#169 honey and yogurt set cheesecake

from Simple

I finally got around to making this popular dessert from Simple! I am a huge cheesecake person, but I’ve actually never made a no bake version. The technique here is interesting; you beat cream cheese with strained yogurt and melted white chocolate to hold everything together. The crust is ground “hobnobs,” I have never seen these but it described them as an oat cookie, so I used Belvita breakfast cookies, which worked really well. I rarely feel that Ottolenghi leads you astray in a recipe, but I had one major gripe. He calls for the yogurt to be placed in a kitchen towel and then the water is squeezed out. This created a massive mess for me with a yogurt laden towel and whey everywhere. Why on earth would he not just call for straining the yogurt the night before? So the end result was a hit, it basically tasted like a dense, super sweet cream cheese blend. You can’t taste the white chocolate. I do think I prefer baked versions because they are actually a little bit lighter with the eggs in the custard. I would give this recipe a 7/10, with significant point reduction for the kitchen towel fiasco.