No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

 Plump Strawberries.
Ripe Strawberries.
Bright Red heart shaped strawberries.
Hiding under leafy greens.

Pluck the berry,
 in the summer sun.
Pinch the stem,
Have some fun.
Twist the stem,
Almost done.

 Put the berry,
 in a cup.
Better yet,
Just eat it up...

I made this  delicious melt in mouth Cheesecake last night for my little niece who loves Strawberries. I did not take the traditional route with cream cheese but substituted it with our very own desi  cottage cheese .No one was able to guess the ingredients when they ate this cake. This cake is very simple to put together and is a boon in summers when the electricity supply is erratic and you dont want to take a risk with regular baked cakes. I have used Gelatin here but vegetarians can use agar-agar or china grass instead.

Ingredients


for the base

· 30-35 Digestive biscuits(I used one full big pack of Mcvities)
. 2-3 tsp of milk
. 50 gms butter

for the cheesecake
. 200 gms paneer/cottage cheese
. 200 ml fresh cream(I used Amul)
. 400 ml condensed milk(I used one full tin of Amul mithai mate)
. 350 gms Strawberry Puree
. 1 tsp vanilla extract
. a pinch of salt
. 2 tsp Gelatin 
. 1/2 cup water

for the Glaze
. 1/2 cup strawberry puree
. 2 tsp of sugar
. 2 tsp gelatin
. 3 tsp water

                                 

Instructions

1.Grease an 18 cm spring-form pan with butter. Crush the biscuits in a grinder. Add the butter and milk, mix well.Press it in the bottom of the cake mould.Keep this in the fridge at least for an hour.

2. Puree the strawberries in the mixie with two spoons of sugar. I used around thirty big strawberries for this. And because my strawberries were very tart I landed up adding sugar .It can be avoided if you have the sweeter variety. Cook this puree for a few minutes over the gas to thicken it. Keep aside and let it cool.

3. Stir the gelatin in half cup of water. Keep aside for five minutes to allow it to bloom. Microwave this mixture for thirty seconds and you will obtain a clear solution.Of course you can heat it over the gas too instead of using the microwave.Leave aside to cool.
4.Blend the crumbled paneer, condensed milk and fresh cream together in a mixer. Combine Vanilla extract and salt too. Add the cooled strawberry puree and gelatin mixture and blend again.
5. Pour this mixture over the cold biscuit base and keep this covered in the fridge to set for eight hours minimum.
6. For the glaze, puree the strawberries and sugar to get half a cup of puree. This is where I goofed up a little bit. I ran short of strawberries and could get only 1/4 cup of puree. So I added 1/4 of ready made strawberry crush.This did not make a lot of difference to the taste but the color of my glaze changed entirely. I also omitted the sugar here because I added the already sweetened crush.When I had made this cake earlier this year, the glaze was a beautiful bright red but yesterday it became mauve in color..a little disappointed in the looks department but the heavenly taste of it made me forget about this lack of colour and sheen later.
7. Stir 2 spoons of gelatin in three tablespoon of  water and keep aside for five minutes to let it bloom.Then microwave for thirty seconds to obtain a clear solution.Keep aside to cool.
8. Add the cooled gelatin mixture to the strawberry puree and mix well. Take the cheesecake out of the fridge and pour this glaze over it. Again put this in the fridge for four hours for the glaze to set.
9. Once the glaze is set ,gently remove the ring of the spring form pan and slice to serve.