Baked Orange Vanilla Cheesecake—Prototype 2:
 
Double the orange. Double the flavor-specific vanilla. What does that mean? The batter of my most recent plain cheesecake—its 11th prototype as of the current orange vanilla one presented here—called for 2 teaspoons of vanilla. In my previous orange vanilla cheesecake, I used 4 teaspoons for its batter. With 2 associated with the basic cheesecake, that would leave 2 linked directly to the vanilla flavor effort. So the doubling is done on these 2 flavor-specific teaspoons for the prototype presented here. That's 4 flavor-specific teaspoons. When added to the basic cheesecake's 2 teaspoons, the result is 6 teaspoons—or 2 tablespoons—for the batter.

And lower the tartness a bit, by switching the cheese base to the milder 2-1 yogurt-cottage combo.

In looking back on preparing this cheesecake, chances are higher than 99% that I erred on the amount of granulated sugar used in the batter. I was supposed to use 1 1/2 cups plus 2 teaspoons of this sugar. But assuming my memory to be correct as of this writing, I used 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons. From what I best recall, the expression "1 5/8 cups" was on my mind when I measured out this ingredient, and I likely wondered why I didn't write the measurement that way. So this amount is reflected in the recipe shown here.
 
2-to-1 Blend of Yogurt Cheese and Cottage Cheese:
Prepare ahead of time 32 ounces of yogurt cheese, derived from two 32-ounce containers (that's 64 ounces altogether) of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 32 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference. To this yogurt cheese combine one 16-ounce container of whipped, lowfat cottage cheese.

Crust:
2 oz. melted, white chocolate
8 oz. (1 cup) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
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 5/8 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
4 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
40 oz. (5 cups) 2-to-1 blend of yogurt cheese and cottage cheese (see above)
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 eggs

Pour the batter over the crust and bake this cheesecake in a tub at 300 degrees for 105 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 105 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.
 
Now that's more like it! This cheesecake had what I felt to be a reasonable balance of flavors (let's keep the batter's granulated sugar at 1 5/8 cups at this point).

This cheesecake was served to a no-so-large crowd at Living Hope Church. It seemed that many regulars were on summer vacation. I found one slice left over after what was probably about an hour.

Later on that same day, I felt that I would drive up to Maine and catch some of the grand opening celebration of my favorite grocery chain's very first store in the bushy Pine Tree State. It was Sunday, August 18, 2013 (trivial tidbit: 36th anniversary of my getting my driver's license), and Market Basket (aka "DeMoulas"), the "More for Your Dollar" store to which I looked for a number of my cheesecake ingredients (especially Market Basket's terrific nonfat yogurt), was in its very first day of welcoming shoppers to its new 107,000-108,000 square foot supermarket in the city of Biddeford.

An unexpected bonus was that I got to meet in person, shake hands with, and
even get a picture taken of myself with, the president himself of Demoulas Super Markets, Inc. (Market Basket's corporate name)—Arthur T. Demoulas—a man highly regarded by this company's employees and customers alike!

Joel and Arthur T. (click here for bigger, fuller photo!)
I am on the left, holding my cheesecake's most important ingredient (Market Basket nonfat yogurt), and Arthur T. is on the right.

And it was this encounter with "Artie T." that especially made the long drive to Biddeford, Maine, worth the trip.
 

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