Strawberry Chocolate Camp Cheesecake
Crushed grahams, whipped shelf-stable cream, freeze-dried strawberries. No oven, no cooler.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 137
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 120 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
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Graham cracker crumbs | 1 cup | crush at home, about 6 crackers |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 3 tbsp | 2 tbsp for the base, 1 tbsp for the filling |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Ghee or clarified butter | 3 tbsp | does not need a cooler like regular butter |
| Whole milk powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for the ricotta |
| Instant vanilla pudding mix | 2 tbsp | thickens without heat |
| Freeze-dried strawberries | 1 cup | whole or sliced, not chewy dried |
| Chocolate chips | 1/4 cup |
Method
- Squeeze the ghee packet into the crumb bag, add the salt and 2 tbsp sugar, and work it with your fingers until the crumbs clump. Press flat against the bottom of the bag or divide between two mugs.
- In a second bag, shake the milk powder, pudding mix, and remaining sugar together dry so there are no lumps.
- Pour in 120 ml of cold water. Seal, push the air out, and knead for a full minute. It will look thin, then thicken.
- Let it sit five minutes to set up, then spoon it over the crumb base.
- Press the freeze-dried strawberries into the top. They pull moisture from the filling and soften into something close to fresh fruit.
- Scatter the chocolate chips over the top and eat straight from the bag.
The original is a fridge dessert: fresh ricotta, whipped cream, real strawberries. None of that survives a day in a pack. Whole milk powder and instant pudding mix do the same job — the pudding’s starch and the milk fat set a cold slurry into something spoonable without a whisk, a bowl, or a chill. Ghee replaces butter because clarified fat does not go rancid or weep at 80 degrees.
Freeze-dried strawberries are the part worth paying for. Regular dried fruit stays leathery and bleeds sugar into the filling. Freeze-dried berries are dry sponges that rehydrate off the pudding itself, so they end up soft and tart while everything around them stays thick.
Packing
Three bags: crumbs, filling powder, and berries with chocolate. Ghee travels in a screw-top squeeze tube. Freeze-dried strawberries crush easily, so give them a hard-sided container or the top of the pack.
Variations
- Cocoa powder in the filling powder turns it into a chocolate version.
- Skip the crumb base and eat the filling as pudding. Saves the fat and the mess.
- Warm the chocolate chips in a pocket for ten minutes and they smear instead of scatter.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/gues-post-no-bake-strawberry-ricotta-cheesecake