Sunday, February 9, 2014

Yogurt cheesecake

I found another recipe for light cheesecake lately. It used yogurt instead of lemon for the sour taste. And it's even simpler than the one I shared before. Unlike the traditional New York cheesecake, it has no crust, no butter, less cream cheese and less sugar. It's by far my favorite recipe for light cheesecake. 
Here is the original recipe in Chinese: http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_4a5089ff0100dgs5.html

Ingredients (for a 8' cake. Use half the amount for a 6' cake)
Egg yolk batter:
Cream cheese   250g
Geek yogurt   150g
Whipping cream   100g
Egg yolks   4
Cake flour   66g
Meringue:
Egg white   4
Sugar   80g

1. Warm the cream cheese in a mixing bowl. You may use microwave oven in appropriate continers. I usually use hot water.

2. Separate egg white and egg yolks. Put the egg white into fridge to chill. This will make the meringue finer.

3. Beat 250g softened cream cheese until fluffy. 

4. Mix in 150g plain yogurt. I used this Greek yogurt.

5. Add 100g whipping cream. Mix well. I used heavy cream this time because my husband bought the wrong type... But it worked.

6. Mix in the egg yolks. 

7. Sift in 66g cake flour and mix well. 

8. Grease the bakeware using unsalted butter.

9. Make meringue. Chilled egg white will take longer time to become fluffy. But the foams will be finer. So it definitely pays off. Get your mp3 ready. :)

This is how the meringue should look like. When you pull out the mixer, the peak is firm but will bend. It will be harder to mix with the egg yolk batter later if the peaks are too stiff. If the peaks are soft, the cake will collapse after baking. So be careful for this step.

10. Preheat the oven to 320F. Put a plate of 3 cm water on the lower rack. 


11. Scoop 1/3 of the meringue into egg yolk batter. Mix well with a spatula. Do not make full circles because it will defoam the meringue. Scoop the batter from the bottom and make a quarter circle each time. 

12. Dump the mixed batter into the other meringue. Mix well in the same way. 

13. Pour the batter into the bakeware. Put a towel under the bakeware. Let it fall from a small distance above the counter to remove big bubbles. You may skip it if you don't feel comfortable to do so.

14. Bake the cake using water bath for 70 minutes on the lower rack of the oven. You might need to wrap your bakeware with aluminum foil if the bottom is removable. Mine does not leak so I can put it directly in water. 

The surface cracked this time. Last time I baked a 6' cake for 65 minutes and it turned out perfect. But Its ok since it's not terribly cracked.

15. Put the cake in fridge to cool down for at least 4 hours before serving. 

It's very delicate and moist and delicious. Good luck!