No bake cheesecake base - how to get it to stick together better

[ThreadExterminator]

I'm allergic to digestives so I had a stab last weekend at making a cheesecake base using things I can eat: multigrain seeded crackers, panko breadcrumbs, butter and sugar. The flavour was lovely but the base was slightly powdery and didn't harden at all (it was in the fridge two hours in total).

Is it that it needs more butter, longer in the fridge?

I'm going to have another go at it this afternoon. Any suggestions gratefully received...

What are you allergic to in the digestives? That way I won’t suggest something you can’t eat!

Palm fats, soya, diglycerides of fatty whotsits, E471, E472

Basically I'm allergic to all pulses and their derivatives (which is an enormous pain in the backside!) and nuts.

Americans use 'graham crackers' that seem to work.

I was really happy with the biscuits I used so don't want to switch those if I can avoid it. It's whatever I use to bind it that's the issue I think.

make sure you're using proper butter (not spreadable or baking block) because the latter won't harden properly. More butter might help too.

Yes, I only have proper butter as I can't eat lard/marg as they're made using pulses

I wouldn't use the breadcrumbs. You need the butter to sit round your base items, not be absorbed into them. I'd also not include any sugar - maybe some golden syrup if you feel like it really needs more sweetness in the base. Loads of butter and squash it down well

Honey...

I think I've used a mix of that with butter before

Graham crackers are basically digestives

Have you tried just doing a nut base, made of walnuts/pecans and butter (if nuts are ok). They are delicious.

I would look at nice quality biscuits from an Italian deli - the ones I usually get just have flour, sugar, olive oil and almonds in. You can whizz those up with butter and they’d hold perfectly. Plus completely delicious!

Brindisa do a lovely olive oil almond biscuit with no crap in it.

I use butter biscuits for cheesecake base, I find the supermarket ones don't have loads of weird additives and ultra-processing - they're just wheat, butter and sugar. Ground up with a bit of soft butter in the food processor they make a really solid cheesecake base. Sometimes I add ground almonds and / or spices like ginger or cinnamon.

You probably just need more butter.

I'm going to go with the suggestion of more butter. Thanks for the useful responses here.

Have you tried just doing a nut base, made of walnuts/pecans and butter (if nuts are ok). They are delicious.

That was going to be my suggestion but op is allergic to nuts (2nd post)

I’d definitely do as pp suggests and leave breadcrumbs out.

I'd go for more butter - and I often pop mine into the freezer for 15 mins to really get the set going on it.

I would use more butter and/or leave out the breadcrumbs

Lard is pig fat. Are you saying they use pulses in the process?

@FayCarew Ooh this is useful to know. I'm sure the one time I looked at the ingredients on a block of lard that it had other stuff in it but I've just looked online and can see it's just pork.

Oh hang on, and 'tocopherols' which can be derived from nuts and pulses.

This is the problem with all these additives. They might be fine for me or might not depending on the source and the only way I can find out is trial and error. With the tiny very refined amounts of nuts/pulses in additives it's obviously not going to be a severe allergic reaction but they do affect me enough not to be worth it.

The butter is the glue, so if it wasn't sticking then definitely try more. Melted butter will make the breadcrumbs go soggy, so unless you are then toasting them, it's best to avoid.

Thanks @ThreadExterminator , I have a friend with a peanut allergy. I would not have known. I wouldn't use lard but that's not the point. If it's in lard it's probably in other things.

I would try baking the base as you made it then cooling & chilling before adding the topping

Have you located any chocolates you can eat? I find a small amount of melted chocolate helps with sticking everything together.

I would look at nice quality biscuits from an Italian deli - the ones I usually get just have flour, sugar, olive oil and almonds in. You can whizz those up with butter and they’d hold perfectly.

That's an expensive way to buy ground almonds and sugar.

Perhaps bake your own biscuits with ingredients you can eat, and make the base from those? Then you'll have biscuits too.

I make ordinary digestive bases but I always bake for about 10 mins which melts the fats in the biscuits as well as the butter so it sticks together better, if the alternatives you are using have any fat then try baking it for a short time.

Digestives are one of the easier biscuits to make. Why not make them yourself and use those? I always make loads and use stale homemade biscuits for cheesecake This recipe’s pretty good - https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/homemade-digestive-biscuits/