The Βest NO-BAKE Cheesecake
No bake vs Baked Strawberry cheesecake
This delicious Greek style Cheesecake is very easy to make and it does not need any baking. All you need is a few ingredients and you will be able to enjoy a velvety, creamy cheesecake in no time! The only thing that you have the option to bake in this recipe is the base of the cake.
The difference between bake and no bake of the base is the crunchiness. If you bake it the base of the cake will be crunchy and if you choose not to bake it, it will be soft. The choice is up to you but I choose to bake it because I like it crunchy!
This recipe was created one day that I was expecting guests and I wanted to create something fast to entertain them. I had the ingredients I list below on my fridge and I created this recipe with what I had and strawberry jam. I love it from the first bite, my guests also liked it a lot and so did my mother that she happened to try it the next day. Since then, it became one of my mother’s favorite recipes for Cheesecake and I bake it every time instead of cake on her birthday which is on 14th of February and it just happens to be Valentine’s Day!
Cheesecake and its history
Cheesecake has a very interesting history which I believe you should know because did you know that the first person to ever cook it was Greek?
This cake was already very popular in ancient Greece but with the invasion of the Romans and as Greece was under Roman occupation they copied the recipe from ancient Greek books and named it “Placenta” derived from the Greek word “πλακούντα“. Describing it as a “flat cake” because it didn’t puff or rise like a normal cake.
In the Greek cookbook “Dipnosophistai” by Athinaios in 230 A.D, there is a recipe with cheese which, as he was describing it, beat the cheese until it was fluffy, poured some wholemeal flour and honey on top. Then he placed it in the oven just to warm it up a little, and let it cool down and serve it cold.
In 1000 A.D. cheesecake began to become popular in Europe and in 1543 A.D. we find it in a French cookbook called “Neufchatel cheese”, in 1545 A.D. we see it in a cookbook that included recipes with official dinners of the Royal Tudors of Wales under the name “Tarte of Cheese“.
But cheesecake in its most popular version and from where it got its current name was from New York about 1900 A.D.
At that time each restaurant had its own recipe for cheesecake but the credit for the New York cheesecake recipe, however, seems to be attributed to Arnold Reuben, owner of the famed Turf Restaurant at the corner of 49th and Broadway in New York. As he claims his family created the first cream cheesecake in 1929.
The New York Cheesecake is very different from the Greek one because it is baked cream cheese vs no-bake that the Greek version suggests. For sure both versions are very tasty and interesting to try!
The Βest NO-BAKE Cheesecake
Ingredients for the cake base:
- 400g Digestive Biscuits /cookies (biscuits from whole grain flour) or biscuits of your choice, crushed
- 120g Butter melted
Ingredients for the filling:
- 450g cream cheese or mascarpone
- 500g clotted cream
- Lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 1 cup icing sugar or confectionary sugar
Ingredients for the topping:
- 4 Tbsp strawberry jam (about 200g)
- 4 Tbsp water
Instructions:
- Add the clotted cream into the fridge 1 hour before you start.
- Crush the biscuits with your kitchen machine or blender
- Melt the butter in your microwave at max for 20sec
- Combine melted butter and crushed cookies and then spread them in the baking tray
- Whip the cream cheese, the clotted cream, the icing sugar, and the lemon juice together until combined. (About 2min)
- Spread the cookie mixture in the baking tray
- OPTIONAL Bake the base in a preheated oven at 180C /350F for 10m and let it cool in room temperature for 1 hour.
- Add the cream filling and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- Combine the strawberry jam with the water and add it on top of the cheesecake just before you serve it and enjoy!
Notes:
- Baking the base is optional. I like it baked because it is crispier. If you do not want to bake it or do not have time to bake it, after laying the cookie base in the tray add the filling on top and then in the fridge for 4 hours.
- Adding water to the jam is also optional. If your jam is watery then you do not need to add any at all.
- Recipes, Desserts, Fast and Easy, valentines
- cake, cheese, cheesecake, cream, jam, strawberry
- COURSE: Dessert
- CUISINE: Greek Creative
- Recipe by: Christine Karagianni
Did you make this recipe? Or are you planning to make it? Let me know in the comments below, tag me on Instagram @freshpiato or show me your photos on Pinterest!
