Closet Cooking

Cooking adventures in a small, closet sized, kitchen. - I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.

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No Bake Cheesecake

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No Bake Cheesecake
Cool and creamy cheesecake with no baking required.

Cheesecake is one of my all time favorite desserts. I have made several different types of cheesecakes but they have all been baked cheesecakes. The no-bake cheesecake has always interested me and it was time to try making one. I found a lot of different recipes no-bake cheesecakes, many using different ingredients. In the end I decided to go with a whipped cream and cream cheese mixture to form the cheesecake. With the cheesecake recipe decided it was time to think about a crust. I like a simple graham cracker crust but I was thinking that it would be nice with some pecans in it as well. I then thought that instead of adding sugar and butter to form the crust that I could just use some maple syrup to both add some sweetness and bind it together. With pecans and maple syrup already there I could not pass up on adding some blueberries so I placed a few blueberries in the cheesecake filling and a few more on top along with some maple syrup. The no-bake cheesecake turned out really well! It was lighter that a baked cheesecake and it was nice and creamy and cool and refreshing and good. If I had a choice between a baked and a no-bake cheesecake I would probably go for the baked but the no-bake is excellent in its own way. On a hot summer day it is hard to beat a no-bake cheesecake which does not require you to turn the oven or even the stove.

No Bake Cheesecake

No Bake Cheesecake

No Bake Cheesecake

Prep Time:15 minutes Total Time:15 minutes Servings: 2

Cool and creamy cheesecake with no baking required.

ingredients
  • 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (gluten-free for gluten-free)
  • 1/4 cup pecans, ground in food processor
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped
directions
  1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, ground pecans and maple syrup.
  2. Press the mixture into the bottom of two 3 inch spring form pans.
  3. Mix the cream cheese, lemon juice and sugar.
  4. Fold the cream cheese into the whipped cream.
  5. Place the cheese mixture on top of the crust.
  6. Chill in the fridge.
Similar Recipes:
Chocolate Cheesecake
Blueberry Mascarpone Cheesecake with Amaretti Crust
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
Orange Chocolate Cream Cheese Mousse
Blueberry Maple Pecan Frozen Yogurt
Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberry Jelly
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer says

    August 6, 2008 at 12:29 am

    What a great idea. I have never seen a no-bake cheesecake. This is especially great because no one in Mayberry AKA Southern California wants to turn on their oven. Thanks Kevin as always another hit!!

    Cheers
    Cathy

    PS – What a perfect entry for Southern Grace’s Beat the Heat!!

    Reply

  4. EAT! says

    August 6, 2008 at 1:25 am

    Don’t you just love the no bake cheesecake?!! but your recipe only makes 2 3-inch cakes? I’ll need to at least triple that recipe!!

    Reply

  5. Manggy says

    August 6, 2008 at 1:34 am

    That looks delicious, Kevin– I especially like the touch of maple syrup in the crust! 🙂
    Here we like to add gelatin to no-bake cheesecakes to add bite and to protect from melting 🙂

    Reply

  6. oggi says

    August 6, 2008 at 1:56 am

    I like that the recipe is for the mini pans..I usually bake my cakes using these. This no-bake is perfect for summer and I specially love the maple syrup and pecan in the crust, yum!:)

    Reply

  7. Anonymous says

    August 6, 2008 at 2:03 am

    My roomie and I are always looking for easy dessert recipes that we can put together in the sad excuse for a kitchen we have in our dorm. this definitely looks do-able…and delicious!

    Reply

  9. Elly says

    August 6, 2008 at 2:26 am

    Mmm, cheesecake is my absolute favorite dessert although I admit I’ve never made a no-bake. I am loving this crust with the pecans and maple syrup. Great combo!

    Reply

  11. _ts of [eatingclub] vancouver says

    August 6, 2008 at 3:39 am

    For some reason I’m averse to BAKING a cheesecake. (Not to eating it, hehe.) I’ve tried a no-bake one before using gelatin. It was a White Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake. Pretty good! Perhaps I’ll try making it your way (without the gelatin). =)

    Reply

  19. Paula says

    August 6, 2008 at 8:49 am

    Hey … Love the blue berries in your blog title! This cheesecake looks great. I like the idea of preparing this without turning on the oven. The maple syrup puts this over the top. Great recipe and photo!

