No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake with Boysenberry Jam

I had half a carton of whipping cream left in the fridge and a ton of cream cheese, and I didn't want too much trouble (I already spend waaaaay too much of my time baking, and besides, Michael Weston on Burn Notice was calling ...). So I decided to make a no-bake cheesecake. This has become my go-to lazy-ass dessert. In my world, cheesecakes fall into 3 broad categories - the fluffy Japanese-type cheesecake, the denser, baked (e.g. New York) cheesecake, and the no-bake, chilled cheesecake. My favourite is the New York cheesecake, but I have to admit that the sheer ease of making the no-bake variety is winning me over.

The cheesecake shown in the picture was a very soft and creamy cheesecake that needed to be kept in the freezer (the reason for this being that I varied the usual proportions by adding more whipped cream - I wanted to finish it remember?), but I include below my usual recipe, one that does not require freezing, but only to be chilled in the fridge. I am a fan of tall cakes, so the recipe uses quite a lot of cream cheese. If you are not inclined to buy so much cream cheese, you can half the recipe (of course your cake will look flatter) and perhaps use a smaller springform tin.

The wonders of a no-bake cheesecake is that you can easily vary the proportions of cream cheese to whipped cream depending on whether you prefer it firmer (more cream cheese) or softer (more whipped cream). Some recipes also call for gelatin to be added to produce a creamy and yet firm texture, but for the sake of simplicity I have kept the ingredient list below simple to make this a truly lazy-asssed recipe that will not require more than half an hour of your time (omitting chilling time).

Enjoy!






















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Oreo Cheesecake with Boysenberry Jam (for a 24cm springform tin)

Ingredients:

For biscuit base-
250g crushed Oreo biscuits (for base)
150g melted unsalted butter

For cake-
some Oreo biscuits for decoration
80g crushed Oreo biscuits
750g room temperature, good quality cream cheese (I use Elle Et Vire)
410 ml heavy whipping cream (whipped to stiff peaks)
1.5 tablespoon lemon juice
150g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Thick (not runny) boysenberry jam (or other berry jam)

Method:
1. Pound Oreo biscuits until finely crushed (to crumbs). Mix 250g of the crushed Oreo biscuits with 150g of melted butter and spread evenly over the base of the springform pan. Chill in fridge until the base sets hard.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and icing sugar and beat on medium speed until well blended. Add lemon juice and icing sugar and beat on medium high speed until soft and fluffy. Mix in 80g of crushed Oreo biscuits on low speed until evenly distributed.

3. Fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until evenly mixed. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture on the chilled Oreo biscuit base.

4. Spoon boysenberry jam evenly over the first layer of cream cheese, then pour the second layer of cream cheese on top.

5. Decorate the top of the cake with Oreo biscuits, then chill in the fridge for several hours (preferably overnight) until the cake sets.