No-bake passion fruit cheesecake

Difficulty 2/5

This passion fruit cheesecake is my new obsession. I had never done a no-bake cheesecake before and I’m not disappointed at all. It’s so smooth and rich it had me head over heels. I did it in a springform pan, which required me to freeze it and then unmould it, but I like it because you actually get to see the layers. If you don’t fancy the extra work, just like a pie mould with the crackers and butter all the way around the mould and then just put the filling inside and into the fridge. You won’t be able to un-mould it though :).

Portions: 8-10 slices, 16cm springform mould or a regular pie size mould

Ingredients:
For the passion fruit curd:
– 125g passion fruit pulp (including seeds), or 90ml passion fruit juice. Fresh is best, though! This was about 5 small passion fruits, but if you have access to the large yellow ones, you’ll need about 3.
– 1 eggs and 2 yolks
– 45g sugar
– 20g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge

For the cheesecake:
– 225g cream cheese
– 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
– 140g passion fruit curd from above
– 95g whipping cream
– 30g icing sugar

For the crust:
– 200g graham crackers (US) / digestive biscuits (UK)
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 1 1/2 tsp salt
– 80g unsalted butter

For decorating:
– a bit of passion fruit pulp
– 100ml whipping cream, cold from the fridge
– 20g icing sugar
– 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

Procedure:
1. First, we need the juice from the passion fruit. For this, we put the pulp in the blender and then pass through a fine sieve.
2. Now we mix 90ml of the passion fruit juice with the other ingredients for the passion fruit curd (except the butter) and put it on a bain marie on a medium-low heat.3. Stir constantly with a whisk (or you’ll get scrambled eggs!) until it has thickened to a degree a bit less than a mayonnaise.4. Now we cut the butter in small cubes and add them without the heat on. Stir constantly until no butter lumps remain. 5. Using an electric mixer, fluff up the cream cheese, whipping cream, sugar and vanilla essence until if puffs up a bit and is really creamy.6. Add the curd and mix in folding movements.7. For the crust, melt the butter and mix with the rest of the ingredients. The butter will help us have a nice crust that will firm up in the fridge. Because I’m using a cake ring or springform pan, I put the crust only on the bottom. However, if you want to simplify the process, put it on the base and edges of a pie dish. Press it down using your fingers or the back of a spoon so that it’s nice and compact.8. Put the cheesecake mix on top. At this point I put mine in the freezer so I could unmould it afterwards, but if you’re using a pie dish, then just put it in the fridge for 6 hours. In my case, then, this went into the freezer for 6 hours and then I left it outside for 1 hour so the edges would melt a bit, and then I just took the mould off. If the sides are not even, you can go around with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Then it goes back into the firdge for about 4 hours so it goes to the right consistency.9. For the decorating whipped cream, mix the really cold whipping cream (straight from the fridge) with the other ingredients on an electric mixer until it’s nice and fluffy but not too firm or it will look like butter. I used a dented tip to decorate each portion with a rosette. A nice trick to have even portioning is to start with a cross and then decorate in between.10. Finally, I put the pulp from 1 small passion fruit (or 1/2 a large one) in the center to increase the intensity of colour and flavour 🙂

I hope you liked this! It’s an easy way to make cheesecake without worrying about the cracks on top, burning or having too much of an eggy taste. Also, because it’s stored in the fridge, it’s a nice and fresh dessert :).