1. Drain Cottage Cheese, using cheesecloth in sieve/colander - then puree till fine grained.
2. Put cheese and all ingredients, except eggs and crackers, in large mixing bowl. Hand/blendor mix until smooth textured.
3. In separate bowl, beat egg whites to light peaks stage then mix into into cheese mixture.
4. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Using Corn/Vegetable Oil, spray sides and bottom of an 8-inch non-stick springform cake pan
6. Crush/blendor mix crackers to fine crumbs and dust sides and bottom of Pan (a sieve works best to get even coating). Leave remainder on bottom of pan.
7. Pour mixture into pan and level top with a spatula.
8. Bake for about 60 minutes until center is firm and edges may be slightly browned. Time will vary with ingredients and your oven.
9.Remove and cool then chill pan in refrigeratot for 2 hours. Remove and serve.
10. For a more festive cake, decorate top with sliced Kiwi, \ Fruit, Strawberries 0r other fruit of your choice.
Many other versions can be made from basic recipe by excluding the lemon, lime and sugar then substituting the following:
Ginger Cheesecake: Add 1-oz of crystallized Ginger, finely diced, 1-tsp vanilla, 2-tsp lemon juice, 4-Tbsp Sugar.
Confetti Cheesecake: Add 4-6 oz of dried fruit bits (the finely cut bits- not the fruit mixture), 2-tsp Vanilla, 5-Tbsp Sugar.
Chocolate-Mint Cheesecake: Add 2-Tbsp Mint Jelly, 1-packet Low-Fat Cocoa mix, 2-tsp Vanilla, 1-tsp Lemon Juice, Sugar to taste, about 5-Tbsp.
Allspice Cheesecake: `Add 1/4 tsp Allspice Powder, 3 tsp Vanilla, 2-tsp Lemon Juice, 5-6 Tbsp Sugar.
Developed recipe by trial and error. It makes a sinfully-tasting cheesecake with I estimate about 200 calories, max, per servineg
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