No Bake Gingernut Cheesecake Jars That Keep Two Days

Method

1. Crush the biscuits to a mix of fine crumb and small rubble. A processor takes 20 seconds, a zip bag and a rolling pin takes two minutes and gives a better mix.
2. Measure 3 tablespoons of the crumb into a small bowl and set it aside, covered, for the top.
3. Melt the butter, then stir it through the remaining crumb with the pinch of salt until it looks like wet sand and holds together when you squeeze a handful.
4. Divide the buttered crumb between six 250ml jars, roughly 45g each, and press it flat with the back of a teaspoon.
5. Refrigerate the jars for 15 minutes while you make the filling.
6. Beat the room temperature cream cheese with the icing sugar and vanilla until completely smooth, scraping down twice. Cold cream cheese stays lumpy however long you beat it.
7. Beat in the lemon zest and juice, which tighten the mixture noticeably within half a minute.
8. Whip the cold thickened cream in a separate bowl to soft peaks and no further, since over-whipped cream makes a grainy filling.
9. Fold the cream into the cream cheese in two additions, stopping the moment there are no white streaks left.
10. Spoon or pipe the filling into the jars, leaving a centimetre clear at the top.
11. Tap each jar firmly on the bench to settle the filling and knock out the air pockets that show through the glass.
12. Cover the jars and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
13. Spoon the caramel over each jar just before serving, scatter the reserved crumb, and add the chopped chocolate ginger if you are using it.
14. Take the jars out of the fridge 10 minutes before eating, because fridge cold flattens the ginger and stiffens the caramel.

Questions we get asked

Can you make cheesecake without baking it?

Yes. A baked cheesecake sets because eggs coagulate in the oven. A no bake one sets because cold fat firms up: chilled cream cheese and whipped cream hold their shape once the mixture is cold through. The trade is texture. Baked is dense and custardy, no bake is lighter and closer to a mousse, and only one of them needs the oven on in December.

How long do no bake cheesecakes keep in the fridge?

Two days at their best, three at a stretch, covered and refrigerated throughout. The limit is texture rather than safety: the filling is fine while the cream and cream cheese are within their own dates, but the base softens a little more each day as it draws moisture out of the filling. In jars that matters less than in a tin, because you are eating with a spoon rather than lifting a slice.

What biscuits are best for a cheesecake base?

Hard, dry and not too rich. Gingernuts are the benchmark, with digestives, oat biscuits and plain sweet biscuits working on the same principle: low moisture crushes to an even crumb and stays crunchy under a wet filling. Avoid cream-filled biscuits and very buttery shortbread, both of which make the base oily. If the biscuit bends before it breaks, it is the wrong biscuit.

Do no bake cheesecakes need gelatine?

Not this one. Gelatine is insurance for fillings loosened with condensed milk or extra liquid. Here the ratio does the work, block cream cheese to whipped thickened cream, with the lemon juice tightening it as it goes in. Skipping it keeps the filling tasting of cream cheese rather than jelly, and leaves nothing to melt if the jars sit out for twenty minutes.

The biscuit is the part worth buying well

Everything else here comes off a supermarket shelf without much thought. The biscuit is the part that decides whether it works, which is the argument for the Jen's Biscuits range generally: hard gingernuts, oat biscuits with oats you can see, and shortbread that belongs in a tin rather than a crumb base. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post, and shipping is free Australia-wide over $100. If you would rather send biscuits than crush them, they turn up inside our Christmas hampers and the sweet hampers beside them.