No bake gingerbread cheesecake

A chilled desert with festive season spices.

This no-bake gingerbread cheesecake is the perfect, easy, make-ahead, Christmas dessert that’s guaranteed to impress your guests. It’s smooth, creamy, and packed with classic festive season warm spices and double dose of ginger – starting with a gingersnap cookie crumb crust. Both the base and the filling are completely ‘no bake’ and only take a few minutes of prep. With the Vibe Blender System, you’ll be gifted with a seriously smooth dessert that sets beautifully. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill!

For stress free entertaining, make this one a day or two ahead. Without eggs and baking, there is virtually zero room for error. You and your guests are going to love it!

Cream cheese: If you are going to have cheesecake, you want it to be decadently creamy. Choose only full fat cream cheese. For the yogurt lovers out there, you can go that extra culinary step and drip homemade yogurt overnight and make your own yogurt cheese. Learn how here. If using store bought cream cheese, leave it out on the bench until it’s properly soft. This will make blending it much easier.

Crushing biscuits: The Vibe Blender makes cookie crumb in seconds. Before you begin, make sure the blender jug is completely dry. The blades do the job best when not overloaded, so work in two or three batches. If crumb clumps under the blades, use a blunt butter knife to poke it out. 

Setting the cheesecake: For best results, set the cheesecake in the fridge first, and then the freezer. In hot weather it is best to serve it from the freezer to ensure high, clean slices.

Decorate: We’ve gone with a Christmas theme, adding homemade gingerbread stars but a sprinkling of crumbled gingersnap cookies, or a light dusting of cinnamon and/or whipped cream looks and tastes just as fabulous.  

WATCH HOW HERE

INGREDIENTS

Base
250 grams gingersnap cookies
115 grams butter melted

Cheesecake
300ml / 1¼ cups whipping cream
500 grams cream cheese (at room temp) or firm dripped yogurt cheese
1 cup brown sugar lightly packed
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon powdered ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Whipped cream and ginger biscuits to decorate.

METHOD

Base
1.   Generously grease the base and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with butter.
2.   Snap the biscuits in half and add a third to the Vibe Blender jug. Secure the lid on, then ‘pulse’ several times. Tip the crumb into a large mixing bowl then repeat with the remaining biscuits. If biscuit crumb clumps under the blades, use a blunt butter knife to poke it out.
3.   Pour melted butter over the crumb and mix well. It should resemble wet sand.
4.   Tip the crumb mixture into the prepared tin. Use your fingers or the back of a spoon to firmly press into the base and halfway up the sides to form a crust.
5.   Place in the fridge or freezer to set.

Cheesecake
6.  Wipe out the blender jug with a clean, dry kitchen towel. No need to wash it.
7.  Pour the cream into the jug and secure the lid on. Blend on ‘smoothie’ mode at the lowest speed. Stop and check the consistency when you hear the cream thickening. The time it takes to thicken cream varies. High fat cream may only require 20-40 seconds. You want your whipped cream to be as thick as possible but don’t whip it so much that it turns into butter.
8.   Pour the cream into a large bowl and set aside. Don’t worry if cream is left around the blender blades.
9.   Add the room temperature cream cheese, brown sugar, vanilla, and ground spices to the blender jug. Secure the lid on and blend on medium speed until smooth and incorporated. If the cream cheese is firm, you may need to stop and push the cheese down into the blades.
10.  Pour the cream cheese mixture into the bowl of cream and fold gently with a spatula to combine.

11.  Pour into the prepared base and smooth out the top. Tap the tin a few times on the bench to remove pockets of air.
12.  Chill in the fridge to set for 6 hours or overnight or set in the fridge for 2-3 hours and then in the freezer for 2-3 hours before serving. If it has set completely solid in the freezer. Take it out 30 mins before serving.
13.  Top with whipped cream, crumbled gingersnap cookies, and dust with cinnamon.
14.  Slice and serve.

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