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No Bake Cheesecake with Agar-Agar

I promised to find the cheesecake recipe for a cooking workshop I participated in.  Easy right?  Not.  The workshop only lasts 4 hours.  I thought, we can just do a no bake recipe and it'll have enough time to chill if we put it in the freezer.  I settled on a Martha Stewart recipe, and decided to test it with actual fresh cheese, instead of cream cheese.  It was a disaster.  One of the cheeses had started to have a little bit of funky flavor, and it ruined the whole cheesecake.  So I tried it again, with regular cream cheese.  Even after 24 hours it was soupy.  So I called on my pastry chef friend for help.  The answer- Use Gelatin!  Unfortunately gelatin takes at least twice as much time to jell as the workshop actually lasts, and half the people in the group are either vegetarian or muslim.  So I was left with the choice of trying agar-agar, or eating warm cheesecake in the middle of summer.

I'd never used agar-agar, so I took to researching it.  I never could find a plain no bake cheesecake recipe made with agar-agar.  Apparently mango cheesecake dominates in this category.  I also found that a lot of sites give you information that's totally inaccurate, for instance, telling you that you can just substitute agar-agar for gelatin.  Agar-agar is much stronger than gelatin, and you could end up with something more like cheesecake jello if you don't adjust the measurements.  Whereas gelatin isn't supposed to be boiled, agar-agar has to be boiled for 4-5 minutes to activate.  The hot agar-agar is then supposed to be blended into something that's already warm.  Otherwise you can end up with lumps.  Neither can be frozen.  What's great about the agar-agar though, is that it starts to firm up in 15 minutes, even before it cools down, and will stay firm at room temperature.  So on the third try, I finally came up with my own recipe that turned out great.  It's a light summer time cheesecake, that you don't have to turn on the oven for, and you don't have to wait 24 hours for either.

No Bake Cheesecake with Agar-Agar

Ingredients

For the Crust :
50g - ¼ Cup Sugar
125g - ½ Cup Melted Butter
240g - 2 Cups Sablés Anglais crumbs (apx. 16 cookies) McVities brand

For the Filling :
450g - 16 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese
400g - 14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk (Lait sucré concentré, a 397g can)
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2-4 Tbsp. Juice of ½ a lemon
¾ tsp Powdered Agar-agar (1.5 g or half a 3g package)
33cl - 11 oz. Whipping Cream – In France use Elle & Vire,
Crème liquide entière professionnel 35% from Monoprix

Instructions

Make the Crust :
-Process the sablés anglais into fine crumbs in a food processor.
-In a bowl, mix the cookie crumbs with the sugar, then add the melted butter, and combine.
-Press the mixture firmly and evenly into your pie plate.
-Refrigerate

Make the Filling :
You need two sauce pans, and electric beater, a whip, a metal strainer, two bowls, a spatula and spoons.

Prepare the ingredients :

-Put the powdered agar-agar in a sauce pan with a cup of water.

-Put the sweetened condensed milk in a second sauce pan.

-Start by whipping the cream. Beat the cold whipping cream with an electric beater until stiff peaks form. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

-In a second bowl, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, and lemon juice together.

-Start heating the agar-agar, boil for 4-5 minutes. At the same time, heat the sweetened condensed milk on low heat. You may need to whip the agar-agar as it boils so that it's well incorporated.

-Pour the agar-agar into sweetened condensed milk through the strainer. Quickly whip the agar-agar and the sweetened condensed milk together with a whip.

-Immediately after, use electric beaters to incorporate the hot mixture a little bit at a time into the bowl of cheese mixture.

-Fold in the whipped cream with a spatula until it's well incorporated.

-Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate until completely cooled.

Post by Dori, 9 July 2015

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!
I spent a lot of time looking for a recipe for a basic cheesecake with agar agar, that also explains how to use the agar agar to make it work. Your recipe is detailed and clear, and it worked like a charm! Thanks for sharing it :)

Dori said...

Thank you. I had the same problem finding a cheesecake recipe with agar agar, and the circumstances forced me to get creative :)

g4m4t4tsu said...

Thanks for the recipe. I'm Indonesian so Agar is more familiar here. My last no bake cheesecake turns a bit less firm and the other sites I found always use gelatin. May I ask what's the size or diameter of the pan you use in this recipe?

Dori said...

It's a standard american pie plate. It's 20cm in diameter at the bottom of the plate, and 25 cm in diameter at the top of the plate.

Make sure your agar agar is activated. If it isn't boiled first like I mention in the recipe it won't work.

Anonymous said...

Hi, will this recipe work if i exclude the whipping cream?

Dori said...

I don't think so. It would be extremely dense and wouldn't fill the pie pan. If you don't have access to beaters or whipping cream, you can just buy a can of whipped cream and use that. Just eye the amount. If you still want to try and experiment without the whipped cream, or less of it, be sure to add more cream cheese, since the whipped cream is about 40% the volume.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Will try it out this Christmas weekend :)

Dori said...

Let us know how it turns out :)

Anonymous said...

Will definitely try this Thanks. Shri

Paradise Food said...

