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)!
 

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