Above all, Zoha Malik of @BakewithZoha loves dessert. “When I first started going into the kitchen, it was because I was looking for sweets,” she says. She comes by that sweet tooth naturally. “There’s this one caramel-based Pakistani recipe that my grandmom used to make for my dad when he was growing up,” she explains. The dish, anday ka halwa (a sweet egg-custard dessert), “was his favorite thing in the world. He would hide storage containers filled with it in his closet or take them to his office. He wanted it all for himself.”
When it was Malik’s turn to try the signature sweet, she was equally hooked. And before her grandmother passed, she taught Malik how to make it—so now, her father associates it with both of them. “Whenever I go back to Pakistan, he requests that I make that for him,” she says, adding that she even once shipped a batch to him all the way from the U.S. “He still hides it in his closet!”
Her mother, for her part, is a cheesecake fanatic, and the pair have been baking them together for as long as she can remember, Malik says: “When I was growing up in Pakistan, she would go on hunts to find cream cheese, which wasn’t widely available, so she could make it for us.”
These No-Bake Mini Salted Caramel Cheesecakes are a nod to the signature flavors and textures in her parents’ favorite treats. Rich and creamy caramel is the star of the show, thanks to Werther’s Original Chewy Caramels, which do double duty inside the cheesecake batter and as a silky topping. “These taste truly divine,” Malik says. “The texture and the flavor are stellar and keep you coming back for more.”
This is also a low-lift dessert that makes a big impression without a ton of work. “Even those with little baking experience can do it well,” she says. “Making caramel sauce can be tricky, especially for beginner bakers. I am a big fan of using Werther’s instead.” When making caramel from scratch, if you don’t cook your sugar long enough, she notes, it won’t have that complex caramel flavor. But cook it too long and it will take on a bitter flavor and a brittle texture. Malik’s favorite shortcut using Werther’s, on the other hand, results in “this really nice, smooth, soft caramel sauce that doesn’t crystallize, doesn’t harden, and tastes amazing.”
“Baking is like therapy for me.”
She has another reason for favoring the method, too: Werther’s holds an especially soft spot in her heart. “I used to buy a bag from an imported-food store in Pakistan, and then count and ration how many I would allow myself to have every day after school, to make them last longer,” Malik says. She even keeps a bag of Werther’s in her car to this day for last-minute snack emergencies. “I just think they taste delicious. It’s a really quick, easy fix when I'm craving something sweet.”
Her mother and grandmother always used food as a way to express that they cared, which plays a huge role in how Malik shows love now. “Baking is like therapy for me. It is not just a way to get the dessert that I want,” she says. “It is something I’ve loved doing since I was a kid, that brings happiness to the people in my life. It allows me to shut down all the noise, channel all my energy into this happy place, and make food everyone loves. That means a lot to me.”
