Now drink your cheesecake as if eating it wasn’t enough!!
Celebrate this colorful festival of holi with this easy to make and delicious drink that I call as Cheesecake Thandai mocktail with berry swirl. This über rich and creamy mocktail will surly brighten up the menu and keep everyone asking for more.
Holi without Thandai is not happening . It’s delicious on it’s own but I thought of making it more fun and interesting. Drinks are often a neglected on the menu and we all settle down buying a big can of juice or soda.
If you are not familiar with this yummy drink let me give you a gist here-
As the name suggests Thandai means to cool off and its a refreshing drink made from aromatic spices like fennel , cardamom , black pepper , poppy seeds ,melon seeds , crushed nuts , gulkand (rose petal jam ) etc which has natural cooling properties . Holi or not thandai can be enjoyed on any hot sunny day and that is what we are going to do all summer long.
If you haven’t tried your hands on mocktails yet then surly do as its easier than you think plus it’s quiet impressive.
What is this Cheesecake Thandai mocktail with berry swirl made of –
Thandai syrup is the star of this drink .
I have used cream cheese and malai kulfi to make this drink richer and creamier .
Started off with crushed crackers base and finished it off with some crushed raspberry juice swirls to give it an overall feel of a cheesecake .
You can either make your own thandai mix or buy thandai syrup from any Indian grocery store or use thandai powder too.
I have kept it alcohol free , but if you wish to get a bit tipsy feel free to add alcohol too.
And you must be wondering why this romantic set up ?? It had been long that I made something romantic hence this is how my husband and me enjoyed this drink 🙂
Some cool facts about Thandai
It’s natural coolant and helps control acidity.
It even aids digestion and keeps you cool in hot weather .
Cheesecake Thandai mocktail with berry swirl
Ingredients
- 8 oz / 1 cup cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 cup malai kulfi / vanilla ice cream
- 1.5 - 2 cups cold milk
- 1/4 cup or more thandai syrup
- Pinch of cardamom
- 2 Pinches of black pepper
- 3 tablespoons chopped toasted nuts
- For base
- 6-8 digestive biscuits/ graham crackers
- Honey
- Brush
- For berry swirl
- 1/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries/ other berries
Instructions
- For the mocktail
- Blend in cream cheese and kulfi until smooth
- Add in milk and thandai syrup and blend it again . Fold in chopped
- nuts if desired .
- Taste test and make adjustments if required.
- For base and glass rim
- Pulse the biscuits in the blender until roughly crushed or place in a ziplock bag .
- Seal it and roll with a rolling pin to crush the digestive biscuits roughly .
- If you wish to have the crushed biscuit at the rim .
- Simple brush some honey on the outside of glass rim with a brush or your clean finger.
- Now roll the rim in the crushed biscuits.
- You can totally skip this step .
- For berry swirl
- Puree 1/4 cup raspberries
- Pass it through a sieve to get rid of the seeds
- Place it in a ziplock or piping bag , snip off the ends .
- Pipe dots in a circular fashion .
- Take a toothpick and streak one end out of every dot to form leaf/ heart design .
- For assembling
- Place one tablespoon of biscuit/ graham cracker mixture in the glass .
- Pour in the prepared drink .
- Top it with berry puree swirls.
- Serve chilled.
Notes
You can always adjust the quantity of thandai as per your taste .
If using powder you may have to add sugar too . It will depend on how
sweet your mocktail is after adding ice cream .
You can add any other desired fruit puree swirl - like other berries ,
mango or even add it inside the drink or totally skip it . I feel
fruit puree really gives a cheesecake feel to the mocktail .
Don’t have cream cheese available 🙁
You can still enjoy it by substituting cream cheese with hung curd or even replace it with ice-cream alone.
Given below is a quick pictorial of rimming the glasses.
Hope you like this recipe and do give it a try. I would love to hear from you. If you have tried any of my recipes do drop in a feedback in the comment section or on my Facebook page carveyourcraving in messages section and follow me on Pinterest .
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Thanks for stopping by.
Happy anniversary , thank you for a lovely feedback. Glad you enjoyed!
Made for my anniversary. My husband just loved it. Thanks