Chocolate & Caramel No-Bake Cheesecake

October 12, 2023

Evan had wanted a cheesecake for his birthday that had caramel and chocolate and after looking around online we settled on making a turtle cheesecake without the nuts. Then two days before his party the heating element in our stove broke and I was left with no oven. I started searching for no-bake cheesecake recipes and found a few I combined/modified to work with the ingredients I had already purchased.

We made a delicious no-bake chocolate & caramel cheesecake with zero baking!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 1/2 sleeves (2 cups) of graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

For the filling:

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream-- keep chilled until ready to use

3 blocks (8 ounces each) cream cheese

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup caramel sundae topping

For the topping:

1/2 semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup caramel sundae topping

For the caramel whipped cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup caramel sundae topping

1. Make the crust-- in a medium bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, both sugars, and melted butter until all the crumbs are well coated then press into the bottom of a springform pan; I like to press a bit of the crust up the sides of the pan too but I'm not fussy about it being perfect. Then I set this in the freezer to set while I prepared the filling.

2. Using COLD heavy whipping cream and my stand mixer I made whipped cream. It's simple to do; using a whisk on medium speed it only takes 4 or 5 minutes until the heavy whipping cream forms stiff peaks. I then scooped all the whipping cream into a separate bowl and stuck it back in the refrigerator to keep it cold until I was ready to mix it into the cheesecake part of the filling.

3. I mixed the cheesecake filling together in the bowl of my stand mixer as well and since I was going to be mixing it in with the whipped cream in the next step I didn't even bother to wash or rinse out my bowl. I combined the 3 blocks of cream cheese with both the sugars on medium speed using my paddle attachment. Then slowly added in the sour cream, extract, and caramel topping. Mixing until I had a nice smooth creamy cheesecake layer. I used a spoon to take a small test and make sure I could taste a bit of the caramel; knowing I could add more at this step if I needed to.

4. Gently fold in the whipped cream by hand using a rubber spatula. Mixing until you have a consistent color and texture.

5. Take the crust out of the freezer and spread the cheesecake filling inside. I then used an off- set spatula run under HOT water and wiped dry to smooth the filling out (I had to rinse/ heat it a few times to get all the way around the pan). It is not necessary to do; but it does give the cheesecake a more professional looking finish. Cover with plastic wrap or tin foil and let sit in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

6. In a glass measuring cup I combined the chocolate chips with whipping cream and heated them in the microwave in 30 second increments until the chocolate was soft. I stirred and mixed until I had a nice uniform chocolate ganache and then let it sit until it was room temperature before spreading onto the cheesecake (if you don't wait for it to cool off it will melt the cheesecake).

7. Once spread, pop the cheesecake back into the fridge to let it set and harden a bit. I did this in the morning and then let it sit in the fridge until 3 or 4 o'clock so I gave it quite a few hours.

8. Drizzle the caramel topping over the top of the cheesecake; if you need to you can heat it up slightly but I found that the caramel was soft enough as is.

9. Using a cold bowl and cold whipping cream I beat the whipping cream on medium for a few minutes until soft peaks began to form and then added in the caramel topping. It made a delicious caramel whipped cream (truthfully it made far more than I needed but we enjoyed it throughout the week on hot cocoa and over ice cream). I put the whipped cream into a piping bag, took my cheesecake out of the spring form pan (you can see where the caramel topping spread out and soaked into the cake a bit). I cut the tip off the piping bag and piped a few small mounds of whipped cream.