This is my ultimate cheesecake. A veritable tower of smooth ivory satin.... Perfect on its own, but also equally as nice with a fruit coulis. Unbelievably this cheesecake is low-fat (doesn't look it, eh?) and hails from Sue Kreitzman's "Low-Fat Desserts". According to the notes preceding the recipe, a standard New York Cheesecake has approximately 600 calories and 47g of fat per serving, whereas this low-fat version has approximately 248 calories and 4g of fat per serving (obviously the calories will vary depending upon the brands of ingredients you choose). That's quite a difference!!
The original recipe is absolutely gigantic in size: a 10 inch cheesecake, serving 14-16! I can personally vouch that a cheesecake this size will indeed keep for a week (and improves with keeping), however, Dave and I both felt that this was a tad excessive for a two-person family. Plus, it takes up an entire shelf in the fridge.... So, after a quick refresher course in maths I decided that halving it and baking the cheesecake in a 7" (18cm) tin would work very nicely. My only remaining dilemma was how long to bake the cheesecake for....
Ordinarily, one would just halve the baking time however, cheesecakes are tempermental creatures. Eventually after much debate I decided to give it the normal length of time at high temperature and then give it just half the remaining time before checking it for done-ness. As it turned out, this was spot on. The cheesecake was just jiggly in the very middle and puffy around the edges when I turned the oven off. Sue cautions heavily against opening the oven door whilst cooking the cheesecake but I've never experienced any ill-effects.
If anyone has any suggestions for how to achieve an even golden brown top to the cheesecake I'd be interested to hear them. My cheesecake ended up looking quite speckled on top. The speckles were fairly even so I don't think I have any major hot-spots in the oven. I wonder how professional cheesecake makers achieve this....
New York Cheesecake
Serves 8
WW points (UK): 4 per slice.
Crust
Oil spray
75g amaretti biscuits (choose the best quality ones you can)
75g Grape-Nut cereal
2 large egg whites
Filling
500g (2 1/2 tubs) light soft cheese, at room temperature (I use Philadelphia Extra-Light which has 6% fat)
1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
162g caster sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons very low-fat fromage frais, at room temperature
18cm (7 inch) springform tin, preferably light and shiny.
- Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 (180C).
- Put the dry ingredients in a blender or food procesor and process to coarse crumbs. Tip into a bowl.
- Lightly beat the egg whites until frothy, and mix with the crumbs until thoroughly combined.
- Lightly spray the springform tin with oil spray. Scrape the crumb mixture into the tin and, with the back of a serving spoon, spread it evenly over the bottom and up the sides. Take the crust all the way up to the top of the tin - the cheesecake mixture comes almost to the brim. If the crust sticks to the spoon then dip the spoon in some cold water.
- Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes, then leave to cool (in the tin!) on a wire rack.
- Raise the oven temperature to Gas Mark 8 (240C).
- Cream the cheese with an electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Beat in the flour, then beat in the sugar,a little at a time. Gradually add in the vanilla extract, lemon juice, egg whites and fromage frais, beating very well each time.
- Pour the cheese mixture into the crust. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes then turn the heat down to Gas Mark 1/4 (100C) and bake for a further 20 minutes until cheesecake is just jiggly in the middle.
- Turn the oven off and leave the cake in the oven for 1 hour, then open the oven door and, without removing the tin from the oven, very gently loosen the cake from the tin all around the edge with a palette knife. Leave the cheesecake in the open oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the tin from the oven and let it stand on a wire rack for at least 1 hour, until no longer warm. I find it takes about 3 hours for the cheesecake to cool properly.
- Refridgerate the cake in the tin for at least 5 hours (and preferably overnight) before removing the side of the tin. This is very important; the cake may collapse if the 5-hour period is cut short.
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This long-lost comment has been restored from backup.
Yum. What would be an alternative to Grape Nut cereal? I know for certain it isn't available in Australia, but there's probably something similar in design/looks/sweetness/general cerealness.
PS - Why are they called grape nuts??? Weirdest name for a cereal I've heard!
1. Posted by Niki on November 20, 2007
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Hi Niki - you might be able to find Grape Nuts in small deli's? Otherwise, I've heard of people using 'Crunchola' from Woolies. Apparently it's a bit sweeter than Grape Nuts though.
