No Bake Dessert

Delhi Monsoon has us all trapped in our homes, not willing to venture out into flooded streets. For those of us who go out just to grab a bite once too often, I have concocted an easy 'no bake' dessert that uses simple inexpensive ingredients that can be substituted easily, unlike the fancy no bake cheesecakes all over the internet. Stay home, make this and enjoy it all by yourself!!

This one I like to eat myself, and because it is so simple, I prefer not to serve it to guests. 

ingredients:

• cookies (can be substituted with digestive biscuits)
• fresh fruit (any fruit with strong flavour)
• fresh cream ( or hung curd)
• gelatine (available in ration shops)
• butter
• I have used a tart mould for one portion serving ...you can make layers in a mug or a see through glass.

First add a quarter cup hot water to two teaspoon of gelatine and let  it melt. 

In a bigger bowl, open one packet fresh cream or hung curd,(hung curd gives a thicker consistency, so if in a hurry, use hung curd) add one tbsp powdered sugar and slowly whisk in the gelatin. 

Next, I cut up one large mango and used a blender to make a smoothie like consistency. The other mango is chilling in the refrigerator to be served as a topping. 

Since the mixture is pretty runny and the gelatin hasn't set, I poured it into a jar and kept it in the fridge for about half an hour.  

 In the meanwhile, I put all my cookies in a Zip Lock and used a blunt object to crush it into powder form. I then added 50 gms of soft butter to the powder.. making it like wet sand. This helps the base to firm up in the fridge as the butter solidifies. Line your container as shown below or simply make one bottom layer in your mug or bowl. Keep it in the fridge and let it solidify for about an hour.

After an hour, pour the smoothie into your mould, over the biscuit base.

Let it chill for about an hour before adding fruit topping and let that chill too for about 20 minutes or so.(no hard and fast rules...keep checking like me :p )

The best part about this dessert is that fresh cream and cookie crumble tastes good with any fruit!! In the past I have used bananas, peaches, even peanut butter and nutella (dangeous) and I wish to try fresh cream and strawberries when I come across great quality strawberries(too lazy to go to Khan Market.) Be creative and use whatever you have at home. There is nothing innovative about this recipe of mine...my aim is to inspire my readers to use simple ingredients to make something delightful at home. Kids love this and so does my grandma... I fed her the nutella peanut butter one and she enjoyed every bite of it repeating "bhuiiii darlagyo" meaning "Gosh, I'm so scared". 

Serve chilled and remember to cook from your heart :)