No Bake Passionfruit Cheesecake

This light no bake passionfruit cheesecake is packed full of passionfruit flavour thanks to the passionfruit syrup made with fresh passionfruit swirled throughout the cheesecake as well as on top. This delicious summer dessert is made with yogurt instead of cream, and therefore is lighter than traditional cheesecake, but it tastes no less decadent.

Jump to:

• Why We Love This Recipe
• Ingredients Notes And Substitutions
• How To Make This No Bake Cheesecake
• FAQ
• My Recipe Tips
• Storage
• Variations
• More Easy Summer Dessert Recipes
• No Bake Passionfruit Cheesecake

Why We Love This Recipe

• Passionfruit is a beautiful summer fruit that pairs so well with creamy ingredients for a dessert such as this cheesecake and this passionfruit ice cream.
• Cheesecake without cream – yes, there is no cream in this cheesecake recipe! However it is still creamy, rich and tastes super indulgent. I love making desserts and cakes with Greek yogurt in place of cream, like this Eton Mess, Banoffee pie and yogurt plum cake.
• Cheesecake without gelatin – making it suitable for vegetarians. The cheesecake is still thick and creamy, and it sets!
• Passionfruit topping – the sharp, passionfruit syrup topping for the cheesecake is made with just 4 ingredients. By heating the passionfruit pulp with a sugar syrup and adding a splash of fresh orange juice you get this full on passionfruit flavour.

Ingredients Notes And Substitutions

• Biscuits – I like to use digestive biscuits for my cheesecake base, but you can use graham crackers if you are in America, or any other of your favourite biscuits/ cookies such as ginger biscuits, chocolate biscuits or shortbread.
• Butter – salted or unsalted butter both work in this recipe.
• Cream cheese – use full fat cream cheese, and use the block rather than tub. My favourite cream cheese for cheesecakes is Philadelphia. Half fat cream cheese will produce a softer cheesecake filling which could result in it not setting.
• Yogurt – full fat Greek yogurt. If it’s too runny strain the yogurt before adding to the cream cheese otherwise your cheesecake may not be set enough to cut neatly.
• Vanilla – vanilla essence of vanilla extract.
• Icing sugar – confectioners sugar. Use pure icing sugar rather than soft icing mixture.
• Granulated white sugar – this is used in the passionfruit syrup. You can substitute with caster sugar.
• Passionfruit – I like to use fresh passion fruit when in season, but you can also use frozen passionfruit. I don’t recommend using passionfruit pulp in syrup as this could make your cheesecake syrup too sweet.
• Orange juice – freshly squeezed orange juice enhances the passion fruit flavour in the syrup but you can use all water instead.

How To Make This No Bake Cheesecake

1. Line a spring form tin with baking parchment / baking paper.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave.
3. Make biscuit crumbs.
4. Add butter to crumbs, stir well and press firmly in to the bottom of your lined tin in an even layer. Place in fridge to set.
5. Make the passionfruit syrup – dissolve sugar in water over medium heat, don’t let it boil.
6. Add passion fruit pulp and orange juice and bring to a light boil.
7. Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until thick and syrupy. Leave to cool.
8. Mix the cream cheese, icing sugar/ confectioners sugar, vanilla and cooled passionfruit syrup together until well combined.
9. Stir in the Greek yogurt.
10. Spoon on to chilled biscuit base, gently spread out evenly with a smooth top, then place back in the fridge to set.
11. Just before serving, remove the cheesecake from the tin, then spoon over the rest of the passionfruit syrup.

FAQ

My Recipe Tips

• Use a springform pan to make the cheesecake easier to remove from the tin.
• To make the base, make sure the biscuits are finely crushed, this makes the base less likely to crumble. You can use your food processor to make the crumbs, or the end of a rolling pin in a non breakable mixing bowl.
• Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature, this will make it easier to beat with the vanilla and icing sugar.
• I recommend serving the cheesecake on the day it is made, and spooning over the topping just before serving.
• Biscuit base – as you can see from the photos, we love a decent amount of biscuit base on our cheesecakes! If you aren’t quite such a fan, reduce the amount of digestive biscuits by 1 fifth to a quarter.

Special Notes and Tips when Making Passionfruit Syrup

• If your passionfruit syrup isn’t reduced enough it can make your cheesecake filling more liquid, resulting in it not setting, so I wanted to go in to a little more detail about making the syrup to enable you to enjoy making this delicious cheesecake:
  • The time it takes to make your passion fruit syrup can vary – it depends if you are gently simmering or rapidly simmering your syrup.
  • Therefore, I suggest keeping an eye on the pan whilst it is cooking, giving a gentle stir from time to time to check the consistency.
  • It is ready when thick and syrupy – when you drag a spoon through it, there should be very faint wrinkles on the surface of the syrup and the line left by the spoon will not fill with syrup instantly.
  • The syrup will thicken as it cools.
  • If your syrup is too thick, as long as it has not burnt and will therefore taste bitter, you can still stir it through the cream cheese. If set solid, gently warm over a low heat with a spoonful of water, and cool slightly before adding to cream cheese.
  • If you are worried your syrup is too thin and not syrupy enough, drain off some of the liquid – you can re-simmer this and serve in a jug on the side of the cheesecake, or drizzle over a cake or yogurt. Stir through the remaining passionfruit seeds and a little of the syrup.

Storage

• Make Ahead – You can make the passionfruit syrup up to 2 days ahead and store it in the fridge. I recommend making the cheesecake on the morning of the day you want to serve it.
• Freeze – I wouldn’t recommend freezing this yogurt cheesecake as the texture can become a little grainy. Having said that, if you have leftover cheesecake I have frozen it, defrosted it in the fridge and we have eaten it. I just wouldn’t freeze in the hope of serving it at a dinner party.

Variations

• Lemon – add grated lemon zest to the cream cheese mixture with the vanilla and passionfruit syrup
• Lime – add lime zest as above.
• White chocolate – mix some roughly chopped white chocolate in with the biscuit crumbs then pour over the melted butter and mix – the heat will melt the edges of the chocolate and create a super tasty biscuit base!
• For a gluten free cheesecake – use gluten free biscuits / gluten free digestive biscuits.
• To serve it as cheesecake in a glass – you can half the amounts, but the smaller amount of passion fruit syrup will take less time to thicken and become syrupy.

More Easy Summer Dessert Recipes