No-Bake Icebox Cheesecake
No eggs and no oven: cream cheese beaten with sugar, lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla bean, lightened with whipped cream, spread into a brown sugar graham crust and chilled overnight, then finished with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Wikipedia's cheesecake article says modern cheesecakes come baked or unbaked, and that the uncooked, crumb-crust type was invented in the United States. It belongs to the family of American icebox desserts: Wikipedia's icebox pie article cites a strawberry icebox pie recipe from a Muncie, Indiana, newspaper in 1937, and says these pies were kept cool in an icebox. Japan adopted the idea too: Wikipedia and Metropolis both say Japanese bakers call the no-bake kind "rare cheesecake," often set with gelatin or agar.
This version, from Food Network Kitchen, uses neither gelatin nor eggs. The whole trick is whipped cream folded into sweetened cream cheese, which sets firm enough to slice after a night in the refrigerator. Because nothing is cooked, it has no raw eggs at all, which is the safe way to make an unbaked cheesecake.
Why it works the kitchen science
Whipped cream as the setting agent
The air and the fat in stiffly whipped cream hold the cream cheese up, and a night of cold firms both, so the cake slices without gelatin or eggs.
A frozen crust
Freezing the pressed crumbs sets the butter, so the crust holds its shape under a wet filling that never goes into an oven.
Step by step
- Step 1
Pulse the graham crackers, brown sugar and salt in a food processor into fine crumbs. Drizzle in the melted butter and pulse until evenly moistened.
- Step 2
Press the crumbs firmly over the bottom and about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan, leaving a 1/4-inch rim at the top, smoothing them with the bottom of a measuring cup. Freeze about 20 minutes, until firm.
- Step 3
Whip 3/4 cup of the cream to stiff peaks, 1 to 2 minutes with a mixer on medium (3 to 4 minutes by hand). Set it aside in the refrigerator.
- Step 4
Beat the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar with the paddle on medium speed 3 to 4 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl. Lower the speed to medium-low and beat in the lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla bean paste, 1 to 2 minutes, just until combined.
- Step 5
Fold the whipped cream gently into the cream cheese mixture with a large spatula.
- Step 6
Spread the filling in the crust and smooth the top. Cover tightly and refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 24, until set: the center should hold its shape and barely move when you nudge the pan (no temperature check is needed, since nothing raw needs cooking).
- Step 7
Just before serving, whip the remaining 3/4 cup cream with 1/4 cup sugar to soft peaks. Run a knife around the pan, remove the ring, pipe the cream around the edge and top with berries. Keep it refrigerated.
No-Bake Icebox Cheesecake
Serves 12 · one 10-inch cheesecake · 45 min total
Crust
- 12 oz graham crackers (about 18 sheets), broken up
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 11 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Filling
- 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
- 3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
Topping
- 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Fresh berries, for serving
Method
- Pulse the graham crackers, brown sugar and salt in a food processor into fine crumbs. Drizzle in the melted butter and pulse until evenly moistened.
- Press the crumbs firmly over the bottom and about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan, leaving a 1/4-inch rim at the top, smoothing them with the bottom of a measuring cup. Freeze about 20 minutes, until firm.
- Whip 3/4 cup of the cream to stiff peaks, 1 to 2 minutes with a mixer on medium (3 to 4 minutes by hand). Set it aside in the refrigerator.
- Beat the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar with the paddle on medium speed 3 to 4 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl. Lower the speed to medium-low and beat in the lemon juice, sour cream and vanilla bean paste, 1 to 2 minutes, just until combined.
- Fold the whipped cream gently into the cream cheese mixture with a large spatula.
- Spread the filling in the crust and smooth the top. Cover tightly and refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 24, until set: the center should hold its shape and barely move when you nudge the pan (no temperature check is needed, since nothing raw needs cooking).
- Just before serving, whip the remaining 3/4 cup cream with 1/4 cup sugar to soft peaks. Run a knife around the pan, remove the ring, pipe the cream around the edge and top with berries. Keep it refrigerated.
Adapted from Food Network Kitchen, "The Best No-Bake Cheesecake" (Food Network; page copyright 2020), 10 to 12 servings. We follow it as written: a crust of 12 oz graham crackers, 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar, 1/4 tsp kosher salt and 11 tbsp melted butter pressed 1 1/2 inches up a 10-inch springform and frozen about 20 minutes; 3/4 cup cream whipped stiff; three 8-oz packages cream cheese beaten 3 to 4 minutes with 1 cup sugar, then 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp sour cream and 2 tsp vanilla bean paste; the whipped cream folded in; 8 to 24 hours in the refrigerator; and a topping of the remaining 3/4 cup cream whipped with 1/4 cup sugar, piped, with berries. The 12 servings are the high end of Food Network's range. Food Network. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Use full-fat cream cheese at room temperature, or the filling will be lumpy.
- Fold, don't stir: deflating the whipped cream gives you a soft, loose filling.
- Food Network Kitchen says the cheesecake keeps setting up to 24 hours; make it the day before.
- If you adapt an older no-bake recipe that folds in raw egg whites or yolks, use pasteurized eggs, as the FDA advises.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- The no-bake cheesecake is American. Documented as Wikipedia's account: the uncooked, crumb-crust type was invented in the United States.
- No-bake cheesecake was a 1950s and 1960s fad. Folklore: widely repeated; we found no dated source for it.
- No-bake cheesecake needs gelatin. Documented as false for this recipe: Food Network Kitchen sets it with whipped cream alone; Japan's "rare cheesecake" often uses gelatin or agar (Wikipedia; Metropolis).
- A no-bake cheesecake is a mousse, not a cheesecake. Disputed: Wikipedia counts unbaked cheesecake as one of the two modern kinds; bakers who define cheesecake as a baked custard disagree (Wikipedia says baked versions are called a custard pie, flan or tart).
Every other cheesecake
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A lemon-scented shortcrust shell filled with drained whole-milk ricotta, sugar, egg yolks, orange zest, a pinch of cinnamon and dark chocolate chips, closed with a second sheet of pastry and baked low on the rack at 350°F for 70 minutes until deep golden.
Käsekuchen (German Quark Cheesecake)
A buttery shortcrust base and rim filled with low-fat quark, lemon juice and cornstarch, lightened with whipped egg whites and whipped cream, baked low and long at 320°F and cooled in the turned-off oven so it stays tall, pale and tangy.
Sernik Krakowski (Polish Lattice-Top Cheesecake)
A rich filling of triple-ground full-fat twaróg, butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks and orange zest with raisins and candied orange peel, lightened with beaten whites, baked in a sweet shortcrust under a pastry lattice at 350°F and finished with a lemon glaze.
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Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake (Cotton Cheesecake)
Cream cheese, butter and cream melted together, enriched with yolks and cake flour, folded into a firm meringue and baked slowly in a water bath at 320°F, then cooled in the oven so the tall, wobbly, cottony cake doesn't crack, with an apricot glaze.
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Brooklyn Sponge-Crust Cheesecake (Junior's Style)
A thin, golden sponge cake baked in the springform as the crust, covered with two pounds of cream cheese beaten with sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs and heavy cream, and baked in a water bath at 350°F until the top is lightly tanned and the center still jiggles.
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