Cheesecake Archives - Dees Platter

Mini Mango Cheesecake (No-Bake)

Mini Mango Cheesecake (No-Bake) could be a baked or no-bake dessert. If you are not comfortable with baking, you can try this delicious no-bake dessert. Market is flooded with mangoes this season – so buy the best quality mangoes and prepare this summer special chilled Mini Mango Cheesecake (no-bake).

Corona pandemic resulted into an extended country-wide lockdown, resulting into huge economic losses to various sections of the society. Included in this are the farmers, who could not sell their produce through the regular supply chain. However, many innovated by directly selling to consumers. Among them have been mango farmers who came to our doorstep and sold at reasonable rates, creating a win-win situation for both them and the consumers. I hope this could continue. But, for the moment, I went ahead and regularly purchased sweet, tasty mangoes and have tried many mango-based dishes, which you are seeing in this blog…Mango Shrikhand (curd based dessert) , Ripe Mangoes Gojju/Curry, Eggless Mango Mousse and Mangoshake (aamras).

Coming back to mango cheesecake – this dessert requires cream cheese Homemade Cream Cheese, whipping cream, sugar, mango puree and agar-agar or gelatine. I don’t use gelatine as I am vegetarian, but I couldn’t get agar-agar powder or china grass. If you don’t have whipping cream at home, you can use Amul dairy milk cream. But along with Amul milk cream, you will need agar-agar powder. It will help in setting the cheesecake.

Caster sugar is considered best for cheesecakes as it keeps the cheesecake smooth and creamy. But we can powder granulated sugar and sieve it in a very fine sieve so that there are no granules. Sugar quantity would depend on how sweet is mango puree. After mixing everything together, taste the batter once. If required, add some more powdered sugar and very gently fold in the batter.

Usually, for cheesecake, digestive/ marie cookies/graham crackers are used. But as I had butter cookies, I used them. As butter cookies have high concentration of butter, I reduced the quantity of butter while mixing in cookies crumb.

I have Khoya Cheesecake (fusion dessert) and Coconut Cheesecake recipes too in the blog. If interested, take a look.

Ingredients:

cookie crust

Cookies 100gm

Butter 20 gm

Filling

Cream cheese 200 gm

Powdered sugar 1/3 cup

Whipped cream 100 gm

Mango puree 100 gm

decoration

Round mango slices

Little bit more mango puree

Process:

Crush cookies in a zip lock bag and keep cookies crumb in a bowl. Add melted butter and mix nicely.

In 6 tiny bowls or small glasses spread cookies crumbs evenly and press nicely with the help of back of measuring spoon. Keep them in the fridge for half an hour so that crumbs become firm.

Prepare mango puree and keep it in the fridge.

Whip up cream cheese till it is smooth and then start adding caster sugar in small portions. You can reduce or add sugar as per your taste bud. Keep this ready cream cheese in a separate bowl.

Whip up whipping cream in a separate bowl. If you are using Amul milk cream, you have to add caster sugar also in small batches. Sugar is not required if you are using non dairy whipping cream.

Add mango puree in cream cheese and mix it.

Now mix this cream cheese batter in whipping cream by folding it gently with a spatula.

By now cookie crumbs must have settled down firmly – take out the bowls from the fridge and evenly spread cream cheese in all the bowls. Leave some space on the top of the bowl for mango puree.

Keep these bowls in the fridge for 3-4 hours so that cheesecake settles down. Once settled, take the bowls out and evenly spread fresh mango puree.

See how these cheesecake bowls got brighten up!

Keep them in the fridge again for the puree to be chilled and add small pieces of mango just before relishing.

Isn’t this such a tempting summer dessert!!!

June 14, 2020April 28, 2022

Deeksha Pathak97 Comments

Khoya Cheesecake (fusion dessert)

Khoya Cheesecake (fusion dessert) is a wonderful lip-smacking dessert that you can even prepare without baking. There are baked versions of cheesecakes also but to keep the recipe simple we are doing a no-bake version. Khoya/Mawa from milk is a very rich, delicious ingredient used for Indian sweets. Using khoya in cheesecake with Indian cookies ‘nankhatai’ crust gave it such a wonderful taste and I loved the way this Khoya Cheesecake(fusion dessert) looked.

When I started cooking in the kitchen, it was forced by my mother and my whole aim used to be to finish the given work fast as soon as possible and dash out of the kitchen.

