No-Bake Kinder Bueno Cheesecake

The best bit of a Kinder Bueno is the hazelnut cream inside the wafer, and this is a whole cheesecake of it.

The filling is built on Mannela, a hazelnut spread that tastes of that cream, so the flavour runs all the way through the slice. Under it goes a buttery digestive base. Over the top goes more of the same spread, warmed until it pours, and then as much chopped Kinder Bueno as you can fit on.

There is no oven involved and about twenty-five minutes of real work. Everything after that is the fridge doing the job overnight, which is the only hard part.

Why a Kinder Bueno cheesecake

We love a Kinder Bueno. We could get through a packet standing at the counter, so a cheesecake of them was only ever a matter of time.

You already know how good the cream in the middle is, so we will not go on about it. Keep the bars out of the base, though. They do not crush down like a biscuit, and the wafer makes the crumb sticky rather than sandy. Chop them for the top, where the crunch survives.

What gives the cheesecake its flavour

Mannela is 25% hazelnut, and it tastes of the cream inside a Kinder Bueno. That is why the cheesecake works with so few ingredients. You are not building the flavour up from scratch, you are stirring it in. It thickens as it chills too, so the cheesecake cuts cleanly.

One Kinder Bueno cheesecake takes 300g in total, half for the filling and half for the top. Here is the spread.

Ingredients

This makes one 20cm Kinder Bueno cheesecake, enough for 12 slices. You need a springform tin.

Base

• 250g digestive biscuits
• 110g butter, melted

Filling

• 300g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 150g Mannela Delight Creamy Hazelnut Spread
• 300ml double cream, cold
• 3 tsp icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Top

• 150g Mannela Delight Creamy Hazelnut Spread
• 2 packs Kinder Bueno (43g each), chopped

Method

1. Make the base

Crush the digestives to fine crumbs in a food processor, or put them in a bag and go at them with a rolling pin. Stir in the melted butter until the crumbs are evenly damp. Tip them into the tin and press them flat with the back of a spoon. Press firmly, but not with all your weight. A base packed too hard comes out in one lid rather than crumbling under the fork. Chill it for 15 minutes.

2. Loosen the spread

Beat 150g of the spread until it loosens. Do not warm it.

3. Mix the filling

Beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Add the loosened spread and beat again until the colour is even.

4. Whip the cream separately

Whip the cold double cream to stiff peaks in its own bowl. Fold it into the cream cheese mixture a third at a time. Stop as soon as the streaks disappear.

5. Fill the tin

Spread the filling over the base. Level the top. Freeze it for 30 minutes, which firms the surface enough to take the topping without the two layers running into each other.

6. Pour the top

Warm the other 150g of spread in the microwave in 10-second bursts until it pours like double cream. Pour it into the middle of the cheesecake. Tilt the tin in slow circles to walk it out to the edge. A palette knife drags the filling up into it, so let gravity do the work instead.

7. Chill it properly

Four hours in the fridge is the minimum and overnight is much better. To check it, lift one side of the tin about three centimetres and watch the surface. A set cheesecake moves as a single piece: the top layer stays exactly where it was, and the edge where it meets the tin holds a sharp line. If the topping creeps down the slope, or the surface shivers a beat after the tin has stopped, give it another hour.

8. Cut it and top it

Unclip the tin. Stand a long sharp knife in just-boiled water, wipe it completely dry, then cut straight down and lift the knife out rather than dragging it forward. Wipe it again between every slice. Then pile the chopped Kinder Bueno on top.

Do that last part at the table rather than hours ahead. Wafer left sitting on a cold cheesecake goes soft and stops snapping.

Getting the cheesecake to set

Full-fat cream cheese, always. The light and spreadable tubs carry more water, and a cheesecake made with them will not firm up.

Double cream, not whipping cream. Whip it to stiff peaks in its own bowl before it meets anything else, because cream added loose is a reliable way to end up with soup.

Give it overnight if you possibly can. Four hours will set it, but the cut is neater the next morning, and a cheesecake made the day before is one less thing to do on the day.

And serve the cheesecake cold, straight from the fridge.

Do you need gelatine to set a no-bake cheesecake?

No. Between full-fat cream cheese, double cream at 48% and 150g of hazelnut spread, this cheesecake filling firms up in the fridge on its own, and after four hours it will hold a cut edge unaided. If yours is running, the fix is almost always in the ingredients rather than in a sachet, which is the next question.

Why is my no-bake cheesecake runny?

Four causes, roughly in the order we would check them. Low-fat or spreadable cream cheese, whipped through with air and water in the tub, which never firms. Whipping cream instead of double, at about 36% fat against 48%. Over-whipped cream, which will not fold, breaks, and lets its water back out into the filling. And warm spread poured into a cold mixture, where it seizes into granules.

How long does a no-bake cheesecake need to set?

Four hours in the fridge is the minimum, and overnight gives a cleaner cut. Do not use the freezer to catch up. The filling goes hard rather than set, and it thaws grainier than it started. Judge the cheesecake by the tilt test in step 7 rather than by the clock.

Can you freeze a Kinder Bueno cheesecake?

The cheesecake filling should freeze well. Wrap the cheesecake whole and undecorated, freeze for up to a month, thaw overnight in the fridge rather than on the counter, and add the chopped bars afterwards, because frozen and defrosted wafer comes back soft. (That is reasoning from how the mixture behaves rather than a result. We have not run a freeze-and-thaw test on this cheesecake, and the base is the part to watch if you do.)

What is the best hazelnut spread for cheesecake?

Two things decide it and both are on the label. The first is how much hazelnut is in there, because 600g of cream and cream cheese is a great deal to flavour: Mannela is 25% hazelnut, with no palm oil in it. The second is what the spread tastes of, because in a no-bake filling it is the only thing carrying flavour. Mannela tastes of the cream inside a Kinder Bueno, which is the whole point of this Kinder Bueno cheesecake.

Can you put Kinder Bueno inside the cheesecake as well?

You can, and plenty of people do. Chop two extra packs and fold them through the filling at the end of step 4. The one thing to know is that wafer sealed inside a cold, wet cheesecake filling softens overnight, so the pieces come out chewy rather than crisp. If the snap is the bit you love, keep them all for the top.

Make it the day before. Then put it at the back of the fridge, behind something dull. A cheesecake at eye level with chopped Kinder Bueno on it does not survive the night in most houses.