We attended Expo East, a Natural Products Food Show, a few weeks ago in Baltimore. We met some incredible people, tasted many new foods, found new products and made some amazing connections. Believe it or not, we felt full after our first hour at the show. We forced ourselves to keep tasting as we went along. The samples were incredibly good and we came back with some exciting foods to share with you. The best part of the show was meeting many new companies that not only cared about the taste of their foods, they wanted to make healthier foods with ingredients you can pronounce.
Today I want to share with you a light cheesecake recipe. This cheesecake tastes rich, but is not as caloric as your typical New York Cheesecake. By replacing some of the more fattening cream cheese with cottage cheese, you gain protein and lose fat. If I am serving something, it probably is good for you (at least that is what my children say). I promise that this cheesecake is not lacking for any flavor. The crust that I found at Expo East is by the Heartland Baking company and it is called a Granola Pie Crust. This crust is kosher, made with whole grains, and is ready to eat.
The granola crust paired perfectly with the cheesecake filling. The best part of this recipe is that you can put all your ingredients into your food processor, blender or mixer and then add your liquid cheesecake mixture to your crust. Easy peasy. I put all my ingredients into my Vitamix and it whipped it up in seconds. If you do not have a Vitamix you can use a regular blender or even mix it by hand. I am sure you are wondering what vanilla paste is. It is a thicker vanilla extract substitute. If you do not have any vanilla paste, you can easily substitute regular vanilla extract in the same amount. Investing in a jar of vanilla paste is worthwhile though if you like to bake. We use it all the time!
We topped each piece with a little whipped cream and some strawberries. I hope you enjoy this lighter cheesecake. Don’t be afraid to experiment with this recipe. Try a different flavor crust. Add in a different flavor to your filling. Chocolate, cherry, orange or peach would all make a delicious filling as well.
Ingredients
- Granola Pie Crust (can sub any ready to eat crust)
- 2 cups cottage cheese
- 1 package (8 oz) light cream cheese
- 3 eggs ( or use 3/4 cup eggbeater for a lower fat recipe)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 T lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 T flour
- 1 T vanilla paste
- whipped cream
- sliced berries
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375.
- In your blender combine the cottage cheese, cream cheese, eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, flour and vanilla paste.
- Blend until smooth, should take about one minute.
- Pour liquid mixture into your ready made crust.
- Bake 40 minutes.
- Let cool completely.
- Once cool put in the refrigerator for at last 4 hours or overnight.
- Top each slice with whipped cream and berries.
Mmm yum, I love cheesecake!
Sounds good! I used quark the last time I made cheesecake and was pleased with the taste as well as the lower calories x
Louise, I am so curious! What is quark? I have never heard of that before.
Looks delicious!
I’ll definitely have to try this. I love cheesecake, but I don’t like how it looks on my waistline.
I totally agree with you.
I’m a sucker for cheesecake! It’s one of my favorite desserts! Yummy. Thanks for sharing!
I also love cheesecake, but I hate all the calories that come with it! I hope you give it a try.
Oh my heavens this looks so yummy! My husband loves cheesecake so I’ll have to try this 🙂
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