Later, when I started staying in a different city alone because of my job, I had to cook because I needed something to fill the stomach.

After marriage I was completely a housewife, so started doing organized cooking. Some disasters happened and calls to mom before each festival for the recipe of a particular dish were regular.

Disasters in the kitchen never encouraged me to try the same dish again. As I used to feel that already I had wasted so much… I should not take a second chance.

Successful attempts and praises used to give energy and enthusiasm to try something new!!! But till now I was cooking only those dishes which had fixed recipes. It never occurred to me to do some experiments and create something new. Probably because I was in my own shell. My world was around my mother and my mother in law’s world where traditions were fixed. But now social media was slowly creeping into people’s life. People were getting introduced to unknown regions. I got introduced to the world of baking. I was so surprised to see that people bake bread and cookies in their kitchen ovens. Not only this, but many create new dishes by experimenting with two different types of recipes together.

I gathered courage and started baking in my microwave. Slowly we stopped buying any bakery stuff from the market as I got to know the difference between ingredients used in bakery and home-baked stuff.

Success boosts our confidence a lot!! I was willing to prepare a dessert which should be a fusion of western and Indian cuisine. But at the same time, it should not be complicated. Mawa/khoya (evaporated milk) a traditional, classic, rich ingredient in many Indian sweets preparations. A whole sweet could be done with khoya or it could be the base ingredient for other sweet or it can be used as a filling in sweets. It is even added in some vegetables and the best part is that I always prepare it at home rather than buying. So I decided to use khoya, an all-time favorite ingredient and prepare Khoya/Mawa Cheesecake. For the base of any cheesecake, Marie or graham crackers are generally used. I felt that instead of using graham crackers or marie cookies, Nankhatai (cookies prepared with clarified butter) would complement this cheesecake better.

Just a few days ago I had baked nankhatai by following the recipe from my very dear multi talented friend Archana Chauhan’s blog https://apinchoflyfe.com/2019/01/12/kesar-naankhatai/These kesar nankhatai complimented cheesecake so well.

I wanted to create a small border around the cheesecake along with the base from the cookies. I had seen some pictures of cheesecake like this, and this brown border had always attracted me….!!! Cheesecake looked very pretty with this brown border and with the addition of khoya this Cheesecake became a perfect symphony of Indo-Western cuisine culture!!!

Ingredients :

Crust

200 gm crushed nankhatai
3 tbsp melted butter

Filling

200 gm cream cheese
200 gm mawa/khoya
2 tbsp milk
100 gm powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp cardamom powder
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tsp rose essence (optional)

Topping/Decoration

Cardamom powder
Roasted mixed nuts
Dried rose petles
Saffron strands

Process:

Crush nankhatai in a zip lock bag and keep it in a bowl. Add melted butter to it and mix nicely.

In a springform tin spread this nankhatai mixture evenly and press it nicely with the help of the back of the spoon. If you want to add a little border at the sides of the cheesecake, spread nankhatai mixture slightly at the sides of the tin and press there also. Keep the tin in the fridge for half an hour so that the mixture becomes firm.

In a pan add milk and khoya and keep stirring it on sim heat until khoya turns into a thick paste consistency. Switch off heat and let it cool down.

Whip up cream cheese till it is smooth and then start adding caster sugar in small portions. You can reduce or add sugar as per your taste bud. Add cardamom powder and keep this ready cream cheese in a separate bowl.

Now whip up 1/2 cup of whipping cream till it gets stiff consistency.

Now gently add cream cheese and khoya in whipping cream. If you are interested, can add rose essence. I did not add because I wanted the fragrance of dried rose petals.

By now cookie mixture is settled down firmly – take out the tin from the fridge and spread evenly cream cheese, whipping cream and khoya mix in the tin. Keep it in the fridge for 4-5 hours or overnight to firm up.

Toast some mixed nuts and crush them. When cheesecake firms up, take it out from the fridge, loosen the pan and take out the cheesecake carefully and keep it on a separate plate. Decorate it on the top around the edges with crushed toasted nuts and dried rose petals. In the middle of the top sprinkle cardamom powder and some strands of kesar to add some more beauty and flavor.

Enjoy this delicious fusion dessert and if you have a big generous heart, share it with your friends !!

I loved a lot this slightly high brown border around it!

Did you like my experiment for creating a fusion dessert !!

