This Philadelphia no bake cheesecake recipe is definitely one of my favorites.

“This is the best no bake cheesecake you’ll ever taste,” he told me over and over again.

2008 was a special year for Victor; he has two fond memories from that year.

The first one was watching Spain beat Italy on penalties in the Euro semi-finals. The second memory was eating the best no bake cheesecake he has ever tasted.

That summer, Victor took a trip to South Africa with his family. They wanted to visit Johannesburg and the surrounding area. In one of their stops, they went to visit a farm called “Acacia“. In that farm, he tells me, there were animals of all kinds: giraffes, ostriches, impalas…. Authentic African fauna.

Animals and light of dawn was what he liked most about that place far from home.

But at dinner time everything changed.

They were sitting at the table, when suddenly, exquisite dishes began to arrive. No fashionable restaurant in Madrid or New York would have envied the level of cuisine achieved that night.

And just when it seemed like nothing could top that dinner. She appeared. Shy and elegant. Creamy and smooth.

That cheesecake was the grand finale to that gastronomic feast. It became the queen of the party.

Cheesecake with a Biscuit Base

Two days after our conversation, I made the decision to try this no-bake cheesecake recipe. The original recipe was made of local cream cheese, but we use an equal which is Philadelphia cream cheese. The cake still comes out just as delicious!

This is a very special homemade recipe, as Victor’s mother discovered it in a faraway and wonderful place that is more than 10,000 kilometers away from her home.

As soon as I made it, I tasted it. It blew my mind.

I gave it to my sister Lucia to try it so I wasn’t being biased. She confirmed my suspicions: it’s one of the best cheesecakes we’ve ever eaten in our lives.

How to Make Philadelphia No Bake Cheesecake

This delicious no bake cheesecake is made up of a filling that’s made with Philadelphia cream cheese, whipped cream and condensed milk, and a biscuit base.

Filling

• Squeeze 100 ml of lemon juice.
• Pour 370 grams of condensed milk into a bowl and add in the squeezed juice. Stir until well combined. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, add 500 grams of Philadelphia cream and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. It is important that before you beat cream cheese it is at room temperature so that it mixes well. Whisk all together with a hand held mixer. Set aside.
• In another bowl, whip 300 grams of heavy whipping cream with the hand held mixer until stiff.
• Add the condensed milk mixture into the Philadelphia cheese mixture, then beat on low speed until combined.
• Add the whipped cream into the mixture little by little and, with a spatula, combine with slow folding movements, a bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom motion, until well integrated.

Biscuit Base

For the biscuit base, I use oatmeal digestive biscuits.

• Crush 14 digestive biscuits previously mixed with 2 teaspoons of softened butter. You can use a either hand blender or a food processor. Other method is to place the biscuits into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.
• Line 10 inch cake pan with parchment paper, so later it will be easier to unmold the cake.

Cheesecake Assembly 

• Place the crushed biscuit in the cake pan and press it down firmly with the back of a spoon.
• Pour the mixture and spread it evenly with the spatula.
• Put the assembled cake in the refrigerator for 3 hours to give it consistency. Take it out of the refrigerator 1/2 hour before serving, so you will be delighted by its incredible creaminess. Et voilà! You have just made a delicious Philadelphia classic cheesecake!

You can eat it with a raspberry sauce on top.

If you liked this Philadelphia cheesecake recipe, I also invite you to try our pavlova recipe.

The Cheesecake Original Recipe

Although this recipe comes from South Africa, the origin of cheesecake goes back thousands of years to Ancient Greece. The first confirmed history of cheesecake comes from the island of Samos, in 2000 B.C. Later, the athletes of the first Olympic Games, in 776 B.C., found in this cheesecake the source of energy needed to compete.

The first original recipe dates back to 230 AD and is attributed to the writer Athenaeus. It is recorded as the oldest cheesecake recipe. The elaboration consisted, first, in crushing the cheese until it was smooth and creamy, then mixing the crushed cheese in a brass pan with honey and wheat flour, and, finally, it was heated until it became a dough. Then was set aside to cool and then served.

This cheesecake original recipe reached all the countries of Europe as the Roman Empire expanded throughout the continent. This gave rise to a great variety of cheesecake recipes, each one containing each region´s native ingredients.

And from Europe we took the cheesecake recipe to the United States where cream cheese became the signature American ingredient. In 1872, a New York dairy farmer, William Lawrence, tried to make a product similar to the French Neufchatel cheese. However, he accidentally discovered a process to create cream cheese. In 1880, this cream cheese began to be marketed under the name Philadelphia Cream Cheese.