I like cheesecakes, particularly light and rare cheesecakes. Both desserts were originally created in Japan. They are either mostly unavailable or pretty pricy in the US
I followed some online recipes of light cheesecakes, but they all failed. The biggest problems were that my light cheesecakes were not as fluffy and had a foamy top layer and dense bottom layer.
With frustration, I turned my attention to rare cheesecakes which refers to unbaked cheesecakes. The most popular rare cheesecake recipes use large amount of heavy cream and lemon juice. When I visited New York City, a friend of mine strongly recommended a bakery that started in around late 1970s. I chose a piece of very smooth rare cheesecake with beautiful presentation, balanced sourness, and a silky sensation. It turned out the main ingredient was very smooth whipped heavy cream, which is not very healthy.
So, I decided to make a tweak to popular online recipes by adding some healthy ingredients such as whole milk, Greek yogurt or kefir, and fresh blueberries. In addition, I reduce the usage of or eliminate heavy cream. If you decide to give it a try, please bear in mind, this recipe is versatile. You may adjust amount of each ingredient to your preference. The only thing you need to pay attention is balancing the sourness. You should be happy with what you get if you follow it properly.
Blueberry Rare Cheesecake 蓝莓免焙芝士蛋糕
Equipment
- 6“ or 7" baking pan (removable bottom is preferred)
- hand mixer
- two mixing bowls
- Vitamix blender or Ninja mixer
- a few small bowls
- spatula
Ingredients
- 227 grams cream cheese (one pack)
- 125 grams fresh or frozen blueberry (no need to be very accurate)
- 220 grams plain greek yogurt or plain kefir (no need to be very accurate)
- 7 grams gelatin powder or sheet
- 3 tbsp lemon juice (about 40 grams)
- 3 tbsp sugar (30-60 grams depend on personal preference)
- 80 grams heavy cream (optional)
- 80 grams honey graham cracker (5 pieces)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Put one pack (227 grams, within aluminum pouch) of cream cheese into room temperature water for 15-20 mins (While waiting for the cream cheese to warm up, prepare the following items)
- Put honey graham crackers in a Ziploc bag and crush the crackers to crumbs.
- Heat the butter with a microwave for 30-45 seconds in a small bowl. Add cracker crumbs to the melted butter. Mix well with a spoon.
- Add the butter soaked cracker crumbs to the baking pan and press the crumbs with a small flat surface.
- Rinse the blueberries with water and add them with lemon juice to a Vitamix blender (don't mix yet)
- Add gelatin powder and room temperature water to a small bowl. Mix them with a spoon and heat them with the hot water bath.
- Start a hot water bath (no need to boil)
- Put the yogurt in a mixing bowl
- Add the warmed cream cheese to a mixing bowel. Turn on mixer at medium speed to mix cream cheese for 20-30 seconds. Add the yogurt (or kefir) and mix the two ingredients in uniform.
- Add heavy cream to another mixing bowl and mix with a hand mixer at a high speed until medium firm foam is formed.
- Turn on the Vitamix blender to mix the blueberries/lemond juice. Immediately add the blueberry puree to the cream cheese/yogurt mixture. Add sugar and mix for about 20 seconds. Add the heavy cream foam and mix for another 20 seconds.
- Scoop 2-3 tbsp of the previous mixture to the melted gelatin and mix well with a spoon. Add the mixture to the big mixing bowl and mix at medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Use a spatula to scrape the side of the bowl to make sure the mixture is mixed well.
- Move the mixture to baking pan.
- Cover the baking pan and put it in a refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
Video
Notes
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