A delicious and easy to make no-bake chocolate cheesecake. A crunchy biscuit base topped with smooth, creamy and indulgent chocolate.
As promised when I shared my Easy Chocolate Brownies recipe last week, I’m back with another classic recipe… Easy No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake. It’s got a crunchy digestive biscuit base topped with smooth, creamy and indulgent chocolate. Even better, it’s easy to make too.
Whilst it’s no bake, you still need to leave plenty of time to make it so it has time to set properly in the fridge. If you need to speed that process up a bit then you could pop it into the freezer instead.
How to crush the biscuits for your cheesecake base
I’ve realised that there are two distinct opinions for how crushed the biscuits should be for the base. Some people prefer them to be quite finely crushed so you get a really firm base once the crumbs are mixed with melted butter. And others like me prefer them to be a little more chunky so that the base is a little more crumbly and has more of a crunch.
If you prefer finely crushed biscuits then I’d recommend using a blender or food processor. I blitzed mine for this cheesecake in my Kitchen Aid using the pulse function to ensure that they weren’t too finely ground. You would get a similar result using a spice grinder, although as they are small in size you’ll probably need to blitz the biscuits in batches.
If you prefer your biscuits a little less finely ground (like me) or don’t have a blender then you can also use a pestle and mortar, or pop your biscuits into a bag and bash them with a rolling pin.
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Easy No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake
INGREDIENTS
- 100 g digestive biscuits - 8 biscuits
- 40 g butter
- 250 g cream cheese
- 120 g caster sugar
- 175 g milk chocolate - choose something from the baking aisle rather than the sweet aisle in the supermarket as this is easier to melt
- 20 g cocoa powder
- 150 ml double cream
INSTRUCTIONS
- Line the base of an 18cm round loose bottomed tin with greaseproof paper or a reusable baking liner (I use these).
- Crush the digestive biscuits (100g, there's a list of different ways this can be done above the recipe). Melt your butter (40g) and mix it with the crushed biscuits. Mix together the crushed biscuits and melted butter. Put the biscuit mix into the prepared tin and use the back of a spoon to push it flat. Put the tin into the fridge to chill while you make the topping.
- Melt the milk chocolate (175g). I melt mine in a saucepan over a very low heat, but you can also use a bain marie or the microwave in 20 second bursts if you prefer. Set aside to cool.
- Beat together the cream cheese (250g) and caster sugar (120g).
- In a different bowl whisk the double cream (150ml) until it forms soft peaks. Add the melted chocolate and beat in. Sift in the cocoa powder (20g) and mix well until combined. Add the cream cheese mixture and fold together until everything is fully combined.
- Remove the tin from the fridge and add the cheesecake mixture. Use a small palette knife or the back of a spoon to smooth the top (you'll need to push it down to avoid air bubbles before smoothing).
- Refrigerate until the cheesecake has set (at least a couple of hours but preferably longer if you can).
- When you're ready to serve carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin. If you find the edges have become a little smudged by the movement run a palette knife around the edge to smooth them again.
- Serve. I've served mine topped with some dark and white chocolate shavings made by running a peeler along the side of a block of chocolate.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Egg-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Fish-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
Tessa says
It tastes delicious but it didn’t set, I followed the recipe to the letter, the only difference was I used a light cream cheese? Replies on how to get it to set would be greatly appreciated thank you.
Charlotte Oates says
Unfortunately you have highlighted the reason that the recipe did not work for you. Light cream cheese will never set properly in a cheesecake recipe which is not designed with light cream cheese in mind. It is worth noting the specified ingredients in a recipe before starting to bake – in this case only “cream cheese” is specified and not “light cream cheese”.
Jo says
How long should this keep for? How’s best to store it?
Charlotte Oates says
It’ll keep for a few days in the fridge or it can be frozen if you want to store it for longer.
Stephanie says
Made this with orange chocolate and gluten free biscuits, it was amazing. Will definitely be making it again.
William Hart says
Just made this. Tastes great znd very easy! I made a Whopper! I quadrupled the amount of biscuits snd butter for yhe base and trippled the ingredients for the topping! This made a large, deep 12″ cheese cake with a think and crunchy base. I also used Philidelphia for the cheese to add that Tang that you don’t get with Mascapone.
Tilly says
AMAZING i love to make this all the time so delish
Leeanne says
Does the melted chocolate need to completely cool before adding, I’ve done this before and ended up with specks of chocolate through the mix. Still tasted amazing but would like to get it right next time. Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
It needs to cool to room temperature.
Terri Green says
Had a disaster making one with gelatine… I needed one for granddaughters work,.Made it and froze it and with in 3 hours had a beautiful cheesecake that impressed them. I will now try this with different flavours. Thank you
June says
Thanks for recipe . I made quite a lot at Xmas and gave them to family and friends. I used ginger biscuits for the base and also used gluten free biscuits for a couple. I am now doing another load and going to freeze them .
Janine Bryan says
Best ever cheesecake. I use light cream cheese and still tastes as good. Would highly recommend thank you.
Anna says
This is my go to dessert recipe for chocolate cheesecake! I’ve tried it with chocolate orange for Christmas and it’s amazing! Best recipe! Thankyou
Margaret Eyre says
Made both this and the lemon recipe, both absolutely delicious and easy peasy to Make!
ebs says
it was amazing. thank you so much. due to the tin i had, i used 70g of melted butter & 16 biscuits (200g)
i put it in the fridge overnight & loved it. 2 days later though & it was FANTASTIC. it has the perfect amount of sweetness. i recommend leaving this in the fridge for 2 days guys!
again thank you for sharing & making this so easy ♤
Sangita Sicotray says
Never made a cheesecake before and this was a easy recipe to follow it’s very light and tastes delicious very impressed this will definitely be one of our Christmas desserts!!!!!!
Alex says
If you freeze it, could you add a chocolate ganache on top and then wait tor each room temperature again?
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t tried it, but I would expect it to work well.
Kirrily says
Everyone loved this! Very very delicious 🙂
Helen says
Made this cheesecake for work colleagues… they loved it and asked for the recipe! It’s super tasty.
Neelam Raval says
Hiya, can you use dark chocolate instead?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, that would work just as well as milk chocolate.