(Mostly) No-Bake Cheesecake

(Mostly) No-Bake Cheesecake:

Crust:

• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups pretzels, crushed

Filling:

• 16 oz (2 blocks) cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
• 1 tbsp water
• ½ tsp unflavored gelatin

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8in baking dish with parchment paper (make sure it goes up all the sides too).
2. Combine the melted butter, ¼ cup sugar, and (finely) crushed pretzels. Press into the bottom of your lined baking dish.
3. Bake crust for 10 minutes, and then set aside to cool completely.
4. Combine the water and gelatin in a small, microwave safe dish. When the gelatin solidifies, melt the mixture in the microwave (it only takes about 5 seconds so be careful to not overdo it!). Set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until light and fluffy and no lumps remain. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and continue beating until the mixture is completely smooth. Make sure to regularly stop and scrape the bottom of the bowl, you want to really make sure no lumps remain because you don’t want a bite of straight-up cream cheese in your finished cheesecake!
6. Transfer the cream cheese mixture to a separate bowl and clean your mixer bowl and whisk.
7. Add the heavy cream to the bowl of the stand mixer and beat at medium speed. As the whipped cream starts to take shape, pour in your melted gelatin mixture (this will help the cheesecake firm up). Beat until soft peaks are formed.
8. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Start by adding about a third of the whipped cream mixture and gently fold using a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl, and turning it as you go. Add the rest of the whipped cream and fold until thoroughly combined.
9. Pour your cheesecake mixture on top of the cooled pretzel crust, and smooth the top with an offset spatula or rubber spatula.
10. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
11. When ready to serve, pull the cheesecake out of the dish using the parchment paper and slice into squares. Top each square with a pretzel for extra adorable-ness!
12. Yield: 9 squares

If you’re like me, and you’ve found yourself with a lot of free time (and a lot of siblings) during the past few months, I highly recommend you plan a game of Family Chopped!

That’s what we did earlier this summer, and it was the inspiration for this recipe.

We broke out into teams of two, made my parents judges, and gave them the power to choose four secret ingredients that we would need to use to make a main dish and a dessert.

We knew that the secret ingredients would include a fruit, a vegetable, a spice, and a pantry item. The night before the contest, my mom sent out all but one of the secret ingredients, and we met with our teams to plan a meal that included fingerling potatoes, fennel seeds, pretzels, and a still-unknown fruit, that would be given to us right before the contest started.

For our main dish, my sister and I planned to make fingerling potato and fennel puree, with pan-seared chicken, topped with salad. For dessert, we dreamed up pretzel-crust no-bake cheesecake, with a peanut butter swirl, topped with a berry compote and fennel-infused whipped cream (can you tell I was more invested in the dessert part fo the contest?).

Contest time rolled around and we were given the final basket ingredient: prunes! It fit perfectly with our planned berry compote! As the clock started, I was feeling very confident.

….As our 2-hour cooking time flew by, my confidence faltered. If you think you’re stressed watching “Chopped”, try competing. Our potato puree turned into potato taffy, the chicken was dry, and the cheesecake was lumpy. But the flavors were pretty good, if you could look past all those complaints, so I didn’t give up hope yet.

We presented our dishes to the judges (who were pretty surprised by what we were all able to pull off) and waited for the results.

Devastatingly, my team ended up in last place!! (But only 3 points behind the first place winners- my parents were not the most critical of judges).

My brother and sister-in-law stole the show with pretzel-crusted chicken tenders, smashed fingerling potatoes with fennel aioli, a (better-than-ours) pretzel-crust cheesecake with prune topping, and a surprise special cocktail!

As a side-note, my sister-in-law’s specialty is definitely cheesecake, so it was a rookie mistake to go up against her. My sister/teammate pointed that out, but I was too excited to change the plan once the idea came to me, and we paid the price.

Despite the loss, I saw potential in my (mostly) no-bake cheesecake. The texture was off, there were a few too many components thrown in, and I was under a time crunch. But those were all very fixable problems, so I decided to give it another shot.

I simplified the recipe, opting out of the peanut butter swirl and additional toppings to focus on the pure, cheesecake-y flavor. I ensured it had plenty of time to set up in the fridge. I took all my competitive rage at failing the first time and poured it into this redemption cheesecake.

And I am very happy with the result! The cheesecake is creamy and set perfectly with more time, the pretzel crust adds a nice salty-sweet crunch, and they look way cuter than the first attempt.

There’s a 0% chance that these would end up on the chopping block!