Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 11:
 
I did not know if my taste preferences have shifted, but I was somehow seeking more tartness at this point (even despite my being very happy with Prototype 10). Maybe the "cheese base", i.e., the cottage cheese and/or yogurt cheese "foundation", needed to be varied, depending on the flavor of the cheesecake that I was making. For some flavors, such as chocolate, not much tartness was needed, hence a 2-to-1 yogurt cheese/cottage cheese mixture would suffice. But for some other flavors such as plain and citrus (e.g., orange, lemon), I felt that more tartness was worth a try. Furthermore a woman commented about one of my 2-to-1-cheese-blend prototypes (see Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 7 for more details) lacking a sufficient cheesecake taste. Perhaps that was due to a sandwich cookie dominance. But I more recently felt that insufficient tartness may have been a considerable reason. So for my latest plain-flavored prototype, I opted to go all the way with yogurt cheese (in fact, the batter ingredients for this plain one are the same as those for Prototype 7 of the Cookies+Creme, except that the plain cheesecake's "cheese base" is all yogurt and no cottage—and, of course, no cookies are used).
 
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
8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2.2 oz. Bran Buds, ground up

Pour this crust mixture into bottom of pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches), spreading the crust evenly (no pre-baking is needed with this one).

Batter:
4 tablespoons melted or softened butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
1/2 teaspoon salt
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.

Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 11, with Market Basket plain all natural nonfat yogurt

Both the crust mixture and batter were substantially thicker with the all-yogurt base, compared to their 2-to-1 yogurt-cottage counterparts. But I also used an electric mixer for this prototype, rather than a blender, an appliance that I have used extensively in the past in order to fully liquefy the cottage cheese's curds. However, for large cheesecakes, I needed a mixer with a big enough bowl as well. Due to my not using any cottage cheese in this prototype, along with the blender pitcher's slightly insufficient capacity, I put the mixer and its adequately-sized bowl to work. Would extensive use of a blender made a thinner difference for the yogurt cheese? I did not know. But using just the mixer would mean not having to wash the blender's components after use. That was one less appliance that I had to deal with.

After all those earlier prototypes, Prototype 11 is the first plain-flavored one that I have made in a large ("double") size.

And this cheesecake was a success at Living Hope Church—including not being too tart (and I received tartness comments from about two other people, and they agreed with me)! That was a concern that I had in going all-yogurt-cheese, but both the tartness and sweetness worked out well. I myself was very pleased with the taste, especially the batter's.

I also brought a couple of leftover slices to Lesa and Steve, who were shooting darts at the Beverly ICC. Steve, who had an immediate opportunity to eat, used the word "perfect" in commenting on this cheesecake and somehow signified that no further changes to the recipe were needed.
 

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