I have agar agar flakes...
Can u tell me how much of it I have to use in this cheesecake ?

Dori said...

Hi Paradise Food,

This was the first time I'd ever worked with agar agar, so I am no expert, however after looking around, I found that most people recommend 3 times flakes as powder, and that you have to let the flakes soften in the water for about 10 minutes before boiling. You might try looking at this website for more info on agar agar.

https://loveisinmytummy.com/2016/05/all-you-need-to-know-about-agar-agar.html

Unknown said...

Thank you!
I have looked for a way, to use agar-agar in cheesecakes without lumps. And no recepies have given me a proper instructions on how. This is easy to understand! It shows how to blend the agar-agar into something warm and not risk overheating the cheese.
I will emidiatly try it in the no bake brownie - vanilla cheesecake with rhubarbcurd i have been dying to construct.
Tekla

Dori said...

Thanks! Let us know how it works for you :)

Unknown said...

Hi Dori,
When you said cannot be frozen, or something similar, did you mean the final cheese cake cannot be frozen? We are looking for a cheesecake to serve at our wedding in a months time and want to make as much as possible in advance ie: freeze it.
Rosemary

Unknown said...

Hi Dori,
Can I freeze the final cheesecake? We are looking for a cheesecake for our forthcoming wedding which will have to be made in advance.
Maria B

Unknown said...

Hi Dori,
When you said cannot be frozen, or something similar, did you mean the final cheese cake cannot be frozen? We are looking for a cheesecake to serve at our wedding in a months time and want to make as much as possible in advance ie: freeze it.
Rosemary

Dori said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dori said...

Rosemary,

Don't freeze anything with Agar Agar or Gelatin. I've never tried it, but according to what I've read it'll break down it you freeze it. Both will keep in the refrigerator though.

Dori

Unknown said...

Thanks for the recipe. It turned out fantastic!!!!!!

Unknown said...

Thanks for this fantastic recipe!!! Soon yummy!

Unknown said...

Great recipe!!!!! Thanks

Dori said...

Great! I'm glad you liked it.

Dhevina said...

Hi can I exclude the condensed milk n add sugar.if exclude can I follow the other measurement

Dori said...

Dhevina, I think you'd have trouble trying to replace the sweetened condensed milk with just sugar, because it serves as a medium to blend the agar agar that's just boiled for a 4-5 minutes. The way I understand it you're not supposed to pour hot agar agar into something cold, but into at least a warm liquid. If you blended the granulated sugar into the cream cheese mixture and then added the hot agar agar I have no idea what would happen. If you give it a try, let us know how it worked out.

Sudha said...

Hi Dori,

Had a small doubt. In case we reduce the quantity by half, will the proportion of agar agar also be reduced by half?

Dori said...

Yes. Half the agar agar in 1/2 cup of water instead of a full cup.

Unknown said...

Hi Dori, I was thinking about making a cold coconut yogurt cake. Would it work if I used agar2 then add it to the yogurt, and instead of whip cream I was planning on using coconut milk (which is very dense) and whip that. Does it sound like something doable? Thanks

Dori said...

Ester,
The thing about working with agar agar, is that it has to be boiled for 4-5 minutes in order to activate it, then it has to be poured hot into something warm, before blending it with the rest of the cool ingredients. So are you still planning on heating the sweetened condensed milk and pouring the agar agar into that? or were you planning to pour it in to heated yogurt? I'm not sure what will happen to your yogurt if you heat it, but why not give it a try? I've never tried to whip coconut milk, so I'm not sure how that works. If it doesn't whip up good, I might try adding some whipping cream to the coconut milk, or chickpea cooking water if it's not salted. Let us know how it turns out!

Anonymous said...

I can't see why you couldn't freeze this. I successfully freeze gelatine and agar products all the time.

Unknown said...

Can we add hot creamcheese and agar agar mixture into cold whipped cream?

Dori said...

nisa taj, Yes you can. By the time you've mixed the agar agar and sweetened condensed milk into the cream cheese mixture, it cools down to warm, and you shouldn't have a problem adding in the whipped cream. I didn't.

Unknown said...

WONDERFUL!!! First let me say, THANK YOU!, I've noticed that you have taken time out of you busy day to answer every question(s). YOU ARE FANTASTIC!, I have not tried this recipe, cheese cake has ALWAYS intimidated me, this makes me want to try. Have you ever seen cheese cake with a layer of "regular" cake? will agar work the same? if so will the recipe above be the same?..... Last but not least what other desserts have you made with agar

Dori said...

Hi Unknown, I've never made cake layered with cheesecake, however I would think this should work. I'm assuming that the cake part is cooked first, and then the layers are assembled when cool. What you'd want to keep in mind is that this recipe is not as dense as regular cheesecake, it's light and airy. The risk would be that it would come out the sides, so logically, you would want to use a lighter instead of dense cake, maybe thinner layers, then you'd want to put the layers together in a mold and stick it in the frig. It should be served cold. I haven't really made any other desserts with agar agar, but the important part is it has to be boiled for 4-5 minutes to activate it, and then poured into an already warm liquid. Just use the basic instructions I gave above. You should look up gelatin to agar agar conversion, because agar agar is way stronger than gelatin. Ironically, I've developed a dairy allergy since I wrote this, and in France there is no vegan cream cheese! So have an extra piece for me :)

Unknown said...

