree reduces by half. Remove from heat and cool.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla and sugar, then beat until blended. Add cooled strawberry puree. Mix until smooth. Add whipping cream. Beat until soft peaks form.

Cheesecake on angled plate — Place the garnish just before serving.

Remove crust from freezer. Pour strawberry-cream cheese filling into crust. Cover top with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator 5 hours or overnight.

Garnish with fresh berries just before serving.

Serve chilled.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

baking recipes Sacramento produce management strawberries gardening farmers markets no-bake recipe backyard produce spring dessert Mother's Day

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Garden Checklist for week of July 21

Your garden needs you!

* Keep your vegetable garden watered, mulched and weeded. Water before 8 a.m. to reduce the chance of fungal infection and to conserve moisture.

* Feed vegetable plants bone meal, rock phosphate or other fertilizers high in phosphate to stimulate more blooms and fruiting. (But wait until daily high temperatures drop out of the 100s.)

* Don’t let tomatoes wilt or dry out completely. Give tomatoes a deep watering two to three times a week.

* Harvest vegetables promptly to encourage plants to produce more. Squash especially tends to grow rapidly in hot weather. Keep an eye on zucchini.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushy plants and more flowers in September.

* Remove spent flowers from roses, daylilies and other bloomers as they finish flowering.

* Pinch off blooms from basil so the plant will grow more leaves.

* Cut back lavender after flowering to promote a second bloom.

* It's not too late to add a splash of color. Plant petunias, snapdragons, zinnias and marigolds.

* From seed, plant corn, pumpkins, radishes, winter squash and sunflowers.

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