Salted Caramel No-Bake Cheesecake

This Caramel No-Bake Cheesecake is the best way to eat a cheesecake without having to bake one! It's decadent but also light and fluffy, and it's topped with a delicious salted caramel sauce.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 40

Chilling time 6

Total Time 6 40

Servings servings

Calories 517kcal

Author Kelly Hamilton

Cost $5

Equipment

Ingredients

Crust

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs about 12 crackers
3 tablespoon brown sugar
6 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

Cheesecake

16 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoon lemon juice
⅓ cup plain greek yogurt at room temperature
1½ cup heavy whipping cream cold

Salted Caramel

1 cup sugar
¼ cup water
⅔ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoon salted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon sea salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Crust

Using a food processor or a blender, pulverize the graham crackers into a fine crumb. Add this to a bowl with the brown sugar and mix. Pour in the melted butter and mix until coated.
Pour the crust mixture into the springform pan. Spread the crumbs out across the bottom and start pressing them up the sides of the pan. Use a measuring cup to gently pack the crust evenly among the bottom and sides.
Place the crust into the fridge or freezer for 15-20 minutes while continuing with the recipe.

Filling

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and mix again until smooth. Then add in the vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix in the greek yogurt.
In a separate large bowl, beat the cold heavy cream on medium-high speed until still peaks form. fold this mixture into the cream cheese mixture.
Pour the filling into the crust and gently spread out around the edges. Place in the fridge overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

Caramel sauce

In a large heavy bottom pot, heat the sugar and water together over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble a little bit.
Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, stop stirring completely. Let the mixture continue to boil until it turns an amber color (can take 5-10 minutes). Remove from the heat completely and add the heavy cream slowly. This will make the mixture bubble up rapidly at first so be careful. Then add in the butter, vanilla, and salt one at a time.
Pour the caramel sauce into a dish to allow it to cool. The caramel will thicken up a bit once it's cooled. You can store it in the fridge to thicken it up more or if you're making it the day before.

Serve

Once the cheesecake has set for at least 5 hours (preferably overnight), remove the sides of the springform pan. You can either pour the caramel sauce over top of the entire cheesecake and then slice, or you can pour it individually over each slice. Just be aware that the caramel sauce is a bit runny so as you cut the cheesecake it will run down the sides.

Notes

If you want to make regular caramel instead of salted caramel, just use ¼ teaspoon of salt
Use room temperature ingredients- using room temp cream cheese and sour cream makes this recipe so much easier and it makes your cheesecake creamier with fewer clumps. I like to take my ingredients out of the fridge at least an hour before beginning. *reminder that the heavy cream should be cold in order to make whipped cream.
Gently fold in the whipped cream- You want to gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture without mixing it too much, which can cause the air in the whipped cream to deflate and the cheesecake won't be as light and fluffy.
Let it set in the fridge- this is so so important in a no-bake recipe, especially a no-bake cheesecake. It needs time to set in the fridge, at least 5 hours but I recommend overnight to ensure that it is completely set up. Do not set the cheesecake in the freezer, it will not set up properly.

Nutrition