Pleesecakes: 60 Awesome No-Bake Cheesecake Recipes was originally written by ex-painter-decorators Joe Moruzzi and Brendon Parry to supply their friends and family with their popular cheesecakes. Then they gained 10,000 Instagram followers in 24 hours, one million TikTok subscribers in eight months, and a legend was born. 

As the pair say, “Everything we eat these days, we question whether we can turn it into a cheesecake somehow.” In their book Pleesecakes: 60 Awesome No-Bake Cheesecake Recipes, you’ll find breakfast cheesecakes (Full English in a Mug, anyone?), healthy cheesecakes, savoury cheesecakes and boozy cheesecakes. 

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Sizzling Bacon & Maple Syrup Minis 

Right, hear us out – this may not sound like a good flavour combination but, cor blimey, it boots off! The sweet maple syrup and the salty bacon give you a proper party mouth! On paper, this doesn’t work, but off paper IT WORKS! (Well, we think it does.) We’ve both ventured over to the USA a few times and each time we’ve realised that there’s just no point to your trip if you don’t indulge in pancakes, bacon and maple syrup for breakfast at least once. So that’s the inspiration. Everything we eat these days, we question whether we can turn it into a cheesecake somehow. This one passed extensive taste tests.

Serves 2

Ingredients

You’ll need two mini cheesecake moulds or a mini cheesecake tray (12 compartments).

Base

• 10g streaky bacon
• 60g plain digestive biscuits
• 20g (1 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 10g streaky bacon
• 200g (scant 1 cup) cream cheese
• 40g (scant 1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 80ml (1/3 cup) double cream

Topping

• 4 streaky bacon rashers
• 1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

Let’s get going by whacking the bacon for both the base and filling into a preheated oven (200oC) for 6–8 minutes. 

While the bacon is sizzling, whizz the biscuits (crackers) to a fine crumb in a food processor (stick ’em in a sandwich bag and bash with a rolling pin if you haven’t got a processor). Add the melted butter, and give it a good stir to make sure that all the biscuit is nicely coated in butter. When the bacon is nice and crispy, remove from the oven and let it cool, then chop it up finely. Add half to the biscuit mix and stir well. Divide evenly between the moulds, press down gently to form the base and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Add the remaining chopped crispy bacon to the mix, along with the maple syrup, and mix together thoroughly. Whip the cream until you have soft peaks and fold it gently into the mix. Spoon into the moulds and level off with a palette knife. Throw them into the fridge (not literally) for at least 2 hours to set.

Once set, remove from the fridge and take them out of the moulds. To serve, whack some more beautiful crispy bacon (sizzling fresh from the oven, ideally) on top and finish with a drizzle of maple syrup. This is a real ‘don’t knock it until you try it’ dish! DM/ ML

Pleesecakes: 60 Awesome No-Bake Cheesecake Recipes by Joe Moruzzi and Brendon Parry is published by Hardie Grant Books (R310). Visit The Reading List for South African book news – including recipes! – daily.