No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake

READY-to-make, quick and easy packaged dessert mixes come in handy when you want to take the easy way out. Predictably, they won’t stand up in taste, richness or texture to the pudding or cheesecake made in the original, long-winded way, but they’ll do when you’re hard pressed for time and have hungry kids whose constant refrain is: “What’s there to eat??”

(If there’s no bread should they eat cheesecake?)

While in Abu Dhabi a couple of months ago, I was scouring the packaged food shelves in a hypermarket for anything new and interesting when I spotted the Jell-O Oreo Dessert Mix.

It’s a simple three-step mixing procedure, with clear instructions printed on the side of the carton. Inside were three sachets containing separately, the dark, rich Oreo crumbs for the base, the filling mix and some crushed Oreo cookies to fold into the creamy mix as well as for decoration. The only additional ingredients needed were butter and chilled milk.

Mixing and assembling took less time than it takes to shout "Jell-O Oreo Dessert Mix"… OK, so I’m exaggerating a wee bit, but well, it took less than seven minutes and once set, about that much time to polish if off.

I wasn’t out to impress anyone, so didn't bother to reach out for the flan tin which was hiding somewhere behind a stack of cake tins and set it in a glass dish instead. It doesn't hurt anyone to be lazy sometimes, does it?