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Chill out with this easy no-bake cheesecake

Recipe: Fresh strawberry no-bake cheesecake just needs a fridge

Pink strawberry cheesecake on white plate with pink flowers and green leaves
No oven was turned on in the making of this fresh strawberry cheesecake. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)


It was too hot to bake this Mother's Day weekend -- and I needed to make a special dessert.

Newly vaccinated, our family was gathering for the first time in many months. I had all the ingredients for a conventional cheesecake (the original plan) topped with home-grown strawberries.

Instead of turning on the oven, I mixed the strawberries with the cream cheese for a light and delightful no-bake cheesecake.

This recipe was inspired by one featured recently in Relish magazine. (The magazine called it "Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart.")

Made in a springform pan, it looks like a baked cheesecake, but has a fluffier texture -- it has no eggs and only one package of cream cheese. It can also be made in a 9-inch pie pan.

Pile of fresh strawberries on a cutting board
Strawberries have done well this year in the garden.
Fresh strawberry no-bake cheesecake

Makes 1 cheesecake; 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cube (8 ounces) butter or margarine, melted
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions:
Grease 8-inch springboard pan or 8- or 9-inch pie pan.

In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Press crumb mixture into pan. Put pan in freezer and chill at least 1 hour.

Put strawberries and 2 tablespoons sugar in food processor or blender and puree. Transfer strawberry puree to saucepan and bring boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until strawberry puree reduces by half. Remove from heat and cool.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla and sugar, then beat until blended. Add cooled strawberry puree. Mix until smooth. Add whipping cream. Beat until soft peaks form.
Cheesecake on angled plate
Place the garnish just before serving.
Remove crust from freezer. Pour strawberry-cream cheese filling into crust. Cover top with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator 5 hours or overnight.

Garnish with fresh berries just before serving.

Serve chilled.

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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