Description
This Easy Christmas Cheesecake Slab is a no-bake delight perfect for festive gatherings. Featuring a buttery Biscoff biscuit crust and a smooth, creamy no-bake cheesecake filling, it’s topped with whipped Chantilly cream and decorated with fresh berries, cherries, orange slices, and rosemary sprigs for a festive finish. The recipe is straightforward, requiring no oven and just refrigeration to set, making it ideal for stress-free holiday celebrations.
Ingredients
Scale
Biscuit crust:
- 300g (10 oz) Biscoff biscuits (about 38 pieces) or other plain biscuits/cookies (about 1 1/2 cups crumbs)
- 120g (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional, recommended)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- Pinch of salt
No-bake cheesecake filling:
- 3 1/2 tsp (13.5 g) unflavoured gelatin powder
- 3 tbsp cold tap water
- 1 1/2 cups thickened or heavy cream (whipping cream), fridge cold
- 750g (24 oz) cream cheese block (3 blocks), well softened at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
Whipped cream (Chantilly cream):
- 2 cups thickened or heavy cream (whipping cream), fridge cold
- 3 tbsp caster sugar (superfine sugar) or 6 tbsp sifted icing sugar
Christmas decoration:
- Strawberries, halved or quartered for larger ones
- Blackberries and raspberries
- Cherries
- 6 orange slices, cut into half moons
- Rosemary sprigs
- Icing sugar (confectionary sugar) for dusting
Instructions
- Line pan with overhang: Lightly grease a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13″) pan with butter or cooking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper leaving a generous overhang on the long sides to easily lift out the cheesecake once set.
- Prepare biscuit crust: Break biscuits roughly by hand and place in a food processor. Blitz until fine crumbs (about 30 seconds). Add melted butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt; blitz again until mixture resembles wet sand and holds when pinched. Press the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan to form an even crust. Refrigerate until needed.
- Bloom gelatin: Sprinkle gelatin powder evenly over 3 tablespoons cold water in a small bowl. Whisk until dissolved and let sit for 3 minutes until it firms to a rubbery texture.
- Melt gelatin: Microwave the bloomed gelatin for 15 seconds on high (do not boil), or until melted. Cool for 5 minutes but keep it liquid. If a skin forms, warm briefly to liquify again.
- Whip cream: In a cold bowl, whip 1 1/2 cups cold thickened cream with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes until firm peaks form.
- Whip cream cheese and sugar: In a separate large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and caster sugar on high speed for 1 1/2 minutes until smooth. Add vanilla extract, lemon juice, and the melted gelatin, and beat for 10 seconds to combine without incorporating too much air.
- Fold cream into cream cheese mixture: Gently fold about one quarter of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture with a rubber spatula to lighten it, then carefully fold in the remaining whipped cream until combined. Avoid overmixing to retain airiness.
- Assemble and chill: Pour the cheesecake filling onto the biscuit crust in the pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours or overnight to set fully.
- Remove cheesecake from pan: Use the parchment paper overhang to lift the cheesecake slab from the pan and transfer it onto a serving platter. Slide the parchment paper out from under the cheesecake carefully. Keep refrigerated until ready to decorate.
- Prepare whipped Chantilly cream: In a cold bowl, whip 2 cups cold thickened cream with caster sugar on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until softly whipped peaks form. For best results if prepping in advance, stabilize the whipped cream with gelatine as per notes.
- Decorate cheesecake: Spread the whipped cream in large swirls across the cheesecake surface. Arrange strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, orange half moons, and rosemary sprigs decoratively on top. Lightly dust with icing sugar before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Biscoff base: Use one full 250g packet plus 6 extra biscuits to get 300g total. Substitute with any plain sweet biscuits like Marie crackers, digestives, or graham crackers. If the mixture is dry, add more melted butter until it holds together.
- For a holiday spice twist, add 1/8 tsp each of nutmeg, allspice, and ginger powder or an extra 1/2 tsp cinnamon to the biscuit crumbs.
- Gelatin: Sold in small sachets or containers; must be liquid when used. If it sets too much or forms skin, gently rewarm to liquify.
- Cream: Use whipping cream labelled for whipping and straight from the fridge to achieve proper texture. Warm cream will not whip well.
- Cream cheese blocks are preferred over tubs for firmness; if using tubs, increase gelatin to 4 tsp to set properly.
- Sugar: For finer results, use superfine or caster sugar. Regular granulated sugar requires longer beating to dissolve.
- This cheesecake is mildly sweet to suit French or Japanese patisserie styles. Increase sugar to 1 3/4 cups for a sweeter American-style cheesecake.
- Stabilized whipped cream: To prepare whipped cream ahead (day before or 3+ hours ahead), bloom 2 tsp gelatin in 2 tbsp water, melt and cool, then add gradually while whipping cream. This keeps whipped cream stable for 2–3 days without weeping.
- Not suitable for freezing, as the filling may become sloppy.
- Nutrition per serving is calculated excluding additional whipped cream decoration and assumes 18 servings in total.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice (1/18th of slab)
- Calories: 290
- Sugar: 18g
- Sodium: 140mg
- Fat: 21g
- Saturated Fat: 13g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 19g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 5g
- Cholesterol: 65mg
