Cakes

Serves: 12

Prep time: 20 mins

Bake time: 70 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

I had this phenomenally creamy traditional German cheesecake recipe that was handed to me from my mum. Unfortunately there was nothing healthy about that cake.

It was full of dairy, sugar, wheat and butter. Oy! But I loved it… and fond childhood memories die hard!

So I modified the recipe. Here’s a healthier take on my favourite cheesecake of all times:

A lovely sugar reduced cheese cake with spelt crust, which even got my family’s sign of approval.

ALLERGY ADVICE: This cake contains DAIRY, EGGS, SUGAR, GLUTEN.

If you are more the gluten free and sugar free, kinda gal, or you are knee deep in the candida diet then this and this sugar free cheesecake recipe out here might be more up your street. I also experimented with a sugar free and vegan Candida diet cheese cake recipe. But that was nay a big success. Read on at your own peril… ????

For all you cheesecake craving folk out there, here’s a refreshingly lemony one to try!

German Cheesecake Recipe with a Healthy Twist – 30% Sugar Reduced!

Ingredients

For the cheesecake filling:

• 750 g Quark (3 x 250g pots – alternatively cottage cheese & sour creme)
• 4 medium organic eggs
• 250 ml milk (I used rice milk)
• juice of 1 lemon
• peel of 1 organic lemon (finely grated)
• 2 tsp vanilla (or 1 vanilla pod)
• 1 pack of cheese cake starter (or 2 heaped tablespoons starch such as tapioca or corn meal)
• 90g cane or coconut sugar (original recipe uses 220g/ 1 cup refined sugar!!!)

(optional: 50-100g raisins)

To make the Cheesecake Crust:

• 200g (1.5 cups; or 6.8 oz) spelt flour
• 65g (1/4 cup or 5 tablespoons) organic butter (warmed up)
• 1 tsp baking powder or baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 50g cane or coconut sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 2-3 (150-170 C, or 320-325ºF) and warm up a 26 cm (9-inch) Spring form pan in the oven.

First Make the cheesecake filling:

• Separate 4 eggs into whites and yolks.
• Process all the ingredients (except the egg whites) to a creamy pudding-like consistency. Don’t spread it on the cake yet.
• Use a separate processor bowl and clean blending elements to whip up the egg whites until they are stiff.
• Gently fold the egg whites’ whip under the cheese cake filling in slow big movements, careful not to over mix. This makes a cake super fluffy and rise much higher.

To make the Cheesecake Base & Crust:

• Take the spring form out of the oven. Butter it and line the bottom of it with a piece of round baking paper.
• Mix the dry ingredients first. Then add the warm butter and process the ingredients with a food processor until you are left with doughy crumbs.
• Divide the dough into 2 parts. One of them being ⅔, the other ⅓.
• Spread the bigger half evenly over the base of the spring form, using your fingers to press it down firmly along the sides. Make tiny holes in the dough with a fork (helps with even heat distribution and speeds up baking time).
• Form a long sausage shape with the rest of the dough and lay it around the inside rim of the base. Use your fingers to press it down and make the sides a little higher all around (about 2-3 cms).
• Spread half of the crust base with the cheesecake filling (or all if you’re not using the raisins).

Top Tip:

If you toss the raisins in flour briefly before sprinkling into the filling they will not sink to the bottom.
I you do want to add raisins toss them in a little spelt flour and gently fold them into the filling that you then spread over cake base. This prevents the raisins from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
I used 50g because I only made half a cake with and the other half of the cake without. You’d use 100g for the whole cake.

• Place the cake in the centre of a pre-heated oven and bake for about 30 minutes.
• Then spread a little milk over the cheesecake top. This helps to prevent it cracking open and creates a pretty golden crust.
• Continue baking for a further 30-45 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if the centre has fully set.
• Leave the cake in the oven to cool down for 10 mins, then the centre doesn’t cave in when you take it out.
• Cool the cake down further on a cooling rack. Then cover the top with cling film and store in the fridge overnight. It tastes best the next day.
• Take care removing the sides of the cake from the Spring-form pan, it tends to stick to it. Use a knife to go around the insides of the form to loosen the edges, so the filling doesn’t stick to the sides.