Baked Orange Cheesecake—Prototype 3:
 
Another 21st century cheesecake with a "Prototype 3" start?? Yes, for the same reasons as its lemon counterpart (see Baked Lemon Cheesecake—Prototype 3, for more details).

Just like the lemon cheesecakes I made back in the late 1980's, I made two orange ones as well. No crust was involved. However, I did make these two cheesecakes with orange flavor intentions. The salt usage for the batter of both of them was higher compared to that of this more recent 21st century recipe below.
 
Crust:
1.5 oz. melted, white chocolate
3 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 tablespoon grated orange peel
3 tablespoons 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 quickly as possible and then pour quickly into a greased springform pan, 9".

Mix thoroughly together:
2 tablespoons butter, softened or melted
1/2 cup sugar
Then blend in:
1/4 cup orange 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 orange 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.
 
The Living Hope Church in Beverly was my "taste lab" for this one on an Easter Sunday. I asked a number of people who tasted this prototype about how much orange flavor they could detect. A typical response was that this flavor was somehow adequate. However, I personally sensed that the orange was still a bit weak. I could barely taste it in the batter, although it was slightly more present in the crust. I also felt that the crust should be a little sweeter.
 

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