Good old no-bake lemon cheesecake

I know I know, two entries in a row, i.e; two bakes in one weekend. A bit too much don't you think? Well it couldn't be helped since I had wanted to make the chocolate tartlets for ages and it just happened that my flatmate's birthday is on the coming Monday and he requested for a no-bake lemon cheesecake. I have a bad habit of going for the more technically challenging bakes and ignoring the simpler stuff. It was almost like a perfect excuse for me go back to the basics.

The recipe couldn't have been simpler. As always I wanted to make mine look slightly different from the ones I normally see so I decided to go with an oblong shaped lemon cheesecake instead of a round one. That was partly because I've previously bought a terrine mould that had so far been sitting there collecting dust. In simple terms, I just wanted to make myself feel less guilty for buying something that I don't even use. :)

Here's the cheesecake:

As you can see I also made some candied lemon slices for decoration. The idea was to create a crystalised see-through window effect. Not exactly sure if I managed to create what I had in mind though.

The cheesecake went down a treat. It was a bit of a realisation that often the simplest things taste the best and the best food doesn't always need to be technically challenging to produce.  

 The cake itself as a whole didn't look pretty but I'm sure my flatmate appreciated my effort and certainly the taste of the cheesecake!

Recipe (Taken from Philly's website)

Ingredients

• 75 g (3oz) butter
• 200 g (7oz) digestive biscuits, crushed
• 450 g (1lb) cream cheese, softened
• 100 ml (4fl oz) milk
• 150 g (5 oz) caster sugar
• Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 sachet or 4 leaves of platinum grade gelatine (enough to set 1 pint of liquid)
• 100 ml (4fl oz) double cream, lightly whipped
• A selection of fresh fruits for decoration

Instructions

Melt the butter and mix with the crushed biscuit crumbs. Press into the base of a 20cm spring form cake tin (or a terrine mould like I did). Chill until you need it.

Beat the Philadelphia until silky smooth. Add the milk, sugar, lemon rind and juice. Mix thoroughly.

Dissolve the gelatine completely in 3 tablespoons of water, over a pan of hot water. Add to the Philadelphia mixture and then fold in the cream. Pour onto the crumb base and chill until set. Just before serving remove from the tin and decorate with something fruity. To get a a clean slice of cheesecake, make sure you dip the knife in hot water and wipe it dry before you slice into the cake.

I decorated my cheesecake with candied lemon slices. Simply slice your lemons thinly (freezing them for 30mins helps) and place them in a pan full of cold water and bring it to a boil. Repeat the process two more times.
In the saucepan, make a syrup with 2 cups of granulated sugar and 1 cup of water and bring to a simmer. Add the lemon slices and simmer away for 1.5 hours. Drain and let the lemon slices air dry for one to two days. Don't pour a way the lemon syrup, store them in a jar and they can be very handy in the future! I used them to glaze the raspberries that I decorated the chocolate tarts with for extra shine and a nice sweet lemony flavour.

Happy Baking!

Adel