Easy Lemon Cheesecake Crème Brulée "Donuts" Recipe

Made these for Easter morning and everyone loved them. The filing is fabulous and the sugar topping gives them great crunch. I did zest the lemon prior to caramelizing the sugar. This made it easy to get the zest to stick. I used tongs to hold the buns upside down in the hot sugar and then immediately sprinkled on the lemon zest after dipping. Another tip is to make these ahead. The moisture from the filling creates a softer, lighter, more "donut-like texture. I ate one soon after making them and it tasted more like a bun; while the one I ate the next day tasted more like a donut.

For those who made their filling from a “dry mix”? there is nothing stating dry mix. Nicole clearly shows and says Philadelphia no bake cheesecake filling and it comes ready to use in a tub. Read the directions! Watch the video . Simple easy to follow and the outcome exactly like Nicole’s. So delicious. So easy. If you had a hard time or a bad outcome you didn’t follow directions! You’re embarrassing yourselves.

@DreamyGhee9479 - You need to read the directions more clearly or watch the video. Philadelphia Cheesecake No Bake filling is not a dry box of pudding mix. It is like a tub of Cool Whip. Wanted to pre-try these before Easter and they turned out great!

Bro, my taste buds are doing backflips.

First, the recipe could be a little more clear. Do you prepare the no bake cheese cake filling according to the package directions, or do you only use the dry mix? A well-written recipe will specify this. As it is, I made the cheesecake filling according to the package directions and it was a huge waste of ingredients. I ended up using less than half of the prepared filling, and the graham cracker crust mix that came in the package wasn’t used at all. I had no need for the crust or the extra filling, so they were discarded. (A better and less wasteful filling: mix together a 3.5 oz package of instant vanilla pudding mix, 1.5 cups cream, 3 tablespoons sour cream, pinch of salt.) There were also no directions regarding storage. Do these go in the refrigerator? Do they sit out in a sealed container? The “donuts” were a big let down. I gave two stars - one for general ease of preparation and one because the filling flavor was good - but the weird mixture of textures and the caramelized sugar topping that stuck to our teeth BADLY were a big turn off. And whomever decided to refer to these as donuts has clearly never eaten a donut in their entire life. In the end, my hubby and I each ate one and were not impressed. We tried again the next day based on feedback from one review, but time did absolutely nothing to make this recipe any better. Out of the batch of 12, 9.5 were discarded. I would be embarrassed to feed these to anyone.

The contrast between the crispy sugar top crust and the pillowy soft interior is truly satisfying, and the subtle hint of lemon adds a refreshing dimension to the overall experience.

I have not made these yet, but I love the ingredient combinations. I am going to make them with some leftover croissants rather than the rolls. I use leftover croissants to make Almond Croissants filled with pastry cream often and they are delicious. I am sure these will be just as wonderful. Thank you for this idea.

Followed the directions as written and they were fantastic. I had just enough filling to overfill each one just a bit. The hardest part of this recipe is not eating the filling before piping it into the rolls. I skipped the zest on top for the second batch.

Recipe makes WAY too much filling, and coating is difficult to set up, otherwise it's delicious

I didn't have lemon curd so i just added lemon juice, lemon zest and honey it was amazing!! But my coating didn't harden!! 😖😩 it was justgoory and sticky not sure what i did wrong there. I'll try again in a month or so!