Cheesecake is one of those desserts that is absolutely worth making homemade but takes so much time and effort that I would rather settle for a no-bake cheesecake. I honestly feel like no-bake and regular cheesecake are two different desserts. Both good and similar in flavor, but more like cousins than siblings. When I crave no bake cheesecake I either find a homemade recipe or I pick up the Jello branded box mix. Today we will find out if Jello is actually that good or if it is just the most commonly known brand. At my local Smith’s I found a Kroger’s branded no-bake cheesecake mix for $4 and we are going to jump it and try it out.
The appeal with a no-bake cheesecake is that it has few ingredients and little effort. Somehow, Kroger managed to make this dessert into a 6 step process which feels unnecessary. Unlike other brands, Kroger doesn’t isolate the list of needed ingredients for the box mix, they simply include it in the correlating steps like “Pour 1 1/2 cups cold 2% milk into small bowl”. If you’re trying to get the ingredient list in a pinch, this could be frustrating. Imagine you’re in the middle of the store trying to ensure you have all ingredients you need and you have to read the full 6 steps to get the information you need, not ideal.
The first step is to combine the included graham cracker crumbs with sugar and melted butter inside the pie plate. I appreciate this step avoiding dirtying an extra bowl. I mixed this all together and it still felt pretty dry and not very cohesive but I continued onto the next step which was to use a measuring cup and press firmly on the bottom and sides of the pan to pack the mixture together. The first half of this went well but then it started sticking to the measuring cup and crumbling and falling off the sides so I gave it the best I could before giving up.
For the filling, you combine milk and the included mixture together into a bowl. The recipe shows an image of a hand mixer but doesn’t state you need a mixer, it only says what speed to mix the filling at and for how long. I chose to hand whisk the mixture. It takes a little bit more time and a lot more effort which isn’t better in anyway but I was too lazy to dig out my hand mixer on this day. I won’t say my choice was the correct choice, but I will say it worked out well anyways. Essentially, you whisk the mixture until it has thickened to about a pudding consistency then you spread it into the prepared crust. I did this and as I was smoothing the top of the filling, the edges of the crust kept trying to detach from the pan and mix into the filling which was more frustrating than I had hoped. I was glad to get rid of this cheesecake for an hour by putting it into the fridge.
At this point, I tasted the filling mixture and it was so tangy and tasted awful, like I wouldn’t even lick the bowl. I suspect that whatever they used to recreate the cream cheese flavor was done in excess. Looking at the ingredients I found they use “bakers cheese”. Unfamiliar with this, I looked into it and it was more interesting than I expected. Bakers cheese is similar to cream cheese and cottage cheese. It is considered a softer, smoother, less tangy cheese and in my research I found a lot of people prefer it in a cheesecake over cream cheese. This is my first experience with it but it won’t be my last. I think it could be fun to compare bakers cheese and cream cheese in a cheesecake side by side, what do you think? I’ll have to see if it is sold locally to me.
The final step on the box says “When ready to serve, dip the pie plate bottom up to the rim in HOT water for 30 seconds. Cut and serve.” I did not do this. There is not a single reason you would need to do this when the crust doesn’t stick to the pan. I have no concerns that it will be too stuck to serve. I cut the pie with a knife into 8 pieces despite the box calling for 6 servings. It had solidified nicely and left me with very clean cuts. I will say these slices looked big, you could easily get 10-12 out of this. I pulled out a slice and what do you know, it didn’t stick to the pan. The only thing left behind was the part of the crust that was too crumbly to even stick to itself.
The consistency of this cheesecake was perfect but I found the flavor lacking. Honestly it tasted like plain pudding on a graham cracker crust. I was getting no cream cheese, bakers cheese, or cheesecake flavor from the finished product which was disappointing. I will say it was still an enjoyable dessert, I wouldn’t mind eating it again, but if I am purchasing a no-bake cheesecake box mix, I think I’ll stick to Jello. We reviewed their cheesecake here before and it reigns the champion of the no-bake cheesecake box mix competition.
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