No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake - Gemma's Bigger Bolder Baking Ep 125

Hi Bold Bakers! I want to take advantage of strawberries while they're in season and at their very best. So we are going to make a no-bake strawberry cheesecake just like the ones that my mom used to make for me when I was a kid in Ireland. So let's get started. This strawberry cheesecake is perfect for summer and if you decorate it with fruit and flowers on top, it looks really impressive. And there's no reason why it can't be big and bold and easy at the same time. I'm going to whip up my cheesecake in my food processor and I'm actually going to make it from start to finish in here to make my life a lot easier. Add in your cookies into your food processor. Now I'm using graham crackers. I couldn't get my hands on a pack of digestive biscuits but you can always use those either. On with your lid, we're just going to pulse it up until it's fine crumbs. Okay, it just takes a few seconds. Those are looking good. Now into here, I'm going to add in my melted butter to bind them all together. Once it comes together, we can take it out. Look at that. It smells delicious. I can smell all the melted butter. And we are just going to press this into our springform cheesecake tin. Try and spread it around evenly and then pat it down with a spatula. Or you can even use your hands. I said it before and I'll say it again, the crust is my favorite part of desserts. I kind of think you're always working your way down towards there anyway. Okay, perfect. I'm going to pop them in the fridge. Let it just firm up and we're going to get started on our cheesecake filling. To color and flavor our cheesecake, we are using these lovely, juicy, fresh strawberries. Perfect this time of year. We're just going to pop them into our food processor. Just to add in some more sweetness, we're going to add a little bit of sugar. Now I know nowadays people are changing up their sugar so you can use stevia, coconut sugar, whatever your preference is. In desserts like this, it doesn't matter if you change it out. On with our lid and we're just going to pulse this until it resembles kind of a chunky puree. There you go. Only takes a few seconds. You want a little bit of chunky there for the texture. Also you don't want to break it down too much. Sometimes I always say that you can use frozen strawberries or fruit as a substitute. However, if you use frozen strawberries in a cheesecake, you can actually make your end result a little bit soft. So I recommend using fresh strawberries. Into our strawberries, we're going to add in our cream cheese. We're going to pop back on the lid. Now I like to blend up the cream cheese by itself before adding in the cream because sometimes they can actually have lumps. So I want to blend them all out first and then we'll add in the cream. This cheesecake does not contain eggs or gelatin so it's great for vegetarians. Okay, so I can see that it's smooth so I'm going to start to pour in our cream and keep mixing until it gets nice and thick. I can see it already thickening. This dessert takes no time at all and it's really great because in the summer, you do not have to turn on your oven. Okay, let's have a look. Ooh. Yummy, yummy, yummy. Look at that lovely color. You see how thick it got? You just have to hold out your nerve a little bit and it will get thicker. Lovely. Let it taste. Oh yummy. Oh yummy, yummy, yummy. This, I think in Ireland we eat a lot of cheesecake. I don't know why but we do. And this is something that my mom used to make pretty much every Sunday. We would help her make the base. We would help her make the filling. Sometimes she would use flavored jelly. Which I'm pretty sure she doesn't do anymore but it tasted really good. So this is the filling for our cheesecake. It's ready to go into our tin. Pour your cheesecake filling into the tin. And then with a spatula, just try and flatten out the top. Look at that beautiful color and that is all from the strawberries. Okay, and what I like to do is just give it a bit of a tap on the counter to let it settle and just if there's any air bubbles, just to pop those guys out. And it also helps to even out the top. Aw, look at this little guy. In no time at all, all made in the one machine, you can have this lovely strawberry cheesecake. Now because it doesn't contain eggs or gelatin, it actually needs to be in the fridge overnight just to make sure that it sets up nice and firm. I have lots of summer recipes coming up so make sure you subscribe to my channel. So here's a cheesecake I made yesterday because I wanted it to set and be nice and firm so I could slice it and show you what it's supposed to look like. What you might want to do is run a spatula around the edges very carefully just to make sure you can free it up so it'll come nice and cleanly out of the tin. Then open up the tin and it should just pop right out. Nice and cleanly. Now what you want to do is free the base from the bottom of the tin and then very gently and gingerly slide it onto your display plate. That is definitely a thing of beauty. Now this would not be a Big & Bold dessert without beautiful decoration on the top. So I have some fresh strawberries and I also have some great baby's breath. I love this to decorate cakes. It looks so beautiful. So I am just going to pile it high up on top. Putting baby's breath wherever I can. By decorating the top of a cake, already you have just elevated it and it looks so impressive. So when you're going to picnics or barbecues in the summer, this is how you want to present your desserts. As always, this is my favorite part. Serving yourself a nice big slice. It's got a great thick crust, a nice moussey-like filling and a mild sweetness from the strawberries. To me, this dessert is a winner. Just like I thought, it tastes as good as it looks. I hope you enjoyed this video and if you haven't already done so, then don't forget to tap that subscribe button. I'll see you back here next Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.