Boozy No Bake Cherry Cheesecake
Sunday, June 18, 2017
burghbaby in Recipe, recipe

You know how sometimes you get invited to A Thing but then you forget about That Thing and then you find yourself without any food to take to The Thing? There's the eternal debate about whether to just stop and grab something on the way or to try to throw something together.

Or so I hear. I have definitely never found myself at T-2 hours trying to decide.

Ahem.

CHEESECAKE! There's always time to throw together a no bake cheesecake. I tend to keep cream cheese and heavy cream in my fridge at all times, so it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to done.

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TAH-DAH!

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Boozy No Bake Cherry Cheesecake

1 Pre-made chocolate graham cracker pie crust (Or make your own. Whatevs.)
1 cup pitted cherries
1/2 cup rum (Pick your poison. It all works.)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar (Yes, again. The sugar above goes with the cherries. This sugar goes with the cheesecake.)
1 teaspoon almond extract

1. Start by throwing the cherries in a non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Stir the cornstarch into the rum. (You could use water if the boozy thing isn't working for you, by the way.) (I often have to use water because apparently the words "Leave the rum alone" are apparently hard.) (AHEM.) Throw the rum in with the cooking cherries. Add the sugar, stir things up, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, or until a thick sauce forms. Make sure to stir it every few minutes to prevent burning. Toss the whole saucepan in the freezer to cool while you work on the other stuff.

2. Heavy cream! We need to turn it into whipped cream! Throw it in a mixing bowl and mix on high speed until peaks form.

3. Another bowl! Yeah, we're getting dishes dirty. It happens. ANYWAY. Cream cheese! Place it, the sugar, and the almond extract in a large mixing bowl and mix on medium speed until everything is smooth and creamy.

4. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese stuff.

5. Cherries! Remember those guys? Pull them out of the freezer and fold in all but a few spoonfuls of them. You're saving those cherries for garnish. Let's call it 1/4 cup of them, just for funsies.

6. Pour the cheesecake stuff into your crust and smooth the top out. Top with the reserved cherries. Toss some shaved chocolate on top of it all, if you want. (Shaved chocolate = Run a chocolate bar over a grater and call it a day.)

7. If you're in a hurry, toss the whole shebang into the freezer until you leave for The Thing you forgot about. Otherwise, refrigerate before serving.

8. Admire how fancy you seem, even though you really didn't do much work.

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