Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 3:
 
Prototype 3?? Whatever happened to 1 and 2?

Back in the late 1980's, I experimented with a number of cottage-cheese based cheesecakes, ultimately with a quest for a decent, chocolate one, among others (see
Baked Chocolate Cheesecake—Prototypes 10.1 and 11, for more info). I came up with a couple of somewhat unintended lemon-flavored ones along the way as I was aiming for a plain flavor. In fact, these lemon cheesecakes were my very first two cottage cheesecake prototypes, officially referred to as simply "Prototype 1" and "Prototype 2" (as opposed to "Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 1" or "Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 2"), at that time. No crust was involved back then. With my introducing the crust in this more recent 21st century recipe, perhaps I could have called this one "Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 2.1". However, due to my diminished interest in using this decimal-style notation (like I did for my first few 21st century baked chocolate cheesecakes)—combined with minor changes in the lemon batter from the late 1980's "Prototype 2" (e.g., salt reduction)—I decided to go with the number "3" here.
 
Crust:
1.5 oz. melted, white chocolate
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 oz. lowfat cottage cheese, whipped (such as Hood, no salt added)
Fully blend the above ingredients before adding:
2.2 oz. finely ground Bran Buds
Blend the Bran Buds into the above mixture as fast and "furiously" as possible and then pour quickly into a greased, 9" springform pan.

Mix thoroughly together:
2 tablespoons butter, softened or melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Then blend in:
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Then mix in:
2 cups (such as a 16-ounce container) of lowfat cottage cheese (such as Hood, no salt added)—whip this in a blender just until the curds no longer show, before adding to the above ingredients.
Next add:
1/2 cup skim milk
Follow up gradually with a dry combination of:
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Completely mix all of the above ingredients used so far, then finally add:
2 eggs (last ingredient here)—aim to get these at least fully mixed in (yet without overbeating, if possible).

Make sure that the oven is preheated to 300 degrees. If using the bath approach, have enough boiling hot water available, and fill a large "tub" with it and place this in the oven, close to halfway up.

Pour the batter into the springform pan. Next, put this pan into the oven. If using the bath approach, place the springform pan immediately above the "tub". Bake for about 90 minutes. Afterward, take the springform pan out of the oven, and let the cheesecake cool off. After it has cooled down to about room temperature, carefully remove it from the pan, and refrigerate.
 
Nice lemon flavor, even in the crust. When I brought this cheesecake to the Sports Page, inasmuch as this recipe was lemon-flavored, its popularity rating was "un-lemon"—in other words, it was a huge success (Steve was wild about it, and even Lesa liked it a lot)!
 
Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 4:
 
This one is based to a large degree on Baked Orange Cheesecake—Prototype 5, but the lemon ingredients are measured differently here, and minor adjustments are made to the sugar.
 
Yogurt Cheese:
Prepare ahead of time 3 pounds of yogurt cheese, derived from three 32-ounce containers of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 48 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference.

Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
1 tablespoon lemon juice (tip: microwave this juice a little, then add it directly to the melted white chocolate, and mix thoroughly)
8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 oz. All-Bran, ground up

Gently pour this crust mixture into bottom of pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches) and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
4 tablespoons melted or softened butter
1 3/8 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Pour the batter over the crust and bake this cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 100 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool the cheesecake down while still in oven (with this oven shut off) and in tub with door slightly ajar for an hour. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub and continue to cool down at room temperature for another 100 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 4

This one was a great Labor Day Weekend success at Living Hope. Nearly the entire cheesecake was gone within about half an hour. The taste was already great, but I had some kind of feeling that perhaps a little more sweetness could be used to bring out a "brighter" lemon flavor. Maybe I could have used a tiny amount more lemon juice as well, but I had to keep in mind that this was a cheesecake too, not just a lemon dessert.
 
Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 5:

Repeat Prototype 4, but make this change for the batter:
Boost the granulated sugar by 1 tablespoon, to 1 7/16 cups (1 3/8 cups + 1 tablespoon).
 
