No-bake lime cheesecake

The Taste of Home cookbook, 738pp.
by Taste of Home
Reiman Media Group, Wisconsin, 2008
Cooking on page 632

It was a surprise to discover that I had done only one dessert for this blog! Time to fix that and Nebraska seemed the perfect place to do it.

I’m visiting my long-time friend, Carol. She’d invited family for a barbecue meal, so I volunteered to do a dessert and a bunch of sides—provided I could ransack her cookbooks for page-32 options.

I had to go almost to the end of this mammoth book to get to the chapter on desserts. It was definitely worth the ‘trek’. Robin Spires of Tampa, Florida, submitted this gem.

No-bake lime cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter, melted

Filling
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 cup lime juice
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Method
In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Press onto the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of a greased 9-inch springform pan. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes..

In a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over lime juice and cold water; let stand for 1 minute. Stir in the sugar, eggs and lime peel. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture reaches 160°F. Remove from the heat.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in gelatin mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 45 minutes or until partially set, stirring occasionally.

In a chilled small mixing bowl and with chilled beaters, beat cream until stiff peaks form; fold into lime mixture. Spoon into crust. Cover and refrigerate for 3–4 hours or until set. Remove sides of pan. Refrigerate leftovers.

Serves 12.

Note: Substitute orange juice and grated orange peel for the lime juice and peel.

How it played out
Carol didn’t have a springform pan, so I toughed it out with a 10-inch pie plate. It worked fine, but there was way too much crust. Easy solution—syphon off a cup or so and save it to top the cheesecake.

The hand mixer collapsed during the making—one beater kept falling off, but it wasn’t too hard to work around. Good thing the cream cheese was super soft. Beat the cream by hand, the way grandma used to do it.

Verdict
A complete success. It’s rich, so a sliver will do the job—that is if you can stop at a sliver. Just the right amount of lime, and oh-so easy to make.  If you can’t get graham crackers, try another plain biscuit/cookie.

Served as part of a page-32 feast with Aunt Pearl’s Spam salad, oriental cabbage salad, make-ahead potatoes and two meat dishes. Stay tuned for the first three to be posted.