I would be glad to hear from you all ❤️

March 2, 2019December 30, 2020

Deeksha Pathak102 Comments

Coconut Cheesecake (No-Bake)

Coconut Cheesecake (no – bake) is a dessert where no flour is required. You can bake a cheesecake and it can be prepared without baking also. I had no plans for this dessert. From cookies baking disaster Coconut Cheesecake(no-bake) was planned!!

I decided to bake coconut cookies and chocolate chips cookies in the evening.

I should never plan to bake anything in the evening…my first mistake.

Dinner preparations got pushed to a later hour, so I decided to prepare cookies after dinner…… my second mistake.

Baking cookies is not a big project but I prefer to cook or bake alone, otherwise I easily get distracted and end up forgetting to add some or other ingredient. That’s why I always bake in the afternoon when I am alone with my oven.

In the evening my daughter Apoorva is back from school and she starts telling her whole day stories. Then Manish is back from the office and TV is on. So I never bake anything during these hours. But that day I thought that as now I am baking cookies for such a long time so I wouldn’t do anything wrong. Basically what can go wrong in a cookie recipe and many people bake cookies while watching TV?

But I was definitely wrong. I was watching a comedy show on TV and completely forgot to add sugar in the coconut cookies. I had powdered sugar and left it in the jar. Took rest of the ingredients with me and kept everything on dining table. After baking first batch I wanted to taste warm cookie and realised my mistake!

These cookies had very mild sweet taste of coconut, but I knew very well that Manish is not going to eat them… I felt so sad for wasting so much of butter. I just couldn’t find any other way to use these sugar-less cookies.

Next day while scrolling down Instagram posts I saw one cheese cake post and immediately knew how I am going to use my sugar-less coconut cookies. I had cream cheese, desiccated coconut, whipping cream and condensed milk in my pantry. I decided to go ahead with these ingredients only for a no-bake coconut cheese cake.

In India we don’t get good quality dairy based whipping cream. All bakers use non dairy whipping cream of different brands. Amul brand has dairy based whipping cream in red colour pack but it is not available in all shops. Once when I saw this pack at my nearest grocery store, I bought a small pack to try it out. For coconut cheese cake I decided to use this, but while whipping, realised that it is taking its own sweet time to get stiff peaks. I gave up in between and thought that it might set in 5-6 hours in the fridge. It did set, but was not completely firm. That’s why you can see in the pictures that the top part of whipping cream in cheese cake is slightly loose from the sides. So if you try this cheesecake, go ahead with non-dairy whipping cream. We can add melted white chocolate or agar agar for loose cream to set firm.

For flavor, along with roasted coconut flakes, I added orange zest with whipping cream to balance sweet taste. Orange zest gave delicious fresh flavor and roasted coconut flakes added wonderful crunch along with cookie base.

Overall, I really loved and enjoyed this simple no-bake cheese cake experiment which was done only to use my sugar-less coconut cookies.

Ingredients :

cookies crust

250 gm sugar less coconut cookies
3 tbsp condensed milk
30 gm butter

filling

400 gm cream cheese
70 gm castor sugar

200 gm whipping cream
60 gm castor sugar

extra flavour and decoration

1+1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 cup roasted desiccated coconut flakes

Process :

Keep coconut cookies in a zip lock bag and crush them nicely.

In a bowl add crushed cookies, condensed milk and butter. Mix well everything and spread this mixture evenly in a spring form cake tin. Press this mixture nicely with the back of spoon. Keep it in the fridge to firm up for 20-30 minutes.

Whip up cream cheese till it is smooth and then start adding caster sugar in small portions. You can reduce or add sugar as per your taste bud. Keep this ready cream cheese in a seprate bowl.

Grate zest from the oranges.

Now whip up whipping cream and in small portions keep adding caster sugar. I have used dairy based Amul red pack whipping cream, so I have to add sugar. If you are using non dairy whipping cream, sugar is not required. Mix orange zest nicely in the cream (coconut cream can also be added).

By now cookie mixture is settled down firmly. Take out the pan from the fridge and spread evenly cream cheese.

Sprinkle some toasted coconut flakes.

Now spread whipping cream evenly.

Again sprinkle toasted coconut flakes all over the cream. Keep the pan in the fridge for 5-6 hours or overnight.

Later take out the pan from the fridge and carefully take out cheese cake from the spring form tin. Give it 5-7 minutes standing time because it would be too cold.