No Bake Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake
Ditch the oven and let your refrigerator make this No Bake Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake with a Pretzel Crust. It's crunchy and creamy, salty and sweet and decked out with fresh strawberries and thyme.
Ingredients
Strawberry swirl
- 1 cup fresh strawberries diced
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1 Tbsp water
Pretzel crust
- 2 cups salted mini pretzel crumbs
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
No bake cheesecake
- 16 ounces full fat cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla pure
- 1 cup heavy cream cold
Instructions
Strawberry swirl
- Puree diced strawberries with sugar in a food processor.
- Strain puree through a mesh sieve to remove seeds.
- Add puree to a small saucepan. Bring to a slow boil for 1 minute over medium heat then reduce heat to low.
- Whisk cornstarch and water in a bowl then stir into strawberry puree.
- Sir occassionaly until puree has thickened, approximately 5 minutes.
- Remove pan from the stove, pour puree into a shallow bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare the pretzel crust and cheesecake filling.
Pretzel crust
- Grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter. Set aside.
- Pulse mini pretzels in a food processor until powder-fine crumbs form. Yield should be 2 cups, discard excess.
- Add melted butter and brown sugar to food processor. Pulse until combined with pretzel crumbs and mixture resembles the consistency of wet sand.
- Spoon mixture into the springform pan. Use the flat bottom of a glass to pack crust evenly and tightly into the bottom of the pan.
- Place springform pan in the freezer for 10 minutes while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
No bake cheesecake
- Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat on until smooth and lump free, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold heavy cream into cream cheese mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined. Avoid overmixing as it will cause whipped cream to deflate.
Assembly
- Remove pretzel crust from the freezer. Pour cheesecake filling onto crust then smooth top with a spatula until level.
- Remove strawberry sauce from the refrigerator. Drop dollops of sauce onto the top of the cheesecake then swirl with a chopstick or butter knife.
- Place cheesecake in the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours until top is set then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. *Mine chilled for 12 hours total.
- To remove springform ring, dip a butter knife in hot water and run it around the outer edge of the cheesecake before unlatching the pan and gently removing.
- If desired, garnish cheesecake with fresh strawberries and thyme.
Store
- Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator up to 5 days or freeze up to 3 months.