Baked Eggnog Cheesecake—Prototype 15:
 
Let's do it! Cut the batter's lemon juice and baking time. Furthermore, since a somewhat wider cheesecake pan was being used (the 9 1/2" Frieling that I got for one of my birthdays), I ended up cutting the crust's pre-bake time and the full-recipe's bake time.
 
So where are we at now?

Crust:
1.5 oz. melted, white chocolate
1/2 cup light eggnog
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2.2 oz. Bran Buds, ground up

Pre-bake, no tub, for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees, then cool (enough to touch).

Batter:
2 tablespoons butter, softened or melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups (20 oz.) lowfat cottage cheese
2 cups of light eggnog
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs

Bake, with tub, for about 90 minutes at 300 degrees, then cool off for about 100 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.
 
I think that this was the first time that I used the Frieling pan for my eggnog prototypes (as opposed to the somewhat smaller-diameter, all-metal pan used earlier). I also used Oakhurst eggnog.

The crust had a nice taste to it. However, I somehow sensed a little harshness in the batter's flavor. Were my taste buds changing? I wasn't sure. But a woman—Karen, from what I best recall—over at the Italian Community Center (to which Lesa's dart team recently relocated) more easily thought this cheesecake had a pumpkin taste. Both of us felt that the nutmeg should be cut back and the sweetness increased. I have already been thinking about boosting the granulated sugar to 3/4 cup and halving the nutmeg—and also the rum extract—on the next eggnog cheesecake (this woman also made some suggestions involving sour cream and powdered sugar, but that was more for red velvet purposes). I also felt that the crust's pre-bake time should be further cut to about 10 minutes.
 

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