When celebrating spring, you can't beat cheesecake, truly. And my no-bake cheesecake
with blueberry sauce really hits the spot. Now, how is it that I got
through my whole baking career without ever making a no-bake cheesecake? And now I realize what I've been missing so it's time to share
this recipe with you. I have one and a half cups
of Graham Cracker crumbs and I will pour into that my half a cup of melted butter. This is unsalted butter. The butter is actually double the amount and that's because I need
to have this crust set up in the refrigerator. So now that I've got my butter worked in, it is quite moist but
that's expected to happen and it's soft now but because the crust is
chilled, it will set up firmly. I've got my spring form pan. For a no-bake cheesecake, I lined the bottom of
my pan with parchment. I lightly greased the pan
just so the parchment sticks. You can line the sides with parchment or here I have acetate, a clear plastic, and it really gives your
cheesecake a clean look to it so you don't have to put
anything on the sides. And just with a regular
tablespoon, pour this all in, and then just use the back
of the spoon to press it in an even layer just on the
bottom of the cheesecake. You don't want to go up the sides at all. There we go. You can see how smooth it is. Now I'm going to pop this in the freezer. So you can chill it for about an hour if you want in the fridge, but I find 10 minutes in
the freezer does the trick and that's basically all the
time I need to make my filling. All right, this cheesecake itself, this is absolutely magical. You get that silky smoothness that you expect out of a
cheesecake, a baked version, but yet with this no-bake cheesecake, it's got a fluffiness
that is just incomparable, almost mousse-like, yet you can a nice clean
slice out of this cheesecake. I've got 750 grams, so three packages of brick
cream cheese that I've softened. I've just whipped it up a little bit, but you really want to make
sure you soften it nicely before you start adding your sugar. (upbeat music) Now, I'll keep mixing and I
have one cup of icing sugar that I'm going to add a little at a time, scraping down the bowl as I go along, again to prevent lumps, and you'll find that the
cream cheese really softens up because the icing sugar
dissolves very quickly into it. There we go. Now the rest of the cheesecake assembly, I can easily do by hand because this cream cheese
now is so nicely softened. So you can see this is already nice and soft and fluffy, but next are the key ingredients that sets a no-bake cheesecake apart. First is half a cup of creme fresh. So I'll scrape all of that in, and to really work within
the fat of the cream cheese and the creme fresh, you need some acidity by adding a tablespoon and a half
of fresh lemon juice. All right, now the lemon juice isn't so much for flavor, even
though I love lemon flavor, and you could add lemon
zest to this recipe to really bolster that flavor, but the acidity in the lemon juice works with the creme
fresh and the cream cheese to set the cheesecake. That way you don't need eggs,
you don't need to bake it, and you don't need gelatin or
any other setting ingredients. I'll add a tablespoon of vanilla which is a generous amount but that is the singular
flavor of this cheesecake. I find it's fresh and fluffy and light and suits springtime fruits
to finish and serve it. I'll get to that blueberry
sauce in just a minute. And now for the final
ingredient, some whipped cream. This truly sets this cheesecake
apart from a baked one. So I've got one cup of whipping cream, I've just whipped up and popped in the fridge to keep it cold. And you want to fold this
in at the last minute. As you're folding this in, you can feel it actually
starting to set up as you're stirring it. Pull from the bottom and lift over so that you know you don't
have any cream cheese stuck at the bottom. Yeah, that cream cheese
was so soft to start, but yet you can see how it's
already starting to tighten up. Now I'll go grab that crust
that's been in the freezer. It doesn't have to be set
to any particular point. Honestly, 10 minutes in
the freezer does the trick. And the entire filling goes right on top. I just use my offset
spatula just to spread it. And all that's left to
do for the cheesecake is just to let it chill. Literally, you just let it
chill, minimum six hours, but that makes it a
great make ahead dessert because you can make this a day ahead, let it chill overnight. Nothing else to do. Well, there is something else to do, I want to make a fruit
sauce to serve with it. And depending on where
you are in the spring, or even getting into the summer season, or the occasion you're celebrating, you can tailor the fruit you serve with it to your family's tastes
and what is freshest. I love blueberry sauce with the cheesecake so I'm going to make a very simple one. I've got two cups of
fresh blueberries here and I'm going to get
that going on medium heat along with just a
tablespoon of lemon juice, and that's just to
balance out the flavors, and half a cup of sugar. And really you don't want
to overcook your fruits. I'm not trying to make a jam, I want a fresh tasting fruit sauce. So this just comes to a
simmer for about 10 minutes and then I'll thicken it up. Oh, look, how much juice comes
out of these blueberries, which is beautiful and delicious but you need to thicken it up. Otherwise, you'll have blueberry juices running all over the place. So I have one tablespoon
of cornstarch measured here and I'm gonna add about two tablespoons of cool water to this, you don't actually have
to measure that amount. And this is what's going
to thicken up the sauce. You always want to use cool water when you're making this cornstarch slurry. And as soon as you see the
mixture return to a simmer with those thickened bubbles, you want to take it off the heat and I let this cool down
completely to room temperature before I put it in the fridge to chill. So basically the same amount of time that it takes to chill the cheesecake, you've got your blueberry sauce and it'll be time for
that springtime occasion. (upbeat music) I didn't cover the
cheesecake when I chilled it. You definitely want to leave it uncovered so you don't get any marks
on that beautiful surface. And now it's time to plate. You can see that crust underneath there, pull away the acetate. But you can see how the crust set so well that you can move it easily
over to your serving plate. Oh, absolutely gorgeous. You know, it's amazing, I
still can't get over the fact that I have not until now
made a no-bake cheesecake. What was I thinking? This is so easy, creamy, fluffy, and nice. I have to show you what
it looks like inside. Absolutely perfect. You can see that fluffiness right through but you get this clean slice. I've got my chilled blueberry sauce here. What an irresistible way to celebrate your next
springtime occasion. Enjoy! I do love springtime and when it comes to baking
for spring occasions, there are so many sweet possibilities. I mean, between Mother's
Day and graduations, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays. You've got so much to choose from. So if you want that sweet little bite like the South Asian besan burfi with a toasted graham flour, or you want something
fluffy and sparkly lemony like my fluffy baked lemon donuts, or you do not feel like
turning on the oven but you want cheesecake? Well, then you have to
make my no-bake cheesecake with blueberry sauce. And remember, when you're
baking from the heart, that's how you make any
day into an occasion. Fluffy is the word of the day. (upbeat music)
