Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

Please note, we are only able to answer questions selected for publication and aren't able to enter into personal correspondence.

• No-Bake Cheesecake

  Hi Nigella, I would like to know if it is necessary to add gelatin to no-bake cheesecakes? Previously the no-bake cheesecake that I made was not firm and solid, it became very sloppy although I had placed it in the fridge for some time. Is adding gelatine the solution, or are there other ways to overcome this?

  Posted by LSswarna. Answered on 19th Mar 2013 at 12.00

  From the nigella team:

  Some no-bake cheesecakes are set with gelatine to give them a mousse-like texture. Other no-bake cheesecakes are a mixture of cream cheese or cream cheese and whipped cream. This second type should set firmly in the fridge without any gelatine being added.

  Most of these recipes come from the UK and the US so it could be that there is a variation in ingredients in different countries. The cream cheese should be the traditional full-fat version (such as Philadelphia). If cream is added then it must be whipped to soft peaks first and then folded into a slightly softened (but not runny) cream cheese mixture. It could be that the whipped cream is the problem as UK double cream is fairly stable once whipped, whereas some creams in other countries do not whip well. If you have problems with the cream then try using more cream cheese and less cream. Mascarpone could also be used as an alternative to cream cheese, if the cream cheese is becoming runny.

  We would suggest trying Nigella's Cherry Cheesecake (from Nigella Express). This uses cream cheese and double cream but works with US heavy cream as well.

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