say cheese!

cheese cake. today is gorillaman’s 50th birthday so, i did something i normally don’t do...baked. i adapted a recipe from the relish food insert that occasionally comes in our wednesday paper. the recipe was for a light cheese cake. ha. i didn’t purchase the light version of cream cheese nor sour cream but did on the cottage cheese. yes, cottage cheese. the recipe was amazingly simple and didn’t dirty up many items in the kitchen. it’s made primarily in a food processor. yippee. prep is literally 15 minutes. the most difficult part of this recipe is to remember to set out the cream cheese & eggs so they come up to room temp before you begin. first, twirl the graham crackers in the processor to get your crumb crust out of the way, wipe out the processor then start on the filling. OMG! i couldn’t resist licking the spatula after i filling the springform pan. i wanted to keep back some of the raw filling & eat it with a spoon, but i didn’t. gorillaman said this was the "best cheese cake" he's ever eaten & our capital bar & grill waiter took a piece for himself. here’s how:

you’ll need:

for the cake: 

cooking spray
½ cup graham crackers, crumbed in food processor
¾ cup, plus 2 teaspoons, sugar, divided
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 pound 2% reduced-fat cottage cheese
1 (8-ounce) block reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
¾ cup reduced-fat sour cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 eggs, room temperature
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

topping:
4 cups strawberries or blackberries (i used blueberries & needed only a handful)
⅓ cup seedless raspberry jam (i used a 10 oz jar of fruits of the forest fruit spread)

you’ll do:

1. Preheat oven to 300F. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. (i used a 6”)
2. Combine cracker crumbs, 2 teaspoons sugar and butter. Press evenly on bottom of pan. 
3. Place cheeses in bowl of a food processor; process until smooth. Add 3/4 cup sugar, sour cream, flour, eggs, egg whites and vanilla; process until smooth. Pour into pan and bake 55 minutes or until just set. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate several hours to overnight.
4. For topping, remove outside rim from springform pan and arrange berries on top of cake. Stir jam with a whisk until smooth. Spoon over fruit. Some berries will not be entirely covered.