Mixed-Berry Cheesecake-An Easy Summer Dessert That Keeps the Kitchen Cool #LMDConnector

I love to bake but our house is 100 years old and holds heat like an oven, so baking in the summer just isn’t an option for our family. So what’s a creative mom with a dessert-loving family to do? Turn to the refrigerator, of course!

I have a great collection of no-bake foods ranging from main dishes to desserts but if there’s one thing I love about cooking, it’s trying new things! So when my mission as a Life Made Delicious Connector was to share one of my favourite cold recipes, I headed to the Life Made Delicious website to browse the site and find some inspiration.

It didn’t take long! I was tempted by some of the hearty-looking main-courses and scrumptious salads, but in the end my love of dessert won out and I decided to take the flavours from the Mixed Berry Cream Tart and combine them to create a delicious refrigerator cheesecake!

Life Made Delicious-Inspired Mixed-Berry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (500 mL) fresh or frozen mixed berries
• 1 cup (125 mL) boiling water
• 1 box (4-serving size) strawberry-flavoured gelatine
• 1 package (7g) unflavoured gelatine
• 3 pouches Nature Valley* Crunchy Chocolate Granola Bars
• 1 pkg (250 g) cream cheese
• 2/3 cup (50 mL) icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) almond extract
• 2 cups (250 mL) whipping cream or whipped topping

Directions:

1. Place strawberry-flavoured gelatine and unflavoured gelatine in small bowl and mix together. Add boiling water and stir to dissolve. Mix in berries and chill until syrupy.
2. Meanwhile, leaving granola bars in pouches, crush granola bars with rolling pin. Sprinkle crushed granola in bottom of 9-inch ungreased glass pie plate or springform pan.
3. Beat cream cheese, icing sugar and almond extract together until blended and creamy.
4. Whip cream until stiff. Fold into cream cheese mixture. Fold in thickened gelatine. Pour over crust and chill until firm.
5. Decorate with fresh berries if desired.

I absolutely loved the idea of using crushed granola bars for the crust instead of fussing with a graham crust that had to be mixed, pressed into a pan and baked before serving. I used the Nature Valley Crunchy Chocolate Granola Bars because I believe everything’s better with a bit of chocolate!

Then I essentially took all the elements from the Mixed Berry Cream Tart: berries, strawberry-flavoured gelatine, cream cheese and whipped cream, and combined them together to create a dreamy mixed-berry cheesecake.

Because I really wanted the cream cheese flavour to come through, I only used two cups of berries instead of four. Both fresh and frozen berries would work wonderfully for this recipe but when time is short, frozen is the way to go since the ice-cold berries help the gelatine to set faster.

When the cheesecake was done, I garnished it with a few fresh cherries. The dessert satisfied the sweet tooth of everyone in my family and best of all, the kitchen stayed nice and cool the entire time I was making it!

If you’re looking for some great recipes to fill up your family and keep your house cool this summer, check out the Life Made Delicious website and see what catches your eye! Whether you’re looking for a new favourite dish or some inspiration to help you come up with a creation of your own, there’s plenty of mouth-watering tastiness to choose from! Check it out for yourself and see how delicious no-cook cooking can be!

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.