It's almost Christmas you guys! And to celebrate I have created a real treat, a really tangy no-bake cheesecake flavored with blood orange and gingerbread. It's great. Absolutely perfect after a crazy Christmas dinner because it is really light and fresh, and on top of that it is also quite easy to make. In my book that is the key to any great dessert so do yourself a favor this Christmas and make yourself som cheesecake.
No-bake Christmas Cheesecake
200 ml blood orange juice
75 g butter
180 g gingerbread cookies
1 pinch of salt
200 g whipping cream
400 g cream cheese
60 g icing sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
Blood orange slices
Crushed gingerbread
Lemon balm
1. Start by getting yourself some orange juice! I will always recommend squeezing it from fresh oranges yourself, but if you can't be bothered and you can find some ready in the store it will probably do just fine.
2. Put it over medium heat and reduce to 30 g, this will give us so much flavor but without making our cheesecake to runny. For me it took about 15 minutes but it all depends on the temperature, and be carful at the end since it will recuse more and more quickly the less amount of juice there is.
3. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool completely.
4. Crush the gingerbread cookies as small as they will go and put in a bowl.
5. Melt the butter and add to the cookies. Stir until a wet sand consistency has formed and press tightly into your tin and make sure to get all up the sides. I used a 22 cm wide and 4 cm tall fluted tin and I would recommend you use something similar so the ratios aren't out of whack.
6. Pop into the fridge for at least 30 minutes or until if feels firmly set before you start the next part.
7. Time to make some fillings! We will make two that we will swirl together so start by adding
dividing the cream cheese into two bowls.
8. Put the vanilla into one of them and the reduced orange juice into the other and stir until well combined.
9. Divide the icing sugar equally between the bowls and whisk until nice and smooth.
10. Whisk half the cream to medium peaks and add to our vanilla filling, fold in gently and then repeat for our orange filling.
11. Now, put the two fillings into one bowl and give it just a bit of a fold so it starts to mix but is still clearly marbled. The reason we do this is because we want two flavors in our cheesecake, if we start mixing it to much it will all just become one (although one very tasty) flavor and I just find two of them to be more interesting than one.
12. Pour into our gingerbread base and smooth out the top. Let set in the fridge for at least 2 hours or until it looks nice and set. We want to be able to cut good slices out of it.
13. Finish with some blood orange slices, crushed up gingerbread and lemon balm, or something else you find appropriate.
14. Enjoy!
I hope you find this scrumptious Christmas dessert as good as I do and I hope you give it a go this holiday! Until next time!