Grape Nuts are actually toasted malted brown bread crumbs. I have no idea why they call them Grape Nuts though. There was an explanation on the box, but I didn't bother reading it before chucking it. Sorry!
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2. Posted by Angela on November 20, 2007
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I know, I know! Waves hands frantically...
Grape-Nuts was introduced in 1898 by Charles W. Post, founder of the company that was later to become a division of General Foods. C.W., as he was known, was given to devising extravagant names for his products, with advertising claims to match.
Nonetheless, there was a rationale, however thin, for the name. The product contained maltose, known at the time as "grape sugar," and it did have a nutty flavor.
3. Posted by Jennifer on November 20, 2007
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Angela,
thanks for posting the recipe... I've been hoping you would ; )
thanks too for doing all the hard work in working out the baking times for the half portion... it just made life a whole lot easier for me ; D
hmmm... I wonder what the cooking times would be like if we made these in mini muffin pan versions?
Niki, I've seen several recipes that have suggested using toasted honey crunch wheatgerm as an approximate substitute for grape-nuts.
I'm not sure how well that works, but it may be worth a try : )
4. Posted by Renee on November 20, 2007
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Thanks for the explanation, Jennifer!
Renee - I was thinking of cooking times for mini-muffin sized cheesecakes today. I thought perhaps 5 minutes on the highest temperature possible and then 5-7 minutes on lowest temperature. I think it would be very trial and error for the first batch. Nigella has mini-cheesecakes in HTBADG I think, so I'll look at her timings in there.... It'll be an adventure :)
5. Posted by Angela on November 20, 2007
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Hi Angela,
Writing for the first time, though I've been drooling for a while...Great and informative blog you have here!
I tried Nigella's lemon lime cheesecake from her "bites" book. I also had a speckled top. I was wondering about that. Half way through baking I had to put a foil tent over it to prevent the cheesecake from browning too quickly. And because I did not have a proper roasting pan (my cookie sheet leaked!) I had to open the oven to top up the hot water that had dripped down. Glad to say that the cheesecake was pretty robust to have withstood the constant disturbances. Could you let me know what type of biscuits are amaretti and if normal digestive biscuits are good substitutes for this recipe you've posted. Thanks a bunch in advance!
6. Posted by Shirley on November 20, 2007
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Hi Shirley! Thanks for coming out of lurkdom and commenting ;) I'm glad that you're enjoying the blog. I think I've worked out what caused the speckled effect: the speckles were probably tiny pieces of cream cheese that weren't incorporated properly and the higher fat content caused faster browning in those spots. I'll have to make sure I scrape the bowl sides really regularly when I make it next time.
Amaretti biscuits are little almond cookies (actually, traditionally they are made from the kernel in the middle of apricot pits) from Italy. Foodsubs (http://www.foodsubs.com/Cookies.html) reckons that they can be substituted with graham cracker crumbs but you will lose a lot of flavour and add quite a bit of fat. You should be able to find them in most supermarkets (certainly every major supermarket in the UK carries them) or an Italian deli. They're delicious with coffee after dinner.
7. Posted by Angela on November 20, 2007
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Ahh, thank you for the suggestions. I will have a look around here. I've never been much of a cereal fan, so I may need to have look for some subsitutes.
Speaking of subsititutes, what exactly is Trex that Nigella writes about HTBADG? Is it a type of vegetable shortening? We don't seem to have shortening here, only Copha which is coconut shortening. I don't think it'd be an acceptable substitute. We use it to make chocolate crackles, so the idea of using it to make flaky pastry seems to jar a little!
8. Posted by Niki on November 20, 2007
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My friend DS made this last night from your recipe. Oh, man, was it good! This probably sullies it a bit, but it tastes even better (if you can believe that) with a little warm bing cherry compote poured over.
9. Posted by Avatar on November 20, 2007
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Niki - Trex is indeed vegetable shortening. You could probably sub lard, but you'd need to consider quite carefully. Lard does give wonderfully flaky tender pastry though! Tis rare to find a modern recipe that uses it.
Avatar - I'm so glad it turned out so well! I absolutely love your blog btw!!
10. Posted by Angela on November 20, 2007
I was looking to make the bigger version of this and the original recipe has ricotta cheese and quite a lot of fromage frais, is it in error that this was left out of yours or did you find it nicer without ?
Many thanks and looking forward to your reply.
11. Posted by Louise H on May 15, 2008