The ultimate makeover: New York cheesecake
By Angela Nilsen
Cooking time
Prep: 25 mins Cook: 45 mins Plus 3½ hrs cooling and overnight chillingSkill level
EasyServings
Cuts into 10 slicesAngela Nilsen rises to the ultimate challenge - keeping a cheesecake creamy and decadent while making it healthier and lighter
Nutrition and extra info
Nutrition per serving
- kcalories
- 315
- protein
- 9g
- carbs
- 37g
- fat
- 15g
- saturates
- 8g
- fibre
- 1g
- sugar
- 28g
- salt
- 0.89g
Ingredients
For the base
- 35g butter
- 85g reduced-fat digestive biscuits, finely crushed
For the filling
- 2 x 300g/11oz tubs light soft cheese, we used Philadelphia cheese, at room temperature
- 175g golden caster sugar
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 1½ tsp finely grated lemon zest, preferably using a Microplane grater
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs, room temperature, beaten
- 150g fromage frais
For the topping
- 25g golden caster sugar
- 225g punnet blueberries
- ½ tsp finely grated lime zest
- 100g fromage frais
Buy Ingredients
Buy the ingredients for this recipe now via:
Want to know how this works? Read all about it here.
Method
- Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line a 20cm loose-bottomed or springform tin with baking parchment and stand it on a baking sheet. Melt the butter and stir in the biscuit crumbs. Press the mix into the base of the tin, then bake for 10 mins. Remove from the oven and raise the temperature to 240C/fan 220C/gas 9.
- For the filling, beat the soft cheese just until smooth with an electric hand mixer on low speed. Gradually add the sugar, also on a low speed, then the cornflour without overbeating. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Slowly whisk in the lemon zest and juice, the vanilla, then the eggs. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then finally whiskin the fromage frais. The mixture should be smooth and quite runny.
- Pour the filling over the crumb base. Jiggle the tin to level the mix and squash surface bubbles with the back of a teaspoon. Bake for 10 mins, then lower the heat to 110C/fan 90C/gas ¼. Bake another 25 mins and, if you are using an electric oven, leave the oven door slightly ajar for the first 3 mins. After the 25 mins, shake the tin and there should be a wobble in the centre of the filling. If left until firmer it is more likely to crack later. Turn off the oven, keep the door closed and leave the cake in for 2 hrs. Open the door, loosen the top edges of the cake with a round bladed knife, then leave in the oven to cool gently for another 1-1½ hrs.
- Meanwhile, put the sugar for the topping in a small pan with 3 tbsp water. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then let it bubble for 1-2 mins to make a thin syrup. Tip in the blueberries, gently stir and cook for about 1 min, just to slightly burst the fruit and release the purple juices. Stir in the lime zest, then leave to cool.
- Spread the fromage frais over the top of the cooled cheesecake. Cover with foil and chill for at least 4 hrs (or overnight). Remove from the fridge 1 hr before serving, loosen the sides of the cheesecake completely, remove from the tin, then slide onto a plate, peeling off the paper as you do. Slice with a sharp knife and serve each wedge topped with a spoonful of syrupy blueberries.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2008
You may also like
Comments, questions and tips
Comments
Have made this several times now, always delicious and admired. Really rich but fresh flavour. I do double base ingredients as I found the base a little thin first time and it doesn't lose anything if you leave the fromage frais off the top. So much better than most of the cloying cheesecakes that you get in supermarkets and really easy to make.
I was looking for a low fat dessert for valentines day and this cheese cake recipe is great. I read all the reviews for this recipe and living abroad like some others, certain ingredients are hard to come by.
I doubled the quantity for the base as I thought it would be too thin and gave it an extra 5-6 minutes in the oven at the start. I replaced the fromage frais for half fat creme Fraiche and this worked just as well. I baked it for the times stated and left it to cool for the 2hrs and then just another hour after that and found that the top of the cheese cake had cracked. However cracks can be covered, it tasted absolutely gorgeous and my husband loved it.
I thought some of you might be interested in this recipe for a healthier lime and ginger cheesecake with mango coulis;
http://muffinsvegetariankitchen.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you
I just made this and it has to be the best cheesecake I've ever made! I tweaked the recipe a little bit: I used self-raising flour instead of the corn flour and I used blackberries and raspberries instead of blueberries but it tastes amazing! Really creamy. If you're looking for a good cheesecake recipe, look no further, this is the one!
Delicious, and a great texture with bit more to chew than the other no-cook cheesecakes I've made before. I used quite a shallow tin so had a bit of filling left over, so used it to make a couple of mini cheesecakes in ramekins... worked really well! I was too lazy to bother with the fruit, just sprinkled a bit of sweetener atop the creme fraiche topping - yum!
I've never baked a cheesecake before and this was really easy and it tasted amazing! I made it for my dad's birthday, New York cheesecake is his favorite and he absolutely loved it, never would have guessed it was a healthier version! I did end up with a slight crack but this was easily covered up with the toppings so it wasn't a problem at all!
Cooked this at the weekend for visitors. Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe. The blueberries went down very well, can't comment myself as my son scoffed the last slice!
It was really easy to prepare and I will definitely be making this again.
I did cook it for longer as was still very wobbly after the recommended cooking time.
www.machineryandequipment.org healthy good food making machine
I made this for my husband's 80th birthday celebration. Everyone raved about it and I really enjoyed making it. I froze it for about a week and then took it out of the freezer the day before the party and kept it in the fridge until about 4 hours before it was needed. I will certainly make it again.
Brilliant recipe, and so light! I used quark instead of fromage frais (as a comment above had said, they're very similar). I did have to leave it in the oven, after turning the temperature down, for a lot longer than 25 minutes as the filling was still quite runny. It was delicious nonetheless. Unfortunately the base was too, too thin. Would very much recommend, just make a thicker base.
It was FABULOUS! I did as others suggested and doubled the amount of biscuits as I wanted a thicker base. It took a lot longer to cook (about an hour and a half, after the temperature was turned down) and I left it in the oven for at least 4 hours. Once it was cool, I removed the sides of the tin, covered it and froze it - Once it was frozen I removed the base (this made it easier as I didn't want to use baking parchment in the tin)
For any weightwatchers out there... per slice it is 10 propoints.