Limon Tiger Cheesecake

This is quite simply an homage to the 70s recipe books where they are written by "women who love their families". While that line may have a double edge meaning (with the quotes and all that between the lines pun), I would like to focus on the good part of a 70's cookbook - the no-bake cheesecakes!

I was at an excellent pub eating pub grub the other day and fell in love with their slice of heaven called Limon Tiger Pie. It's basically lemon cheesecake with a fluffy creamy top, a rather light but denser middle set on a chocolaty base. I think the reason why they called it a Limon Tiger is because of the stripes caused by a marbling effect on the crumbs and the generous sprinkles of chocolate crumbs splashes over the top. It's simply amazing to eat because of it's lemony fluff texture. To be quite frank, I never thought I would like unbaked cheesecakes this much that I would try to recreate it at home days after. Successfully. Because it's easy. :)

In the 70's, people ate raw eggs wantonly like Salmonella and E. Coli never existed. Today, I'm not so keen on having raw egg yolks in my cheesecake unbaked. And I suppose vegetarians and lacto-vegans will be please to know that I didn't use any eggs in this recipe.

Without further ado, here's Limon Tiger Cheesecake -

For the base:
2 cups of crushed chocolate chip cookies (use your favorite brand) + some for sprinkling
1/4 cup butter

Cheese filling:
500g of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened in room temperature
1 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of lemon zest, zest and finely chopped after
1/2 lemon juice
1 cup of densely packed icing sugar + 1/4 cup for heavy cream


Method:
1. Prepare the base first. Use an 8inch round cake pan and coat it with butter.
2. In a food processor, add your cookie crumbs and butter in. Blitz until you get a pebbly wet texture that is easy to form and mold.
3. Press the buttery crumbs into the base and the wall of your cake pan, slowly even it out with your fingers until you get a pretty crumb base.
Put it into the freezer, while you prepare your cheese filling.

4. In a large mixing bowl, cream your cream cheese until it's creamy and fluffy (about 3 minutes with an electric mixer).
5. Add your lemon zest, lemon juice and icing sugar in and start mixing it again until everything is well incorporated. Continue beating the mixture for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. In another bowl, pour your heavy cream into a bowl with 1/4 cup of icing sugar.
7. Beat with an electric mixer until heavy cream forms firm peaks (about 3-4 minutes)
8. Pour the fluffy cream into the cheese mixture. This time use a spatula to gently fold the two mixtures together until they are well incorporated.
9. Take out the base from the freezer and pour your cheese content in.
10. Sprinkle with remaining crushed chocolate chip cookies and let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hours.If you're feeling decadent, forgo the chocolate chip cookie topping and pour a can of preserved cherries on top.

This cheesecake is extremely easy to make despite it being 10 steps. You don't need to turn on your oven and that, hands down, makes this the most excellent recipe for hot summer days. What I like about this recipe is that it's melts in your mouth, almost like ice cream :)