I'm always looking for ways to make healthier desserts. I did not change the sugar content for this recipe, but I did try to reduce some of the fat content. This goes against most cheesecake recipes. The recipes often specify using full fat cream cheese and sour cream. I have had success making mini cheesecakes with the neufchatel before and knew it would work out.
I found recipes by Sally's Baking Addiction which were similar to what I wanted to try and I just made a few changes along the way. Additionally, I needed to make the cheesecake gluten free for some of our family members.
*All ingredients must be room temperature*
Recipe
for the crust
20 gluten free Oreos crushed
3 TB butter
After combining the oreos and the butter, press mixture into a greased 9" spring form pan which is also wrapped in 18" wide heavy duty aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.
Cheesecake recipe
3 - 8oz blocks of neufchatel cream cheese
1 cup of sugar
Mix the cream cheese and sugar on medium for 3 minutes
Add
1 cup of plain fat free Greek yogurt
2 tsp of vanilla
Mix until just combined.
Add eggs one at a time and mix on low.
2 eggs
2 egg whites
Separate out 1-1.5 cups of batter and add 2-3 squares of melted Ghirardelli baking squares. I used 60% semi sweet Ghirardelli baking chocolate and followed the microwave melting chocolate. The chocolate batter is a light chocolate color. Today I used 1.25 cups of batter and 3 squares of chocolate.
In order to get the swirled pattern, I added blobs of both kinds of batter and swirled them with a knife. My pattern today was different from last time. There may be a better method to creating swirls.
I did follow the baking instructions with the water bath and used a 10" x 14" glass baking dish. The pan rocked a bit inside the baking dish, I simply created a small wedge out of extra foil to place under one edge. The extra wide foil is very important in order to cover the sides of the spring form pan. The cheesecake baked 60 minutes in a 350 degree oven and then I turned off the oven and opened the door slightly for another 60 minutes. When the baking is done, the center still has a 2"-3" wobble.
To be served along with the cheesecake, I provide a cherry sauce using 2 cans of unsweetened canned cherries. I followed the recipe from Oregon Fruit for cherry pie filling. Whipped cream in a can was also available.
The next week I made some minis and swirls the chocolate itself in the batter. Different effect and slightly different taste. I think adding chocolate to a smaller amount of batter might be worth trying.
Mini spring form pans, set of 3 - baked 30 mins, then added some time and lowered temp
Mini 12 cavity cheesecake bites - baked 17 minutes
Baked them together at 350 degrees. The mini pans were wrapped in foil and in a water bath. The bottom of the mini pan was wrapped in foil (may be unnecessary) and probably benefited from the water bath next to it. The recipe from above was the right amount for 3 mini pans and the 12 cavity pan.
Center mini cake wrapped in plastic wrap on a small cardboard circle. Minis from the pan placed in regular sized cupcake liners for presentation only.
4/8/2023 - Made graham cracker crust and strawberry swirl cheesecake
For the strawberry swirl, I used about
4 cups of frozen organic strawberries
4 tsp of cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice
2 TB of water
Cooked on the stove until soft and mashed with a potato masher.
After baking the graham cracker crust for 10 mins, I added half the cheesecake batter and some dollops of mashed strawberries and swirled them. Then I added the other half of the batter. The second half did not cover the swirls. I then added more swirls on top. The large glass pan and water bath worked well again.
There is more than a cup of mashed strawberries leftover to add as topping or to eat with yogurt.
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