My tongue was easily able to "feel" the tartness with this one, and the taste had a hopefully sufficient cheese flavor to it. But for some reason, I wanted to pick up more sweetness—and a little livelier lemon. Maybe that was just me.

I served this cheesecake at a pastor appreciation meal, at Living Hope Church. The primary dessert emphasis was on ice cream (somewhat like a "social"), with so many kinds—and plenty of toppings to choose from. Maybe that's at least one reason why only about 2/3 of my lemon cheesecake got eaten (I took home whatever was left). Another factor may have been related to the time of year (a summer-oriented flavor served in November).
 
Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 6:
 
In an effort to better enhance the lemon flavor, I increased the sugar and lemon juice for this cheesecake. The question especially was how much sugar?

I ended up considering Prototype 18 of my chocolate cheesecake as a reference. The batter of that one included 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder. In an effort to correspond this to the lemon cheesecake, I would start off by bringing the lemon juice to 3 tablespoons. I have somehow felt that 2 teaspoons of lemon peel, in its own right, would be a reasonable equivalent of 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. Thus, in adding this peel to the initial 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, the result would be a 6-tablespoon lemon juice equivalency (and still a decent juice/peel combination), whose strength was, according to a strong guess on my part, hopefully close enough to that of the cocoa powder. Since the chocolate cheesecake's batter called for 1 3/4 cups of sugar, I contemplated going with that same amount for the lemon as well.

But I had also given thought to some other research efforts (including considerations that, given a measure of lemon juice or cocoa powder, the ideal amount of sugar called for was not necessarily the same for both flavors) that lead to the idea of using as little as 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Ultimately, I arrived at 1 5/8 cups as a reasonable compromise.
 
Yogurt Cheese:
Prepare ahead of time 3 pounds of yogurt cheese, derived from three 32-ounce containers of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 48 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference.

Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
1 tablespoon lemon juice (tip: heat up or microwave this juice a little, then add it directly to the melted white chocolate, and mix thoroughly)
8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 oz. All-Bran, ground up

Place this crust mixture into bottom of pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches) and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
4 tablespoons melted or softened butter
1 5/8 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Pour the batter over the crust and bake this cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 100 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool the cheesecake down while still in oven (with this oven shut off) and in tub with door slightly ajar for an hour. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub and continue to cool down at room temperature for another 100 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 6

I made this cheesecake especially for my cousin in Vermont, Rachel, who enjoyed it, as well as others in her house. And I felt that this prototype had a decent lemon taste to it.
 
Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 7:
 
It seemed like more than two years have passed since I last updated my lemon prototypes. The latest lemon presented here in mid-2016—which makes this flavor a great summer choice—reflects my major cheesecake overhaul of 2015.
 
3-Cheese Blend (1CT-1NC-4YG):
Prepare ahead of time 32 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from two 32-ounce containers (that's 64 ounces altogether) of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 32 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine 8 ounces of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese and 8 ounces of softened Neufchatel cheese ("light cream cheese").

Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
1 tablespoon lemon juice (tip: heat up or microwave this juice a little, then add it directly to the melted white chocolate, and mix thoroughly)
8 oz. (1 cup) 3-cheese blend (see above)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 oz. All-Bran, ground up

Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes, depending on the mixture's thickness (closer to 10 minutes if thin enough to be fully distributed across the pan's bottom by gentle shaking, closer to 5 minutes if thick enough to require spreading out this mixture by pressing on it with a utensil and/or fingers), then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
1 5/8 cups granulated sugar
40 oz. (5 cups) 3-cheese blend (see above)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (5 tablespoons altogether) arrowroot
5 eggs

Pour the batter over the crust and bake this cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 120 minutes (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool the cheesecake down while still in oven (with this oven shut off) and in tub with door slightly ajar for an hour. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub and continue to cool down at room temperature for another 120 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 7

This one was served at Living Hope Church and was gone in probably about half an hour.

It was sort of a struggle for me to detect a good lemon presence in the batter (but the crust was fine).
 

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