Faux Strawberry "Cheesecake"/Happy-ness in a bowl.

Sometimes, I feel almost embarrassed putting up a simple recipe. The type of dish that is ridiculously easy to whip up, but still gets disproportionately raved over. My Faux Strawberry "Cheesecake" belongs to that category. Takes a few minutes and zero skills to make, and but still makes a born foodie like N finish three quarters of it with gusto. And the remaining quarter I usually fight for and salvage; so good with a Meg Ryan movie and gossip on the side.

The kind of recipe where you can't go wrong; you just shake off adulation with false humility when the damned fact is that my seven-year-old sister is equally adept at this dish. I got it off the back of a Nestle Milkmaid can a decade back. And I had to try it, because I was a sucker for all things Nestle. Ice-blended Nesquick, the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies and 2nd stage Apple and Cherry Cerelac. Yum.

Incidentally, my medical license can get revoked if I promote Nestle Cerelac, because infants are to be strictly, exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months. I totally meant for adults, the Cerelac bit.

Back to the "Cheesecake". It won't be cream-cheesy, dense or sinful like a regular New York style cheesecake. Don't get depressed just yet. This one is flavourful, light and addictively delicious.
And has less than 5 ingredients in toto. You'll notice that I've mentioned that Milkmaid is optional. I strongly suggest you add it if you're into yummy-hence-calorie-laden desserts.

I left the Milkmaid out this time.

Faux Strawberry "Cheesecake":

For the base:

85g pack of McVities Digestive biscuits.
1 tbsp unsalted butter.

For the cheesecake:

85 g pack of Strawberry/Raspberry Jelly/Jell-o.
200 ml of whipping cream.
200 g/half-a-tin Condensed Milk (highly recommended, but optional)

Method:

For the base:

Put all the biscuits into a Ziploc bag or paper bag. Bash it until looks like grains of beach sand.

Alternatively, you can pulse it in a mixie or food processor, but ensure that it doesn't get too fine.
You can use instead of the Digestives, Marie biscuits, graham crackers, Oreos, whatever makes your taste buds sing.

In a freezer-safe, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Massage the crumbs into the butter, pat it down with your knuckles to make a pie-crust style base. Put it away in the freezer compartment for an hour, minimum.

Take it out sooner, and the crumbs wouldn't have set and they'd mix with the pudding. You can use unsalted butter, if that's all you have on hand.

For the cheese cake:

Prepare the strawberry jelly according to the package instructions.

An easier way would be to boil 200 ml of water. Stir the Jelly granules into the boiling water, mix thoroughly. After a couple of minutes, take it off the stove top, and pour it into a freezer safe bowl. You'll know the jelly is cooked enough when the pink foam on top disappears.

Let the jelly cool down to room temperature. Transfer the jelly to the freezer until the edges have set properly and the inside is wobbly, but NOT fully set.

Notice the finger-indentations in the centre? Shake the bowl a little bit!

Meanwhile, pour the whipping cream into a freezer safe bowl. Keep it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.
Take it out, and whip until soft peaks form.

The idea is to ensure the bowl and the cream are cold, so the cream won't split.

Beat the jelly either with a hand-blender or a mixie so it gets broken down but not so much that it gets foamy and liquid-y.

Stir the condensed milk in to the jelly, if using.

Fold in the whipped cream. Don't over beat.

Pour into the well-set biscuit base. Smooth down the top. Cover with cling film or a lid and store in the freezer for another hour.

Serve! If it's frozen solid, take it out and transfer to the refrigerator until it's wobbly and pudding-y.

Smoothen it out evenly so it won't be uneven like mine is. But it eventually doesn't matter.

The serve-with-garnish part is solely for the blog. How you really eat it? Scroll down for a pictorial demo. Confirm with N, the food connoisseur (connoisseuse?) if you don't believe me.