No-bake Oreo cheesecake

One for the kids today! But not necessarily exclusively - I had a good few spoons of the mix while we made it.

It’s a great recipe for slightly older kids to make themselves without any help, my daughter is 10 and she could easily follow the instructions. She also loved telling me to stop interfering and let her get on with it. I pretty much need my hands tied behind my back to stop me getting involved where cooking is concerned! I can’t bloody help myself, but I had to learn to step back while she was doing her thing!

After our practise session in the afternoon, my daughter and a couple of her friends made the cheesecake as part of a Zoom cookalong in the evening; they loved cooking together and pudding was a massive hit. And yes Ella-Rose ate two cheesecakes that day!

The ingredients should be available locally, so this is an easy one to throw together without much planning, but if you can’t get crème fraîche you could use whipped double cream instead.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 5 Oreos

• 100g cream cheese

• 40g / 2 tbsp crème fraîche or whipped double cream

• 1 tbsp icing sugar 

Method

• Put 4 Oreos in a small plastic bag and bash gently with a rolling pin leaving some larger pieces. 

• Mix the cream cheese, crème fraîche and icing sugar in a bowl with a fork.

• Put 1 tbsp of Oreo crumble in to the cream mix and stir well. 

• Put ½ tbsp of Oreo crumble into two small glasses and spoon on the cream mix. 

• Sprinkle a little crumble and half an Oreo on top to finish. 

tip

• Assemble the cheesecakes at the last minute or the base and topping will lose it’s crunch.

no-bake blueberry cheesecake

I first made a version of these for one of my supper clubs back in the good old days when we’re were allowed to do crazy things like have dinner with friends.

This time I’m hosting an online Cookalong with a group of friends on Friday night so I thought I’d tweak the recipe to make it Zoom-friendly and get a quick practise in.

I streamlined the recipe a bit so it’s easier to make, but still really tasty, plus it can also be adapted to different tastes: you can switch the fruit, use fresh when it’s in season and choose the nuts and biscuits that you prefer for the base.

Cheesecake is one of my favourite ever desserts as I love the combination of crunch, cream and fruit; this is a quick no-bake version that’s ready in minutes, but tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen!

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 120g frozen blueberries

• 2 tsp soft brown sugar

• 15g / 1 tbsp almonds or any other nut

• 100g cream cheese, room temp

• 40g/ 2 tbsp crème fraiche, room temp

• 1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

• 2 Digestive or Hobnob biscuits

Method

• Preheat the oven to 160ºc.

• Add the blueberries and sugar into a medium sized pan and warm gently with the lid on for 5 minutes and then take it off for a further 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

• Put the nuts on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 7 minutes. Leave to cool.

• Whisk the cream cheese and crème fraîche in a small bowl with a fork.

• Add the icing sugar and whip with a fork.

• Put the cooled nuts in a bag or teacloth and gently bash with a rolling pin.

• Then add the biscuits to the bag and repeat.

• Put half the digestive and nut mix into the glass, spoon over half the cream mix, top with blueberry compote and then repeat all 3 layers.

tip

• Feel free to switch the fruit if there’s a berry you prefer, but remember to adjust the amount of sugar depending on sharpness. You need minimal extra sugar for blueberries as they’re naturally quite sweet, but lots more for raspberries or blackberries.

• I suggest using frozen berries to keep the cost down and you can either turn the whole bag into compote or save the rest for smoothies. Compote will keep in the fridge for 3-4 weeks and is great on all kinds of breakfast cereals - porridge, museli, granola. Read my post on compote here.