Thandai Cheesecake (Eggless)
Look no further for a a Holi festival inspired cheesecake that’s creamy and smooth with Indian-inspired flavors of Thandai! Made with a buttery graham cracker and cashew crust and fragrant spice mix into the cheese batter. Nothing screams Holi enough!
Ingredients
Thandai Powder/Mix
- 3 tbsp almonds
- 2 tbsp cashews
- 2 tbsp dried rose petals
- 1 tsp cardamom seeds black seeds inside green pods
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tbsp melon seeds
- ½ tsp poppy seeds
- ½ tsp whole black pepper
- Small Pinch of Saffron – 5-6 strands
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 ½ cup graham crackers approximately 30 graham cracker squares
- 1/3 cup cashew nuts
- 4 tbsp melted butter
Cheesecake Batter
- 24 oz cream cheese 3- 8 oz. packs
- 1/2 cup ricotta
- 1/2 heavy cream
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 3-4 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- small pinch of salt
Instructions
- Thandai Powder - Ground everything in a coffee grinder until its smooth powder.
- Preparing Pan - Butter the baking dish. I used a 9X13 inch baking dish. You can use 10-inch springform pan. I lined the baking dish with parchment paper extending out on the sides. (It helps in pulling out the cheesecake).
- Base- Blitz the graham crackers into fine crumbs in a food processor. Add cashewnuts and blitz some more. I kept the mixture slightly coarse after adding cashews, I like the little bite they provide.
- Add melted butter and blitz more until combined. Pour into prepared baking dish. Press down firmly only on the base, not the sides.
- Keep it in the refrigerator until we make the cream cheese mix.
- Filling - Pre heat oven to 350 F.
- Take cream cheese in a mixing bowl. With the help of the beater, beat the cream cheese for few minutes. After initial beating, add ricotta, condensed milk and beat some more. Add in the sugar too at this stage. Mix again until it looks smooth and there are no lumps.
- In another bowl, stir corn starch with heavy cream, vanilla extract and lemon juice, add that mixture to the cream cheese. Blend until everything is mixed.
- Add in salt and thandai mixture. Stir everything to mix with the spatula.
- Pour about half cup of cream cheese mixture in each bowl (6 different cups - 3 cups of cream cheese). I used 6 different colors so 6 bowls. If you use 3 or 4 colors, divide accordingly.
- Add gel colors of your choice in each bowl. I used pink, yellow, green, blue, violet and orange.
- Pour the plain white cream cheese mixture in the baking tray on top of the crust/base of graham crackers.
- Take each color of cream cheese mix and drop dollops of each color on top of the white/plain cream cheese batter and cover up all over. (reference pic)
- Make swirls using a knife or toothpick, do not go all the way down in the white/plain cream cheese mixture. Just swirl in the colored mixture just once or twice.
- Put the baking dish in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. They’ll puff up as they bake, then settle back down as they cool.
- Cool them at room temperature for an hour and then store it in the refrigerator to completely cool down at least 4 hours or more. Remove using the parchment overhang and slice using a sharp knife into squares.
- You can also add whipped cream on top.
Notes
Read all the tips for a flawless smooth cheesecake.
I shared two different methods of creating colorful cheesecake.
Did you try this recipe?
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