No Bake Cheesecake - Lemon

I can't follow a recipe! Like at some point of following a recipe I am going to change something at my end, while this works for cooking for baking this can mean disaster. You really will not know how things will turn out till the time you dig in. 

What is worse than not following a recipe? Not having a recipe and following this and that from here and there and not saving any of that in either a notebook or in my brain! My cheesecake recipe, is one such recipe, totally made up and each time in a new avatar. While it has always tasted good, it has at multiple times not set or been too sweet or too sour... always a surprise...however always eaten by my friends with eagerness to eat it again. 

Recently, a friend, insisted that I teach her and give her a recipe. Since I did not have anything written down, she offered to come home while I am making it and take down notes. Thank you PG and Manju for actually being the one to have written the recipe down, if it were upto me, this would all still be in my brain! 

Now this cheesecake is a Lemon No bake Cheesecake and its actually quite healthy, except for ofcourse the sugar! Again, I cannot say dessert is heatlhy, but this is fairly more lighter than the cheesecakes I have had at stores. And without being modest, I am proud to say, my friends who have eaten this, actually don't like store bought cheesecakes any more!! I think that is my biggest achievement!

Ingredients: 

Paneer/ Cottage Cheese - 200 gm

Yoghurt - 200 gm

Butter Unsalted - 100 gm

Marie Vita Gold Biscuit - 100 gm

Condensed Milk - 200 gm

Lemon Juice - 2 lemons

Lemon Zest - 2 lemons

Powdered Gelatine - 1 1/4 Tablespoon

Water - 1/2 cup

Castor Sugar ( powdered sugar)  - 3 to 4 tablespoons

Method:

Strain Yoghurt over a sieve and let excess water drip off overnight. We want only the thick curd and nothing of the whey. I do this a day before I make the cheesecake. 

Put the biscuits in a ziplock bag and use a pan or mallet to crush the biscuit into coarse powder. Bear in mind, you want this coarse and not fully and completely powdered, this texture gives a very crunchy base. I have once, used a mixer and made it to a fine powder, but I needed way more butter than normal and more importantly, I did not like the texture of the base.

Melt the unsalted butter completely and add to the powdered biscuits. You will get this magic sand kinda texture. Once you mix it well, empty it into a cake tin and push it down with the bottom of a bowl or glass and flatten it completely. This is your base and it needs to be compact. Once it is flattened, pop it into the freezer for 20 mins at bare minimum or till you get the rest of your ingredients ready

Next grind paneer in a mixer, with very little water, we want a smooth texture, it should be creamy. Mix this creamy paneer with the hung curd thoroughly, you want the mixture to be well combined and creamy. Add to this the condensed milk, lemon zest and mix well

Next, we must let the gelatine bloom. Add the gelatine to 1/2 cup water and in 5 mins you will see the gelatine having expanded in size. Once expanded, keep in gentle heat and let it melt thoroughly. You don't want it to boil, just low heat but melted and well combined. Let the mixture cool a bit before adding it to the yoghurt paneer mixture, say about 5 mins

Add your lemon juice to the cheesecake batter, you will see a little amount of curdling happening, nothing to fear, just mix your batter well. Add the slightly cooled gelatine mixture to the batter and mix well. Once you have mixed it, take out your set cake tin base and pour the cheesecake into the tin and smooth out the top with a spoon. 

Next, pop it into the fridge overnight or for a minimum of 6 hours to set. 

Once set, you should have an amazing cheesecake to serve and gorge on! :)