We had some friends for dinner the other night, and knowing how much of a sweet tooth one has, I knew dessert was a must. Since it was last minute, and I was out of boxed brownie mix (my favorite and go-to!) I had to scramble. Enter – no bake cheesecake. I had all the ingredients, I just needed to throw it together. My oldest sous-chef made the crust, and I went to work on the filling. Whipped it up, and poured it into the crust. Popped it in the fridge for an hour and it looked awesome. Brought it out, sliced into it and it was a runny mess! Literally didn’t even look like a slice of cake or anything known to resemble a pie triangle. More like running hot lava down the sides of a mountain. Or in this case, the sides of a graham cracker crust. It tasted good, it just didn’t look so hot.

I couldn’t really figure out where it had gone wrong until my trusty sous chef reminded me that the filling was nice and firm right up until I added the lemon juice. Even though the recipe said that was how it would “set” the cheesecake, it just ended up ruining it. So the next day I started over, determined to get a simple no bake cheesecake out of the deal.

I played around with the amounts of acid and cream cheese and finally just decided to deep-six the citrus totally. I instead used lemon zest to add a little zing and voila! Firm yet tasty cheesecake filling in under an hour. I also threw in some raspberries because they needed to be used and they added a nice little extra touch – and taste!

Recipe

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 4 tbs butter – melted
• 6 oz cream cheese – full fat – softened at room temperature
• 7 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 lemon zested
• handful of berries
• 4 oven safe ramekins

Stir the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs together. Press the crumbs into the sides and bottom of the ramekins to form a crust. You can either leave them be until the filling is ready or cook them at 400 for 5 minutes to make the crust extra crunchy. Totally up to you!

Next, whip the cream cheese until it is nice and fluffy. You’ll know if it’s too cold because all of the cream cheese will stick to the beaters! Slowly mix in the sweetned condensed milk. Beat on medium until well incorporated. Zest the lemon and drop in the berries. Don’t over mix.

Add the mixture to the ramekins and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs and berries.

Now park those cups in the fridge for one hour! Ta da! Easy peasy cheesecake cups. These are by no means a fancy cheesecake from NYC but they do scratch an itch when you’re in the mood for that creamy silky goodness but don’t have time to buzz into the city. They are great as a small snack, or as a dessert for a dinner party.

You could even use the filling as a cookie dip! The possibilities are limitless.

Bon Appetit!