Lemon Cheesecake Recipe with step by step pictures. Buttery biscuit base topped with a creamy lemon flavoured cheese filling and a lemon jelly layer. This is a no bake cheesecake recipe made without cream cheese, eggs, more over it has no baking involved, still it taste so creamy and decadent. Learn how to make the best lemon cheesecake with stepwise pictures and video.
No Bake Lemon Cheesecake Recipe
This is one of the recipe which i wanted to try for quite a long time. Finally i made it few days back and it was a super hit. It has a really lovely lemon taste to it which i adore so much.
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What is a Cheesecake?
A cheesecake is a sweet dessert with one or more layers. The main and thickest layer is made up of a soft, fresh cheese (usually cottage cheese, cream cheese, or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, it is usually made of crushed cookies (or digestive biscuits), graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake can be made either baked or unbaked (and is usually refrigerated).
About Lemon Cheesecake
Cheesecake is typically sweetened with sugar and can be flavoured in a variety of ways. The main cheese layer can be flavoured with vanilla, spices, lemon, chocolate, pumpkin, or other flavours. Topping the finished dessert with fruit, whipped cream, nuts, cookies, fruit sauce, chocolate syrup, or other ingredients can add additional
flavours and visual appeal.
This cheesecake has three layers. A buttery biscuit layer, a lemon cream filling and a tangy lemon jelly layer. So good and so citrusy. If you adore the taste of lemons then you will love this for sure.
This is a pretty easy to make cheesecake. You just need a handful of ingredients to make this. The more cool thing is you don't need cream cheese to make this cheesecake. So you can easily call this recipe as cheesecake without cream cheese. I used hung curd to make this, I took some thick yogurt and poured in some cheesecloth lined over a sieve and put it in fridge and let it drip overnight, the next day i got the beautiful thick hung yogurt which can be easily substituted for cream cheese.
Similar Recipes,
Lemon Cheesecake Ingredients
Making a no bake lemon cheese requires three steps. The crust, the creamy no bake lemon filling and the top lemon jelly. So here are the ingredients used in the cheesecake.
Ingredients used in making cheesecake crust
Unsalted Butter - Unsalted butter allows you to completely control the flavour of your recipe. This is especially important in baked goods that rely heavily on the pure, sweet cream flavour of butter.
Biscuits - you can use any flavoured biscuit of your choice. Digestive biscuits, graham crackers are good choice.
Ingredients for cheesecake filling
Hung Yogurt - Hung curd is simply yoghurt that has been completely strained to remove excess moisture. It is very simple to make at home. Tie some curd in a muslin cloth and hang it for at least 3-4 hours, or until all the water has drained out. After this time, the bundle is squeezed to extract all of the water, and the hung curd is ready. I used this instead of cream cheese.
Sugar - depending on your sweetness level, you can adjust the sugar. You could more or less as per your taste.
Lemon - You need both lemon juice and lemon zest for the recipe. It adds maximum lemony flavour to the cheesecake.
Cream - I used whipping cream which I whipped till thick and used that to fold into the cheesecake to make it creamy and light.
Gelatin - since this is a no bake dessert, you need gelatin to make it set. You can use agar agar for vegetarian option. In that case, use just half the quantity of gelatin.
Ingredients for lemon jelly topping
Even though this is optional. Making a lemon jelly layer on top of the cheesecake makes it stand out. For making the jelly layer, you need water, lemon juice, food colour, cornstarch, sugar and gelatin.
You can skip this if you don't want, but it adds a bright yellow colour over the creamy cheesecake.
How to Make Lemon Cheesecake (Stepwise Pictures)
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| I poured some yogurt over a sieve which is lined with cheesecloth and put that in fridge overnight. Now hung curd is done..Check this post for detailed post |
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| I used a removable bottom cake pan..If you don't have this, use normal cake pan and line it with plastic wrap |
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| Now for the base |
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| start by melting butter |
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| set aside |
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| take biscuits in a blender |
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| crush them roughly |
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| put that in a bowl |
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| pour over melted butter |
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| give a good mix |
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| Now it is well mixed |
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| spoon that into the pan |
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| press with a spatula |
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| press evenly |
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| now it is all evenly lined |
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| chill it in fridge or freezer till you make the filling |
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| add some water to it |
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| let it soak for 5 mins till it blooms |
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| transfer the mix to a sauce pan |
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| melt it down gently |
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| whip some cream till soft and set aside
Now lets make the cheesecake filling
 Take cream cheese or hung curd in a bowl
 add in icing sugar
 add in lemon zest..zest only the yellow part, don't grate the white bitter part
 I added around ½ tsp of zest
 add in little lemon juice..This depends how lemony
you want to the cake to be, so taste it and add more..
 use a whisk to whip this till creamy
 now it is well mixed up
 add the gelatin mix in
 mix well
 add in the whipped cream
 fold gently
 now it is combined
 take the biscuit base from fridge
 pour the creamy filling in
 smooth the top
 chill this till set
Once the cheesecake is set, make the topping..
 Take sugar in a sauce pan
 add in water
 add in lemon juice
 gelatin
 mix well
 heat till gelatin is melted
 add in yellow food colour
 mix well
 Now take some cornflour in a bowl
 add little water to mix it up
 pour it in
 cook for few mins till it thickens
 Now take your cheesecake
 pour this over
 now put this in fridge to set again
 now it is set
 slowly unmould it
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Expert Tips
- Instead of using hung curd, you can use cream cheese. Make sure cream cheese is at room temperature for easy mixing.
