Ok, well, maybe cheesecake isn’t a HEALTHY desert option, but if you are going to have dessert then personally I think that a well made cheesecake might be a pretty good dessert option. I made my first cheese cake this past weekend using a recipe from the book Alain Coumont’s Communal Table. Here’s the recipe with the changes I made, followed by the changes I would make next time to make it even a little healthier. NY Cheese Cake:

For the Cream:

4 eggs 2 egg yolks 600g cream cheese (I made my own homemade cream cheese out of plain yogurt since the preservatives in store bought cream cheese usually gives me a bad headache. I also didn’t have quite enough homemade cream cheese so I added about 2 large tablespoons of sour cream to make up the difference) 250g of sugar (ok, so this time I did use sugar – I haven’t used white sugar in, well, weeks, but I couldn’t find a suitable natural sweetener at our Bio store this week and figured that since I still had some white sugar in the back of the pantry Mother’s Day was as good a time as any to use it) 50g pastry flour (as a slightly healthier option I used spelt flour this time since I no longer have any form of white flour in the house) 1 tsp natural vanilla extract pinch of salt (I used unrefined sea salt)

For the Base/Crust:

12 Petit Beurre biscuits, crushed (I made my own shortbread cookies for the base. I used this recipe but substituted whole wheat flour in place of the white flour) 50g melted butter

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 C. I used a Kitchen Aide (thanks to my neighbor for letting me borrow hers) and blended the dry ingredients, then added the cream cheese and beat till mixed. Then I added the egg and egg yolk and vanilla and mixed again until very well mixed. Meanwhile my husband smashed up the shortbread cookies and mixed them with the melted butter. He then patted them down in the bottom of the pan. I then poured the cream filling into the pan and we put it in the oven at 200 C for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes we turned the oven down to 140 C and baked for another 35 minutes. After taking it out of the oven we left it to cool on the counter for 30 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator to set for 12 hours.

The Result:

Pure Yummyness!! It turned out great and we have been thoroughly enjoying it. It is so good I plan on making another one very soon. Here’s what I want to do differently next time:

• Use Rapudura or another natural sweetener in the cream and in the shortbread cookie base. I actually really curious how honey would work in this – I think it could be really tasty. Sadly, I have been reacting to the honey I currently have and can’t have it. I’m curious if using a different honey from a different area would work for me – maybe I’ll try it and see.
• Soak the flour for the shortbread cookie base and maybe leave out the flour in the cream. I’m not sure that the cream filling really needs the flour and think it might actually be even creamer and better without it. As for soaking the flour in the shortbread cookies, that might take a little experimenting, but I’d like to try and get it right.

Ok, so there’s my slightly healthier take on cheesecake. Enjoy the yummyness!

Rejoicing in the journey - Bethany Stedman

This post has been entered in the Slightly Indulgent Tuesday’s blog carnival at Simply Sugar & Gluten Free and also in the Mom’s 30 Minute Blog Challenge carnival at Steady Mom. Check out the links for lots of other great posts.