Thank you so much! I used to make cheesecake with agar agar years ago, but i forgot the amounts of agar to use. Years later i seemed that the internet is exploded about this dessert. I was a real struggle to get the answer i was hoping for. Thanks to this recipe i have a feeling it will work out just fine. It's in the fridge. Ready to be served tomorrow. Fingers crossed! Muito obrigado.

Unknown said...

Can I use normal cream instead of whipped cream ? I am unable to whip the normal cream. Will non whipped cream work ?

Dori said...

Dear Unknown, No you can not just use regular cream. However if you can't get whipping cream that you whip up yourself, then you can just buy a can of ready to use whipped cream and use that instead.

Moncsi said...

Can I blend Agar-Agar to something lukewarm or cold?

Dori said...

Agar agar has to be boiled in order to activate it. When it comes down in temperature it congeals. So if you poor it into something cold, the risk would be that it doesn’t incorporate correctly into your mixture, and you either end up with lumps or worse. Lukewarm is probably fine, but I’d advise against adding it to something cold.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I hope you're doing well during this pandemic. I've been looking for many no bake cheesecake recipe, but a lot of them use gelatin so I'm very happy to finally found a detailed recipe using agar agar! However, many of the recipes with gelatin that I've found don't include condensed milk. Is it okay if I don't use them? If it is, when should I corporate agar agar into mixture?

Vidi said...

Hi! I’ve been looking everywhere for no-bake cheesecake recipe using agar-agar with a proper instruction on how to blend it also with the water ratio, and so far this is the best one! In my place it’s a lot easier to find agar-agar instead of gelatin. However, I still have some questions. If I use powdered sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk, is it ok if I just pour the agar-agar (after it’s been activated) straight to the cheese mixture one at a time or should I just wait for it to cool down first? If yes, how long does it take until it’s ready to be mixed? Because I’m afraid the agar-agar will be set first before I blend it to mixture and won’t blend well
Thank you so much for the effort of sharing the recipe with us :). I hope you’re doing well especially in this pandemic.

Unknown said...

Dear Dori,
The Agar Agar pack mentions using 1 Gm of Agar for 100 ml mix for setting the cake mix, your recipe shows using just 3/4 tsp for a very large quantity of mixes(almost double the volume). I was making an orange cheesecake with 200 ml cream cheese, 40 gms caster sugar, 50 gms yogurt, 200 ml cream and used 5 gms of Agar but it did not set firmly. I followed the recipe properly with quantities and process. What could have gone wrong? I used Agar powder in 30 ml water for dissolving and boiling, cooled it till room temperature and then mixed it. FYI please, during the boiling it did not stick at the bottom of the pan and had dissolved properly. I used 3 gms of Agar with 200 ml of orange juice and 20 gms sugar for the first layer of Orange Jelly and it set perfectly after an hour of refrigeration. I shall be grateful if you could throw some light on the issue I faced. Thanks.

Dori said...

For the Orange cheesecake, logically I would think it just needs more agar agar.

Dori said...

For Anonymous and Vidi, the trouble with switching to a non sweetened condensed milk version is that you don't have anything warm to add the boiling agar agar to. I've suggested to others that perhaps a simple syrup could be used, but I haven't tried this, I have no idea how that would workout or if you'd need to up the agar agar to make it congeal correctly.

Jumana said...

Hi Dori,

I followed your recipe and the cheesecake turned out great!! The only problem was the crust. It was extremely hard and nearly impossible to cut through. Could you tell me where I might have gone wrong? I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. I also found the crust to be a little too sweet, so next time I will put less sugar.

Niks said...

Hi Dori, Thanks a ton for this recipe. A delight for we vegetarians. One Q - Would you know the process of using Carrageenan instead of agar agar in the recipe?

Dori said...

Carrageenan won’t work like agar agar. Also, carrageenan is probably unhealthy. https://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-carrageenan-safe/

Niks said...

Oh! I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know. I was exploring Carrageenan since the setting is more jelly and shaky then the firm setting from agar agar. Although, Agar agar is more easy to work with. Is there a way we can make agar agar more jellish, i.e., if you shake the dessert, it kinda moves like jelly but comes back to its original position?

Dori said...

I think you probably just need to use less of it. I don’t remember the exact proportions, but agar agar is much much stronger than gelatin.

anu said...

Thank you so much for this detailed recipe. Will be trying my first cheesecake so very excited. I have one query , you have mentioned to incorporate hot condensed milk and agar agar blend in cream cheese. I m lio confused here if i have understood it right. Can you please reconfirm . 😊😊

Dori said...

The agar agar has to be boiled for 4-5 minutes in order to work, you have to heat up the condensed milk before incorporating the agar agar because agar agar starts gelling at a higher temperature than gelatin. If you put boiling agar agar into a cool substance, it will immediately create lumps and probably ruin whatever you’re making.