Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 13:
 
For late June 2015, I decided to make a major change in my basic batter composition, starting with this latest prototype. More information can be found here.
 
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 (but see comments below)
2 oz. All-Bran, ground up

Place the resulting mixture in the greased pan and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 5-10 minutes, depending on the mixture's thickness (closer to 10 minutes if thin enough to be fully distributed across the pan's bottom by gentle shaking, closer to 5 minutes if thick enough to require spreading out this mixture by pressing on it with a utensil and/or fingers), then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (5 tablespoons altogether) arrowroot
4 eggs

Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the batter (to minimize the foil's disturbance and therefore its leakage risk, do not put it on any earlier).

Next, pour the batter over the crust and bake this cheesecake in a hot water tub at 300 degrees for 110 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 110 minutes, then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 13

I had planned at the start to use only 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla in the crust, but my mind slipped up, so I ended up accidentally using a whole teaspoon. However, that did not bother me too much, as I was much more concerned about the batter's outcome.

This one was probably my most successful cheesecake to date at Living Hope Church. Prototype 13 was gone in what was probably less than 10 minutes. Someone placed fresh strawberries on top of my cheesecake before it was served among a not-so small selection of other snacks, particularly sweet ones. It looked like a number of people (including myself) removed the strawberries from their slices, while others kept them. I myself was fortunate enough to get a slice so that I could evaluate this new batter. The taste was at least very good and not highly tart (I was content with the crust as well).

In light of this particular prototype being an unusually phenomenal hit, I decided to repeat it about a week later—and
this time successfully remembered to use only 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla in the crust!

However, whereas the first plain-flavored Prototype 13 that I served at Living Hope was an overwhelming success, the second one was largely the opposite. Just over half of it remained (no strawberries on top this time). The selection of other refreshments seemed to be about as big as the previous one a week earlier. I took the rest of the cheesecake home, had a slice later and froze the rest.

About a couple of weeks later, I thawed the remaining cheesecake and served it at a family reunion hosted by a cousin of my friend Darren's. It wasn't very long before the last slice was taken.
 

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