New York Cheesecake

Of all of the desserts that people long for in a low-fat form, cheesecake is probably the most popular—but it’s also the most difficult to lighten. Truthfully, we’d rather eat cheesecake once a year and really enjoy it than settle for something that didn’t deliver its trademark tang and creamy texture. But we were determined to give it a shot.

A standard New York cheesecake contains 580 calories and 43 grams of fat per slice. These jaw dropping numbers mostly come from the whopping 21⁄2 pounds of cream cheese that make up the base. In order to trim some fat in the filling, it was obvious we were going to have to find an alternative to the cream cheese. In search of the best light cheesecake, we tried a lot of different ingredients and ended up replacing full-fat cream cheese and sour cream with a combination of light cream cheese, low-fat cottage cheese, and low-fat yogurt cheese (recipe below). Another source of fat are eggs, some cheesecakes use whole eggs and yolks, we use just 3 whole eggs in our recipe.

In order to keep fat and calories to a minimum in the crust, we considered a simple dusting of crumbs on the bottom of the cheesecake, but tasters were unanimous in their protest. It was obvious we needed the butter to provide a moisture barrier, and we would have to use more of it. We increased the butter a tablespoon at a time, and settled on 4 tablespoons of butter. This amount gave the crust a rich, toasty flavor and crisp texture. Although this was more fat than we ideally wanted in the crust, we would rather have a little bit more fat than a soggy bottom.

In the end, we were able to produce a recipe with only 340 calories per serving and 13 grams of fat, considerably less than the original and definitely worth the effort.

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SERVES 12

Be sure to use light cream cheese in this recipe—it is most commonly sold in tubs, not blocks. You can buy low-fat yogurt cheese (also called labne) or make your own with low-fat yogurt, recipe below.

CRUST

9 whole graham crackers (5 ounces), broken into rough pieces and processed in a food processor to fine even crumbs (about 11/4 cups)

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

FILLING

1 pound 1 percent cottage cheese

1 pound light cream cheese, at room temperature

8 ounces (1 cup) low-fat yogurt cheese (see note)

11/2 cups (101/2 ounces) sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2–1 teaspoon grated zest from 1 lemon

1ntablespoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs, at room temperature

Vegetable oil spray

Fresh Strawberry Topping (optional), recipe follows

 

1. For the crust: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar until combined. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch springform pan and press evenly into the pan bottom. Bake the crust until fragrant and beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Increase the temperature to 500 degrees.

2. For the filling: Meanwhile, line a medium bowl with a clean dish towel or several layers of paper towels. Spoon the cottage cheese into the bowl and let drain for 30 minutes.

3. Process the drained cottage cheese in a food processor until smooth and no visible lumps remain, about 1 minute, scraping down the work bowl as needed. Add the cream cheese and yogurt cheese and continue to process until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the sugar, salt, lemon zest, and vanilla and continue to process until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

With the processor running, add the eggs one at a time and continue to process until smooth.

4. Being careful not to disturb the baked crust, spray the insides of the springform pan with vegetable oil spray. Set the springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour the processed cheese mixture into the cooled crust.

5. Bake for 10 minutes. Without opening the oven door, reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until an instant- read thermometer inserted into the center of the cheesecake reads 150 degrees, about 11⁄2 hours.

6. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and run a paring knife around the edge of the cake to loosen. Cool the cake at room temperature until barely warm, 21⁄2 to 3 hours, running a paring knife around the edge of the cake every hour or so. Wrap the pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.

7. To unmold the cheesecake, wrap a hot kitchen towel around the springform pan and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and blot any excess moisture from the top of the cheesecake with paper towels. Let the cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 minutes before slicing.

PER SERVING: Cal 340; Fat 13 g; Sat fat 8 g; Chol 85 mg; Carb 41 g; Protein 11 g; Fiber 0 g; Sodium 530 mg

 

Test Kitchen Tip: How to Make Yogurt Cheese

Yogurt cheese is a tasty lower-calorie and lower-fat alternative to both cream cheese and light cream cheese. Two tablespoons of low-fat yogurt contain only 25 calories and 0.5 grams of fat (cream cheese contains 100 calories and 10 grams of fat for the same amount). To make yogurt cheese, line a fine-mesh strainer with three paper coffee filters, spoon the yogurt into the lined strainer, and refrigerate. After 12, hours about a cup of liquid will have drained out of the yogurt and you will have a creamy cheese-like consistency.