No-Gelatine Chilled Cheesecake: Lemon

This year for her birthday, my sister asked me for a split cheesecake, like she does every year. When I say split cheesecake, I mean a cheesecake that's one half one flavour, and the other half another flavour. This year, she wanted lemon and chocolate.

My sister doesn't like baked cheesecake, only chilled, and usually I would set a chilled cheesecake with gelatine. However, my oldest brother is a vegetarian and as such doesn't eat any product made from a dead animal, which obviously included gelatine.

My past adventures with vegetarian gelatine have been unsuccessful, leading to much hair pulling, crying, and expense. This year I decided to research how to make chilled cheesecake without using a setting agent at all and discovered a wonderful new trick: I learnt that through the miracle of a chemical reaction between dairy products and citrus juice, one could set a cheesecake completely using only lemon juice

Here is the recipe I used for the lemon half

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (unless you use gluten-free oats)
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Dairy


 INGREDIMENTS

For the bases:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) rolled oats
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cold butter, cubed
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster or brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: Pinch of cinnamon

For the cheesecake mixture

• 10 ounces (300 grammes) soft cream cheese
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar

• 5 fluid ounces (150 millilitres) whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) vanilla essence
• Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
• Pinch of salt

HOW-TO 

• Make the biscuit base according to the recipe here, but empty the mixture into an 8 inch (20 centimetre) spring form tin instead. Allow to cool completely.
• To make the filling, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add in the whipping cream ands vanilla essence then beat until it forms soft peaks.
• Add the zest and juice of both lemons and the salt then beat briefly until well combined. Don't beat too much otherwise it will curdle.
• Working quickly, pour the filling onto the base and smooth out. Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

As you can see, I made it into a split cheesecake, but the above recipe makes one 8 inch (20 centimeter) cheesecake.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Soft Vanilla Fudge