    Reply

  21. Clumbsy Cookie says

    August 6, 2008 at 11:10 am

    I’m with you Kevin in prefeing baked cheesecakes, but also love no-bake! This look great with the blueberries in the middle! And perfect fot this hot weather, when turning the oven on is a torture!

    Reply

  24. jodycakes says

    August 6, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    I love how you’re using the blueberries this week – most excellent.
    I think this recipe is a winner!
    Good luck in the Beat the Heat contest!!!
    jodycakes

    Reply

  27. The DeL Brothers says

    August 6, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    We have just found your blog and…….all of your recipes are fabulous! Evvery time I looked at a recipe, I would go OOH AHH! I could have commmented on all your recipes, but then I’d be here all day!! I did look through your whole archive:)
    Thanks for doing this blog!

    Reply

  28. lisa says

    August 6, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    This looks scrumptious! Question: the last photo shows the cheesecake drizzled with…. something. What is it? Is it maple syrup-ish or did I miss that part? TIA.

    Reply

  29. Dawn says

    August 6, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    Kevin I would have done the same thing by adding pecans. Good thinking. I’m also interested in adding coconut at some point, but I don’t know what kind of cheesecake to make with that.
    Gorgeous pic.

    Reply

  33. Lida says

    August 6, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    looks delicious!!!
    i’m so sorry to keep bugging you about this… but it looks like i accidentally created 2 urls for myself, and i’ve only been posting to one of them. only the one i haven’t posted to has the “layout” option… the other one just has something called “template” and it seems like the only way to get links to that is to get a blogroll. the problem was that when i tried to get a blogroll, i couldn’t figure out where to paste it into my template to get it to show up.
    thank you so much for your help

    Reply

  37. Cheryl says

    August 6, 2008 at 4:43 pm

    Every day is an adventure coming here! I can’t wait to see what you have cooked up. I have never tried a no bake cheesecake but I will now! Excellent!

    Reply

  38. Grace says

    August 6, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    this really is a perfect entry–no heat needed to prepare it and it would cool you off as you feasted on it. i love the crust, i love the blueberries, i love it all. thanks for participating with this awesome dessert! 🙂

    Reply

  40. Jeanne says

    August 6, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    OMG – that looks incredibly good! I am usually a baked cheesecake fan but as you say, an unbaked cheesecake (or what I grew up calling a fridge tart) has its own charm, especially in hot weather. Can’t wait to try your crust – it sounds awesome!

    Reply

  41. Sandie says

    August 6, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    Mmm… this sounds ideal on a 90+ degree day, especially with this crust and all those luscious blueberries – they are one of my favorite fruits!

    Reply

  48. Lori says

    August 7, 2008 at 8:32 am

    Wow, I want a piece of that! I love blueberry cheesecake. And if I have to make it myself, I’m also a fan of the no bake version.

    Reply

  67. Anonymous says

    November 19, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    Thanks for the no bake recipe. I had some extra cream cheese around, so I made this, topped it with a sweet strawberry glaze, and added some frozen yogurt ice cream for good measure. Heavenly! : )

    Reply

  68. lilkunta says

    December 17, 2008 at 2:05 am

    @kevin: I HATE crm cheese but will the lemon juice & whip hide the its taste?

    Also may whipped cream from teh can be substituted 4 teh cool whip?

    @cathy: your comment is SO FUNNY & so TRUE!

    pls let me know.My email is my naem at excite domain [dot com].

    Reply

  69. Kevin says

    December 18, 2008 at 1:14 pm

    lilkunta: Cool whip should work just as well as whipped cream. With the cool whip, sugar and lemon juice the taste of the cream cheese should be minimized. A great alternative might be some mascarpone cheese.

    Reply

  70. Lizz says

    February 28, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Made it and served it frozen and it was wonderful! I made a mistake with the amount of cream cheese and it ended up a bit too heavy, but all in all it was a wonderful recipe and I’m definitely going to try it again. 😀

    Reply

  72. Anonymous says

    May 29, 2009 at 3:31 am

    Sounds like a fantastic recipe! This type of cheesecake is also amazing with a layer of raspberry or other light-flavored jello on top, although it takes it down a notch on the impressive gourmet-looking food factor calculator.

    Reply

  73. Anonymous says

    September 12, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    I have never eaten a non-bake cheesecake but yours sounds and looks delish! Thanks for sharing your innovative recipe. x Jo

    Reply

  75. Anonymous says

    September 29, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    What a beautiful little cake! I have some limoncello left from summer and will try that in place of the lemon juice. Thanks for a great idea for tonight's dessert!

