My husband is a cheesecake lover – ranging from the German “Käsekuchen“, which has a more fluffy consistency, to the classic American Cheesecake version. And as it was his birthday lately, of course one of the cheesecakes needed to be made for the birthday table. The good thing about the American Cheesecake is, that it doesn’t need the oven, making it a lot nicer to prepare in hot temperatures.

See how to make here:

Ingredients
adapted from my friend Isa’s blog
For the dough:
300g of hand-crumbled “Speculoos” biscuits or “Digestive Biscuits”
100g of butter
50g of brown sugar

For the cream filling:
800g “Philadelphia” cream cheese (it’s possible to use half “Philadelphia yoghurt” and half normal Philadelphia to give yourself a better conscience)
80g creme fraiche
150g icing sugar
Juice of 2 or 3 lemons (depending on their size or juice content)
4 gelatine leaves

Optional: Berries for decoration

Directions
For the dough:
Melt the butter in a pot. Crumble the cookies by hand and mix with the melted butter and brown sugar. Place this mixture in a round cooking tin and press it down well to create a dough that can hold the cream. Put in the refrigerator to cool down while you prepare the cream filling.

For the cream filling:
Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for approx. 5 minutes. In a saucepan, heat the lemon juice and sugar to make a hot syrup. Remove the gelatine from the water and squeeze out any remaining water and put into the pan, stir so it dissolves and immediately remove from the heat. Add the creme fraiche and stir to obtain a homogeneous liquid cream. In another container, place the “Philadelphia” cream cheese and mix with the still warm cream to receive and fairly flowing cream mixture. Pour the mix into the cooking tin with the cookie-bottom and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours before serving, ideally overnight.

Decorate with berries before serving.