The clock is ticking, its almost August, one more month to enjoy low traffic before school season starts in September, and my eternal battle with traffic begins once more.
I sincerely cant believe July is over??? God it seems yesterday we were celebrating New Year. Here we are now almost in August, with summer almost gone. Time sure flies by. Ramadan month is also almost over. A week or so is left before I can enjoy my morning coffee again. I sure am gonna miss Ramadan dearly. As dearly as I miss my coffee. If anything, I admit that abstaining from food from dawn till sunset has required a lot of self discipline, however the 16 hours intermittent fasting has been eye opening to how much food I was consuming opposed to who much food I actually need. It’s amazing how light I feel during the day. I also don’t feel hungry anymore. My body is now accustomed to having two meals daily, iftar and suhor. Plus dessert of course. Mentally I feel more focused, perhaps it’s because my mind knows that thinking about ways to fill my stomach with food is out of the question, therefore it (my minds) actually thinks of ways to do some other things for a change other than food.
Who am I kidding? My mind is always thinking about food. That’s how the idea to make these no bake ricotta cheesecake tartlets came to me.
You see, my mind was craving cheesecake whist at work and fasting. I knew that I’d have no time to bake a cheesecake in time for iftar, and no bake cheesecake takes forever to set in the fridge (what? Am the only one who thinks overnight is forever?) Therefore, my mind got busy searching up and down for ways to solve this dilemma, that’s when the idea of using the mini tartlet pans I bought recently came to me.
Anyhow… This is the basically the easiest way to make a cheesecake. I wonder why I haven’t thought of that before. Since I was feeling adventurous I decided to make these using ricotta cheese instead of classic Philadelphia. I’ve had baked ricotta cheesecake before, but never had no bake ricotta cheesecake. I knew I will love the flavor since I enjoy eating ricotta by spoon, so why wouldn’t I enjoy sweet ricotta with biscuit crust and jam? Absolutely no reason.
If your sweet tooth is aching for dessert (mine always is), than this is the best time to make this recipe. Since its summer, no one wants to heat an oven or spend hours in the kitchen making dessert. This whole dessert needs only 30 minutes to make (active time) but the crust needs to be chilled for 30 minutes before pouring the cheesecake filing on it.
But I’ll worry about all that later. For now, am just sitting here behind my screen, enjoying the last serving tartlet.
I don’t mean to sound snobby, but one thing is certain, I am going to be making these for years to come.
This recipe is quite versatile and fool proof, some of the variations include:
- If you don’t have min tartlet pans, you can use an 10-inch tart pan with removable bottom.
- I used a combination of ricotta and cream cheese (Philadelphia)You could also substitute ricotta for cream cheese, or use ricotta only..
- Instead of digestive biscuits, you could use graham crackers, Oreo, or any vanilla / chocolate wafers of choice. I simply used digestive because that’s all I had on hand.
- Topping, instead of jam, you could fresh fruit (am thinking blueberries or strawberries), or even some caramel with a sprinkle of sea salt (there goes my foodie mind).
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 60 minutes
Yield: Makes 5 (3-inch) tartlets or one 11-inch tart
An easy no bake lemon ricotta cheesecake recipe that can easily be made in single serving tartlets, or on large tart pan.
Ingredients
- Crust
- ~ 2 cups (250 g) digestive biscuits, crushed
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, softened Filling
- 1 1/2 cup (375 g) ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup (112 g) cream cheese
- 4 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest Topping
- 4 tbsp best quality spreadable jam (like St. Dalphour)
Steps
- Blitz the biscuits in the food processor, add the butter. Mix until the butter has been absorbed into the biscuits.
- Use your finger to evenly press the cookie crust into the tartlets. Place in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes before proceeding. Alternately, you could just bake it in the oven for 10 minute, but then it won’t be no bake.
- Place the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and zest into the bowl of food processor. Beat for 4 – 6 minutes on medium high speed using the paddle attachment until light and cream. Refrigerate for 3 hours (or at least one hour).
- Once ready to serve, spread the topping. Store in the refrigerator for 5 days.
If you enjoy Sukarah’s posts, please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or follow our pins on Pinterset.
Don’t forget that to subscribe for Sukarah’s RSS feed to receive notification whenever there is a new post.
