Chocolate Almond Cheesecake Bars
A no-bake cheesecake slab built from powders, set in a foil pan over a fire or a stove burner shut off early.
- calories
- 410
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 128
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 6 min
- total time
- 26 min
- water
- 180 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Graham cracker crumbs | 1 cup | stands in for the flour crust, which needs an oven |
|---|---|---|
| Toasted almonds, finely ground | 1/4 cup | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Butter or ghee | 1/4 cup | ghee if it will be warm for days |
| Cheesecake pudding mix, instant | 1 box (3.4 oz) | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3/4 cup | |
| Sugar | 1/3 cup | |
| Powdered Greek yogurt | 1/4 cup | adds the tang the fresh yogurt was doing |
| Vanilla powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Semisweet chocolate chips | 3 oz | |
| Chopped almonds | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Melt the butter in your pot over low heat. Pull it off before it browns.
- Stir the graham crumbs, ground almonds, and salt into the melted butter until it looks like wet sand.
- Press the crust hard into the bottom of a foil pan. Hard matters. A loose crust falls apart when you cut it.
- Wipe the pot. Whisk the pudding mix, milk powder, sugar, yogurt powder, and vanilla powder with 180 ml of cold water until there are no lumps, then spread it over the crust.
- Put the chocolate chips in a small zip bag, add a spoonful of hot water to the pot, and set the bag in the water for two minutes until the chips slump. Snip a corner and stripe the chocolate across the top.
- Scatter the chopped almonds. Set the pan somewhere cold for an hour, or in a creek in a sealed bag.
- Cut into eight bars with a knife wiped between cuts.
The original is an oven recipe: a baked almond shortbread crust, then a cream cheese and egg custard baked a second time. Neither step travels. Instead the crust is pressed rather than baked, using graham crumbs that are already cooked, and the filling is instant cheesecake pudding rebuilt with milk powder and powdered yogurt. No egg, no fridge, no second bake.
The pudding starch is what makes this hold a cut edge. Use cold water, not hot, or the mix seizes into lumps before it can set. The stove is only doing two small jobs here, melting butter and warming a bag of chocolate, which is why the whole thing works over a campfire just as well as a burner.
Packing
Crust dry mix in one bag, filling powders in another, chocolate chips and chopped almonds in a third. Butter rides in a screw-top jar. Carry a shallow foil pan flat against the back panel of the pack.
Variations
- Swap the chocolate chips for cocoa powder whisked into the filling if the weather is too warm for chips to survive.
- Crushed pretzels in place of half the graham crumbs make the crust salty enough to cut the sugar.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/drinks-desserts-to-celebrate-friends-the-holidays-and-cooking