The Ingredient You Can't Skip When Making No-Bake Cheesecake

Making a baked cheesecake used to be a laborious process. Now, with the rise of no-bake cheesecake, you can get all the luxurious reward at only a fraction of the hard work. You can customize the cheesecake with fruits, different crusts, syrups, and spices to suit your ideal flavors. There are even recipes out there for easy three-ingredient no-bake cheesecakes if you prefer to keep it simple. However, if you really want to get your cheesecake right, you absolutely must include some sort of stabilizer.

In this case, stabilizers refer to agar-agar, gelatin, corn starch, and occasionally a few others. By mixing in these flavorless ingredients , you end up with a cheesecake that won't easily ooze, melt, or run. The cake part will have a thick, creamy texture that stays standing even once it's done chilling in the fridge. Each type of stabilizer has its own set time and instructions, so always use the directions on the container before including the substance in your filling mixture.

There are many big mistakes that people make with no-bake cheesecakes, but a lack of stabilizers is one of the biggest. Stabilizers form a network of suspended polymers in water, called hydrocolloids, which makes whatever they get mixed with thick and viscous. This texture they create works wonders with no-bake cheesecakes. Without stabilizers, the ingredients must be combined and chilled with incredible precision to avoid separating or getting soupy. If you're adding citrus to cheesecake, it can potentially curdle without a stabilizer holding the components together.

So, it's all about choosing the right stabilizer for your recipe. Corn starch is likely the ingredient you have in your pantry right now, and you can easily whip it into the cream cheese. Agar-agar has to be boiled before use, but once added, will make the cake light and jiggly. Gelatin will keep a tight, pleasant texture that is perfect for creating beautifulm precise slices. You can also stabilize with whipped cream for a fluffy consistency.

There are things to keep some things in mind with stabilizers. Be careful not to add too much, so you don't end up with a gummy mouthfeel. When it comes to how long it's going to take for your no-bake cheesecake to set, be aware that certain stabilizers will shorten that time. Gelatin is usually derived from animal collagen, so vegetarians won't be able to enjoy no-bake cheesecakes with this ingredient. Remember to never use raw flour as a stabilizer in no-bake cheesecake (although it's often used in baked ones), because it can be hazardous to your health. Other than that, you can use stabilizers to create a fire cheesecake without any actual fire required.