Best No-Bake Cheesecake

A little background of myself before going to the recipe but you are free to skip this part *lol* I've been working and living in Singapore since 2001. From 2001 to 2004, weekend is the time for me to rest and do household chores. Then came 2005, which requires me to provide support even on weekends :( I didn't complain at that time as I admittedly being a workaholic! But my health suffered that I have to choose whether to find a new job and live longer, or stick with that job and die sooner *lol* Additionally, I have to leave my guineas, err, rather colleagues and friends hehehe
So, now that I have a not-so-stressful job, I've got nothing to do on weekends *grins* Thats when I stumbled to the website of Filipino Overseas Workers in Singapore where they offer Sunday courses in just a minimal fee :) Hence, I took up the Basic Baking class. Well, unfortunately their kitchen is under renovation *sighs* The teacher opted for no-bake as the first recipe. She printed the recipe and did the demo (no hands-on yet).

Last week, I was thinking about what to prepare to bring to a friend's gathering. Thats when I thought of trying the no-bake recipe.
I did the research and found the exact recipe and followed the reviewers comments (thanks to them!). So here it is....

BEST NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese (I used 2 Philadephia cream cheese)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (I only used 1 tsp of lime juice)
1 pint heavy whipping cream (I used 2 cups of MILLAC 38% DAIRY WHIPPING CREAM)
1/3 cup white sugar (I used 2/3 cup white sugar)
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling


DIRECTIONS

1.) In a small bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of an 8 or 10 inch springform pan. Chill until firm.

2.) In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese and lemon juice until soft. Add whipping cream and beat with an electric mixer until batter becomes thick. Add the sugar and continue to beat until stiff. Pour into chilled crust, and top with pie filling. Chill several hours or overnight. Just before serving, remove the sides of the springform pan.

What I did: Before doing the 2nd step above, the bowl and beaters were chilled for a few hours before using. After it was chilled, I beat the heavy whipping cream first until its stiff. On a separate bowl, I mixed the soften cream cheese, lime juice and sugar. Oh, and I added 2 tbsp of vanilla essence and 1 tsp of unflavored gelatine powder to the mixture :) Then fold the whipped cream onto the cream cheese mixture using the rubber spatula. Then pour into chilled crust (yummy). I also used the whipped cream-cheese mixture to pipe the sides using the 1M tip. Chill for 2 hours. Then cover it with strawberry pie filling!

**Next time, I will try using the oreo cookies as the pie crust and probably use the chocolate ganache as the topping.. wooo hooo!!



I was able to make 4 extra cheesecakes in cupcake size:


Oh, hi there mother & daughter cheesecakes!



YUM-O!!