No-Bake Caramel Cheesecake

The perfect after dinner dessert, this no-bake caramel cheesecake, is not only delicious but also SO easy! And you’ll be sure to impress with your own homemade caramel.

No-bake cheesecakes are a personal favourite of mine. They’re so easy to create; there’s no faffing around with water baths and getting the perfect jiggle on top. Instead a quick mix is all that’s needed and then the fridge does most of the work.

One piece of equipment that will make you life easier though, is an electric hand-whisk. You can make a no-bake cheesecake by hand, but the electric whisk will give you a much smoother cheesecake. Which to be honest, is exactly what you’re looking for in a cheesecake! Creamy, thick and smooth!

This no-bake caramel cheesecake in particular is soo delicious. Its perfectly creamy, thick and has just the right amount of sweetness. I know most caramel bakes nowadays are salted caramel, but I felt like giving the ‘original’ caramel a bit of love!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Digestive Biscuits – this is for your buttery base. You could choose another biscuit here if you prefer, but I use digestive as its plain and doesn’t detract from the caramel cheesecake flavour. So try to choose something similar! If you’re in America, Graham Crackers are a good alternative.
Unsalted Butter – this is to help bind your biscuit base. It will be melted, so there’s no need for you to get this out of the fridge ahead of time.
Full-Fat Cream Cheese – cream cheese is obviously pretty important in a cheesecake 😉 But what’s more important, is that you choose the full-fat variety! If you use a lighter cheese, the cheesecake won’t set properly and it’ll be a sloppy mess!
Icing Sugar – the sugar brings sweetness to the cream cheese, as otherwise it’d be a rather savoury ‘cake’…!
Double Cream – this helps to thin the mixture out, which in turn makes the cheesecake creamy and light.
Caramel Sauce – this is mixed into the cheesecake mixture and drizzled on top. For this recipe I am including instructions to make it yourself, but if you want to speed up the process you can also buy this pre-made.

How to make No-Bake Caramel Cheesecake:

Quite simply, a no-bake cheesecake consists of a biscuit base and smooth filling on top. The longest step is actually the fridge chilling time – making it the perfect after-dinner dessert!

How to make caramel sauce:

So first up, we need to make the caramel so it has enough time to cool before you add to your cheesecake mixture. Caramel is very simple to make, but you need to have all your ingredients weighed in advance – this will help you tenfold!

With your caster sugar, golden syrup and water in a heavy-bottomed pan, place on a medium-high heat until it turns a golden amber colour. You only want to stir this once – right at the start to combine the ingredients and then after that just swirl the pan. This is a wet caramel, so excessive stirring could lead to crystallisation which we don’t want!!

Once your caramel has reached the golden amber colour, you can take it off the heat and whisk in the cream and then the butter and vanilla. When you’re adding these final ingredients the caramel will bubble up ferociously, so be careful! It will then die down, and you’re safe to pour your caramel into a heat-proof bowl (a small pyrex bowl is great for this), and set aside to cool and thicken.

Making the biscuit base:

The base couldn’t be more simple – just blitzed digestive biscuits combined with melted butter. If you have a food-processor then this step is so easy. If you don’t; place all your biscuits into a sandwich bag, and bash with a rolling pin until you have a fine crumb. The finer the better here, so your base is soft and crumbly.

Once you have your buttery biscuit crumb, tip this into a lined 9in tin. If you have a spring-form tin, then use this! It’ll be much easier to get your cheesecake out once its set, but if not a loose-bottomed tin also works well. Just make sure you line the base with baking paper, before you add your crumb – this will mean you can remove the tin base when serving!

The final step is to press the buttery biscuit crumb down firmly, so it makes a flat compact base. Then place in the fridge for 20minutes to set, while you make the filling.

Making the no-bake cheesecake filling:

For the cheesecake filling, get an electric hand-whisk ready or a big balloon whisk, and whisk together the cream cheese and icing sugar for just a few minutes until smooth and combined. Then pour in your double cream and whisk again, until the mixture has thickened slightly. Finally, you can stir in your cooled and thickened caramel.

Pour this mixture ontop of your chilled base, and using a spatula or a spoon level out evenly. The whole cheesecake then needs to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or you could leave it overnight. Please don’t scrimp on the chilling time, as the cheesecake won’t be fully set and when you cut into it it won’t hold its shape.

The final step is decoration. I went for a simple feathered effect, but if you’ve made your own caramel you will have about half the quantity left. So you could pour it all on top! Or create any pattern you like really! Just don’t add the decoration until you’re ready to serve, as the caramel will loose its colour in the fridge.

Tips & Tricks

Why did my cheesecake base fall apart?

This could be because you didn’t chill the base for long enough, compact it down enough or didn’t use enough butter. However, you don’t want a cheesecake base to be too hard either! A slight crumble when cutting is best.

Why is my cheesecake mix runny?

This could be from not using full-fat cream cheese and double cream. You need the fat content in these to help firm up your filling. Or it could be that its not been refrigerated for long enough, and hasn’t quite set yet.

Can I make a no-bake cheesecake in advance?

Yes! That’s the beauty of this dessert, and actually leaving the cheesecake to set overnight is ideal as it will be perfectly set when you go to serve and slice.

I really love how this no-bake caramel cheesecake turned out – its sweet without being sickly, super creamy and luscious and the buttery biscuit base crumbles in your mouth. Just the best dessert for me, and I really hope you love it too!