PB&J Cheesecake Bowl
No-bake cheesecake rebuilt out of pudding mix, powdered milk, and jam packets.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 125
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 min
- water
- 240 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- No cook
- Cold soak
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant cheesecake pudding mix | 1 box (3.4 oz) | the no-cook kind, not the boil kind |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk | 1/2 cup | whole, not nonfat, or it sets up thin |
| Smooth peanut butter | 1/2 cup | two single-serve squeeze packets travel cleanest |
| Strawberry jam | 1/4 cup | restaurant packets, or a small squeeze tube |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Graham crackers | 4 sheets | crushed in the sleeve before you leave |
Method
- Pour 240 ml of cold water into a wide-mouth jar or a quart freezer bag with the pudding mix, powdered milk, and brown sugar.
- Seal it and shake hard for a full thirty seconds. Lumps here stay lumps.
- Let it stand five minutes. It goes from liquid to thick in about the last ninety seconds.
- Squeeze in the peanut butter and stir it through. It will fight you at first, then loosen.
- Fold in most of the jam in streaks. Do not stir it smooth or you lose the point.
- Top with the graham crumbs and the last of the jam. Eat from the bag.
The original is cream cheese, Cool Whip, and two hours in a refrigerator, none of which exist at camp. Instant cheesecake pudding mix plus whole milk powder does the same job: the mix carries the tang and the setting agent, the milk fat carries the body. It firms up in five minutes at ambient temperature instead of two hours in the cold.
Peanut butter and jam go in after the base thickens. Added early, the fat coats the starch and the whole thing stays soupy. The graham crackers get crushed at home and scattered on top rather than pressed into a crust, because a crust needs a pan and a pan is one more thing to carry.
Packing
Pudding mix, milk powder, and brown sugar go in one bag together. Crushed grahams in a second bag so they stay crumbs and not dust. Peanut butter and jam packets ride in a side pocket where a leak stays contained.
Variations
- Swap grape jam for strawberry and it tastes more like the sandwich.
- A tablespoon of oil stirred in with the peanut butter buys another 120 calories.
- In freezing weather use lukewarm water. Cold water plus cold milk powder sets before it mixes.
https://www.thisisnotdietfood.com/peanut-butter-and-jelly-no-bake-cheesecake