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.
 

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