- Instead of using gelatin, you can use agar agar powder. Use half the quantity of agar agar powder.
- You can skip the top jelly layer if you want.
- Instead of using lemon flavour, you can use orange zest and orange juice.
- A small splash of lemon liqour can be used in the top jelly layer.
Storage & Serving
You can keep this cheesecake in fridge wrapped well for upto a week.
FAQ
What is the difference between no-bake cheesecake and regular cheesecake?
The main difference is that there are no eggs in a no-bake cheesecake, and it sets by chilling in the refrigerator. A baked cheesecake contains eggs in the recipe, is baked in a water bath, and then chilled in the refrigerator. These two cheesecakes have
completely different textures.
More Cheesecake Recipes to try
📖 Recipe Card
Lemon Cheesecake | No Bake Lemon Cheesecake Recipe
Equipment
- 1 8 inch round removable base cake pan
- 1 Sauce Pan
- 1 Mixing Bowl & Spatula
- 1 Electric Beater
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
For Cheesecake Crust
- 250 grams Digestive Biscuits I used milk bikis
- 75 grams Unsalted Butter melted
For Cheesecake Creamy Filling
- 1 cup Hung Yogurt or use 225 grams Cream Cheese
- 1 cup Icing Sugar
- ½ tsp Lemon Zest
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ¾ cup Cream I used amul 25% fat cream
- 1 tbsp Gelatin
- 3 tbsp Water
For Lemon jelly topping
- ½ cup Water
- ½ cup Sugar
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- ⅛ tsp Yellow Food Colour
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 1½ tsp Gelatin
Instructions
- Line a 18 cm round baking pan with plastic wrap and set aside.
- Start by making crust. Take cookies in a blender and powder them, add in melted butter and mix well. Spoon this in the pan and press it evenly using a spoon. Chill this in fridge till you need them.
- Take gelatin in a bowl, add in some water and let it bloom for 5 mins. Take this in a sauce pan and heat gently till it melts down. Set aside. Whip cream using electric beater until it forms soft peaks. Set aside.
- Now take hung curd, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice in a bowl and use beater to whip this till creamy. Add in the gelatin mix and give a good mix. Fold in cream and mix gently. Now spoon this mix over the chilled crust and chill this for 4 to 6 hours till set .
- Now make the topping. Take sugar, water, lemon juice, gelatin in a sauce pan and heat on low heat till the gelatin is melted. Now add in food colour and mix well. Mix cornflour with little water to form a slurry, pour this into the lemon mix and heat till it thickens. Now cool this lightly.
- Take cheesecake from fridge, pour this over the cheesecake and set it for 2 to 4 hours.
- Now remove this carefully from tin using the help of plastic wrap and set aside. Slice and serve.
Notes
- Instead of using hung curd, you can use cream cheese. Make sure cream cheese is at room temperature for easy mixing.
- Instead of using gelatin, you can use agar agar powder. Use half the quantity of agar agar powder.
- You can skip the top jelly layer if you want.
- Instead of using lemon flavour, you can use orange zest and orange juice.
- A small splash of lemon liqour can be used in the top jelly layer.
Storage & Serving
You can keep this cheesecake in fridge wrapped well for upto a week.Nutrition
If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can.
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sindhu
is gelatin important?
Anonymous
What is othef substitute for gelatin orchina grass.
Cate
It's good when you bake yourself and not the cake 😀
Aarthi
@Anonymousno sub for chinas grass of gelatin.
Abha
Hi can we skip gelatin? What will happen if we don't use it?
Aarthi
@Abhagelatin will make this set
Anonymous
Fresh cream should be beaten until peak?
Aarthi
a little soft peak is enough
Shaista
I do not have hand blender, it is possible to whip cream in mixer grinder. Please reply.
Aarthi
u can try pulsing it. if you have a hand whisk, you can try whisking it.
Shaista
Thanks for your reply, I think I better buy a hand blender, but I am getting confused which one to buy, if you don't mind would you please guide me which one should I get. Thanks again.
Anju
Is Cream cheese and cream cheese spread the same?
Aarthi
no they are different
Simmi Alam
Dear Aarthi,
I had very successfully tried the lemon cheesecake for the first time! However, since then, I have tried it 3 more times but something seems to be going wrong as the cheesecake does not set and remains runny.
1. I whip the cream till soft peaks with a electric whipper.
2. i prepared cream cheese at home and add the ingredients mentioned by you and whip this also with the electric beater. (is this step i am doing wrong? bcz maybe cream cheese should not be whipped?)
3. i pre-soak the gelatin and heat the same till it melts and while lukewarm i add to the cream cheese mix and again mix well.
4. I add the cream and mix this gently with a spoon and pour this over the crust and chill overnight.
Still it does not get set!!! can you please try to figure out what i may be doing incorrectly or is there a shelf life for gelatin. by the way the gelatin i bought is not more than 2 months old.
please help.
Aarthi
try adding little more gelatin.
Harsha
Tried the recipe and it was tasty. Got compliments from a guy who studied at US :"It tastes similar to that of cheese factory" 😋
Ishti
This is incredible
You make it so easy.
This has to be the best cheesecake recipe all of us have ever had
Even tho I had to substitute the green lime for lemon since thats all i had for
the lemon juice your recipe came out perfect.
Thank you
Aarthi
Glad you tried and liked it. Yes this taste absoluttely delicious. it is a family favorite too.