Sunny Strawberry Chilly Cheesecake
Make this Chilly cheesecake (read: no bake!!) ahead of time - you gotta wait about 12 hours before you can slice it! But this fluffy, not-too-sweet, beautiful chilled cheesecake is going to be a delicious slice of summer.
Time: 30 mins + 12 hrs chillin’
Yield: 10-ish servings
Author: Heather
Skill Level: a bit above basic, a bit below medium…like a bedium?
Why this is SO good:
It’s a dreamy combo of freshly whipped cream, classic Jell-O, and cheesecake goodness, without running the oven in the heat of the summer! It slices beautifully, tastes amazingly, and refreshes strawberr-ily!
Ingredients:
Crust
16 graham cracker sheets
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
10 TBSP butter, melted
Non-stick cooking spray
Filling
1 1/4 cup heavy cream, cold!!
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste or extract
3x 8 oz cream cheese bricks, room temp
1/2 cup Sunny Strawberry Sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
1 box Strawberry Jell-O (3 oz package)
6 TBSP boiling water
1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries (or be dramatic and use whole strawberries!)
How to make the crust:
Put the 16 Graham Cracker Sheets in a blender with the 1/2 cup Brown Sugar.
Process until its finely ground, the slowly add the 10 TBSP of melted butter. Look like soggy sand? Perfect, it’s ready!
Spray a 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray.
Dump the graham cracker mixture into the pan, and press down on the bottom, and a bit up the sides too.
Stick it in the freezer until step #1 in the Put it Together Part.
How to make the filling:
Put the 1 1/4 cup heavy cream and the 1 tsp vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, and mix medium high until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a bowl and stick it in the fridge until Filling Step #7.
Swap out the whisk attachment for the paddle attachment on your stand mixer.
Put the 3 bricks of 8 oz cream cheese into the stand mixer and beat on medium until it’s soft and creamy, scraping down the sides every so often.
Add the 1/2 cup Sunny Strawberry Sugar, the 1/4 cup powdered sugar, the 1 tsp lemon zest, and the 2 tsp lemon juice to the cream cheese and beat it. (If you’re from the 80’s you may hear the Michael Jackson tune as you do so…)
In a separate bowl, whisk the 3 oz package of Strawberry Jell-O with the 6 TBSP of boiling water until everything is dissolved…then add it to the still-beatin’ cream cheese mix.
Beat the cream cheese mix about 2 more minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides to make sure every last bit is smooooooth.
Get the whipped cream out of the fridge, and carefully fold 1/3 of it into the cream cheese mix with a spatula. Then fold in another 1/3 of the whipped cream and mix…then the last bit. Be gentle!
Now put it all together:
Get the crust out of the freezer, pour the filling into the middle and then spread it outward into an even layer.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours!!
Just before you serve, put the chopped strawberries on top! Be fancy, or just dump ‘em right on!
How to store it:
You can make this up to two days ahead, but don’t freeze it! Cream Cheese + Jell-O + freezing = weird consistency!
So, what if:
That whipped cream kinda looks like butter. Ok, just add a bit more heavy cream and keep whipping, it will come back!
It’s more pudding than cheesecake… Well, serve it in bowls this time around and call it a mousse cheesecake, no one will really care I promise! I’d bet the gelatin either wasn’t dissolved completely before it went into the cheesecake mix, or there was too much water - notes for next time!
I don’t have fresh Strawberries. No worries! you can swap that for whatever you like really. If there canned strawberry topping you enjoy, go with that! You could throw some frozen strawberries in a blender and make your own sauce of sorts. Or just go with it like the cheesecake is, au natural! It’s pretty pink hue is pleasant just as it is :)