    Reply

  78. Tanu says

    May 24, 2010 at 4:51 am

    Hi Kevin,

    Very recently I have started following your blog and no bake cheesecake was the first one i tried out. it was yummy !!
    Thank you so much for the recipe.

    Reply

  79. Anonymous says

    June 9, 2010 at 11:49 am

    Hi Kev. I've bookmarked this recipe for a looooong time and I think I'm ready to make it soon! I have a 9 inch springform pan though so could you please advise me on whether I should double or triple the recipe? Thank you in advance.

    -S

    Reply

  80. Kevin says

    June 11, 2010 at 10:58 am

    For the 9 inch spring form pan I would go with something like this:

    Maple Pecan Crust

    Ingredients:
    3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
    1/2 cup pecans (ground in food processor)
    4-6 tablespoons maple syrup

    Directions:
    1. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, ground pecans and maple syrup.
    2. Press the mixture into the bottom of your mini spring form pans.

    No Bake Cheesecake

    Ingredients:
    2 8 ounce package cream cheese (room temperature)
    2 tablespoons lemon juice
    1/3-1/2 cup sugar
    1 cup heavy cream (whipped)

    Directions:
    1. Mix the cream cheese, lemon juice and sugar.
    2. Fold the cream cheese into the whipped cream.
    3. Place the cheese mixture on top of the crust.
    4. Chill in the fridge.

    Reply

  85. Jen says

    November 29, 2010 at 6:05 am

    I just made this with a few modifications! I made a basic graham crust (no maple syrup), doubled the recipe and added a few splashes of Irish Cream when mixing the cream cheese up….yummy!

    Reply

  86. Min @ HonestVanilla says

    December 5, 2010 at 7:17 am

    I just made this! Totally *love* it! 🙂 I didn't have pecans so I just used digestive biscuit as base. One question though, I felt the top didn't set, is it because I didn't whipped the cream enough? I posted up the pictures anyway if you are not sure what I meant

    Reply

  87. Kevin says

    December 16, 2010 at 11:57 am

    Min @ HonestVanilla: You need to whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks and you need to let the cheesecake chill out in the fridge for a few hours for it to 'set'. I am a bit surprised that yours did not set given that you doubled the cream cheese in it.

    Reply

  89. gail says

    January 15, 2011 at 8:54 am

    Hey there, thanks for the recipe – this was great! It's the recipe where I conquered whipped cream without turning it into butter (yeah what a noob right lol!) But I did add some vanilla and slightly more lemon juice to it though.

    =)
    Gail

    Reply

  91. fooderific says

    August 9, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    I changed this a bit by using ground almonds and sweet berries in sad of the pecans and blueberries. I also used smaller runs cookie cutters as the molds and put waxed paper in them so that the cheesecakes wouldn't stick. we'll see how they turn out.

    Reply

  92. fooderific says

    August 9, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    I changed this a bit by using ground almonds and sweet berries in sad of the pecans and blueberries. I also used smaller runs cookie cutters as the molds and put waxed paper in them so that the cheesecakes wouldn't stick. we'll see how they turn out.

    Reply

  95. Constant Erratic says

    August 27, 2011 at 6:27 am

    I just stumbled upon your blog and I am thrilled to have found recipes that are new but not full of exotic ingredients, insanely long wait times, or complicated steps. I, too, have been trying to change things up in the kitchen, and while I have ventured into homemade cheeses, sauces and preserves, I keep forgetting to find everyday meals. Thankfully, I could make a handful of your recipes right now if I wanted- including this divine-looking cheesecake! This is the first no-gelatin recipe I've found! Thank you for sharing your great ideas! 😀

    Reply

  97. Jan says

    August 30, 2011 at 1:00 am

    I am not fond of baked cheesecakes, so I have been adapting the baked recipes by removing the eggs and adding Gelatine. I love your Blueberry Cheesecake

    Reply

  102. kevin says

    August 11, 2013 at 6:49 pm

    Judy Goldin: You can replace the graham cracker crumbs with vanilla wafer crumbs or a similar neutrally flavoured cookie crumb or you could do an all ground nut crust.

    Reply

  103. Carole says

    November 29, 2013 at 2:26 am

    I made a yogurt 'cheesecake' for years, using flavored yogurt and whipped topping. I'll have to revisit that recipe, and try this one. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

    Reply

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