No-bake Oreo Cheesecake Slice

"Is Cream Cheese Healthy? | New Health Advisor". Newhealthadvisor.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.

Feature Ingredient: Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is a mysterious thing; it takes the name of a 'cheese' yet the texture is unlike what we imagine is really cheese. Moreover, it disguises itself in both savoury and sweet foods - how outrageous! Because of this I had a hard time finding it in the supermarket and ended up accidentally purchasing 'cream cheese spread', which so happens to be packed with salt - not what you want in a cheesecake. Anyway, cream cheese is known as a 'fresh cheese', where the milk products used to make it are not matured. As a result, we are left with a soft and spreadable cheese; it is also supposedly easy to make, here's a quick tutorial from YouTube:

Cream cheese is commonly eaten as a spread on bagels and crackers, but also as a dip. It is also used to make sweet treats such as cream cheese frosting on cakes/cupcakes and like today, in cheesecake! 

Recipe: No-bake Oreo Cheesecake Slices

Serves 10 - 12

Ingredients:

Base 

2 rolls of oreos (about 30 oreos), crushed into crumbs
1/4 cup of unsalted butter, melted

Filling

750g cream cheese 
3/4 cup sugar (I used icing sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 crushed oreos

Mini oreos to decorate (optional) + 5 additional crushed oreos to sprinkle overtop

Method:

1. Crush your oreos into crumbs - this can be done through a mortar/pestle way or using a rolling pin to crush the oreos, whilst in a bag. 
2. Mix your unsalted butter with the oreo crumb mix using a spatula until you reach a wet sand-like consistency. 
3. Firmly fill the base of your baking tray; compact with your hands or with a spatula. 
4. In a bowl, add the sugar, cream cheese, and the vanilla extract. Mix with an electric hand mixer until the filling becomes smooth. 
5. Stir in the additional crushed oreos. 
6. Spoon into the baking tray and spread the cream cheese using a spatula.
7. Decorate with any remaining oreo crumbs and mini oreos. 
8. Refrigerate overnight, or for at least 4 hours. 

Check out how I did this in photos:

Crushing the oreos

The base looking like asphalt..

Stirring in more crushed oreos

Ready to refrigerate

Ratings/Comments:

Price: Approximately $0.50 per serving

Difficulty: 2/5 

Taste: 5/5

Overall: 5/5

(1 being lowest/not good - 5 being highest/best)

This recipe is pretty simple and fairly straightforward, moreover avoiding the use of an oven is a big plus in my book. The only difficult part I found was trying to get the cream cheese to become a smooth mixture - it had somewhat solidified in its packaging! Nevertheless, it worked out and was delicious! Definitely a recipe I'll try out again and was super popular amongst family and friends. Also, note that the number of oreos you use will really depend on how deep your baking tray is and how thick you prefer your oreo layer to be, so prepare to be flexible as you put it together. Hope you give it a try!

- C