Baked Orange Cheesecake—Prototype 5:
 
It was probably about a couple of years since I last made an orange cheesecake. The latest one presented here gets a major update, particularly with yogurt cheese, and a size upgrade. This cheesecake is also the first one for which I used regular All-Bran, rather than Bran Buds (click here for more information on this change).
 
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
1/4 cup orange 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)
5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange 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 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
4 teaspoons grated orange 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.

Orange Cheesecake—Prototype 5

The art of breaking an egg has been an elusive skill to me. Sometimes the breaking turns out nicely. Sometimes it's not all that great. Many times I have had to draw out egg shell pieces. But for this cheesecake, I broke one of the eggs so badly that I lost much of its white. I cracked it likely too harshly, with a butter knife. Nevertheless, this did not stop the cheesecake from coming out firm enough, so the egg white's loss hopefully did not amount to an awful lot.

I picked up a decent orange taste in this prototype. The crust, in particular, had a nice zing to it. This "rise and shine" cheesecake went over well at a Living Hope Father's Day (2013) brunch. Many other items were served (including shoo-fly pie!), and there was about a fourth of the cheesecake remaining when the leftover foods were retrieved into the kitchen. But by the time I got my springform pan bottom—which also functioned as a serving dish—back (probably about a half hour later), I was informed about the last slices being taken. So I had none to take back home.
 

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