This one took me a while...
Hi everyone! This particular recipe took me about three weeks to get right. Cheesecake is a particularly ambitious undertaking, because there are so many components to a Cheesecake that need to work well. The flavor must be perfect. The texture must be perfect. The consistency must be perfect. Attempting the Cheesecake struck a little bit of fear into my heart. However, I pushed past this, and decided to try it.
The first time that I tried the Cheesecake, it did not go as planned. I tried replacing normal Cream Cheese with Cottage Cheese. This dramatically threw off the texture of the resulting Cheesecake. The curds in the Cottage Cheese were far too large, and the Cheesecake ended up lumpy. Also, the honey that I used instead of sugar gave the Cheesecake a strange (very sweet) flavor. A little bit of sweetness is fine, but the honey overpowered everything else.
After the first Cheesecake did not come out well, I remained undeterred. I decided to try out the recipe again, using different ingredient substitutions. Instead of Cottage Cheese, I decided to try Mascarpone. Mascarpone has a consistency closer to Cream Cheese, while still having about half the calories of Cream Cheese. I kept the honey, thinking that the Mascarpone would be enough to fix the flavor. I was wrong. Also, during the second baking process, water got into the Cheesecake, making it too thin to even stand on its own.
I said to myself, “third time’s the charm, right?”. I decided to try the Cheesecake one more time. I was very glad that I did. This time, it worked perfectly! I used the Mascarpone (instead of Cream Cheese), Truvia (instead of sugar), and Greek Yogurt (instead of sour cream). I also decided to not put the Cheesecake in a hot water bath, while in the oven. That way, there was no danger of water getting into the batter.
"This is better than anything that you could get at the Cheesecake Factory. It tastes great, but I don't feel guilty about it." -- Member of the Senior Class
When I took it to school the next day, everyone thought it was delicious. For those people who tried the first attempt, they all thought that the new Cheesecake was a huge improvement. Some people even said that this Cheesecake was better than the ones from the Cheesecake Factory. I was so proud of myself for sticking with the Cheesecake, even though it gave me so much trouble.
I believe that, although the first two attempts were failures, the third Cheesecake was a major success. When I tried it myself, I, too, though that it was better than normal Cheesecake. I also think it tasted just a little bit better, knowing that all my perseverance paid off in the end.
Recipe:
Crust-
1 1/2 cups graham crackers, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
Filling-
8 oz. Mascarpone
3/4 cup Truvia
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
5 eggs
Mix together all ingredients for crust; place in a springform pan, and bake (475; 15 min).
Mix together all ingredients for filling, except eggs; beat egg whites until fluffy; fold egg whites and yolks into Mascarpone mixture.
Pour filling into crust; bake (350; 50 min).
Original Recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cheesecake-factory-original-cheesecake
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