Skinny Marble Cheesecake

Have you ever been to The Cheesecake Factory and realized that one slice of their cheesecake contains more calories than you eat in an entire day? Is cheesecake something you love but rarely indulge in due to intense feelings of guilt? Well now you can toss away your worries 'cause at only 214 calories a slice you can enjoy this delicious lowfat chocolate marble cheesecake whenever the whim strikes, without sacrificing flavor or texture--you just have to make it first... 

Generally speaking, I don't believe in low-fat, low-cal desserts. I sort of feel that if you're going to eat dessert you might as well enjoy the real thing and run a few extra miles to make up for it. When I saw the recipe for this cheesecake, I was skeptical, but because it's by Alice Medrich and I love her desserts, I figured I'd give it try. You know what they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained (and with this cake, that's actually true). And you know what, the end result is a creamy, chocolatey,satisfyingly rich cheesecake. Is it my favorite cheesecake of all time? No, but it's very,very good and you can't beat the low calorieness of it!

The main ingredient here is...lowfat cottage cheese!! Genius! You process it for several minutes in a food processor so that it comes out rich and creamy.

Then it's just a matter of tossing light cream cheese, eggs, sugar etc into the processor and then pouring a cocoa mixture over the vanilla batter in the pan and swirling them together. My daughter and I had fun with this!

The cheesecake gets baked in a water bath--

And when it's all baked and chilled, you press chocolate cookie crumbs to the sides of the cake, put your feet up and take a bite, knowing that eating skinny cheesecake means you can fit into your skinny jeans!!

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Skinny Chocolate Marble Cheesecake

Serves 10-12

Prep Time:  20 minutes plus at least 30 minutes to drain cottage cheese; Bake Time:  40-45 minutes; Chill Time:  24 hours

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, either 1 or 2% (I used 1%), drained at least 30 minutes in a strainer set over a bowl in the refrigerator
• 8 oz Light cream cheese (not the tub kind)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, strained
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 tablespoons crushed chocolate wafers or graham crackers

The Recipe

1.  Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 350ºF. Use an 8 inch round pan with at least 2 inch sides. Line the bottom with flattened out coffee filters that overlap each other and spray the sides with vegetable spray. Put the kettle on to boil.

2.  Whisk together cocoa, coffee powder, and 1 tablespoon of the sugar with the water and set aside.

3.  Place the cottage cheese in the food processor and blend for about 3 minutes until totally smooth. Scrape down the sides if necessary.

4.  Place the cream cheese in a small bowl and microwave it for about 30 seconds to soften it. Add it into the cottage cheese in the food processor. Then add the eggs, remaining sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and salt. Pulse just until smooth and fully blended. You don't want to over do it now.

5.  Stir one cup of the batter into the chocolate mixture. Transfer the rest of the chocolate mixture into a measuring cup or pitcher with a spout. Pour the rest of the batter into the pan. Then pour the chocolate mixture into the white batter in a wide circle, leaving the center open and a border or white batter around the edges. Using a butter knife, swirl the two mixtures together, cutting through the batter to create whatever marbled pattern you like.

6. Slide the oven rack part way out and place the pan in a larger baking dish and put in oven. Carefully pour boiling water into the larger pan so that it comes up about an inch on the cheesecake pan. Gently slide rack back into oven so as not to spill the water. 

7.  Bake the cheesecake for 40-45 minutes until it puffs up a bit and is just beginning to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the water and cool on a rack. When totally cool, cover and chill for at least 24 hours and up to 2 days before serving.

8.  Unmold the cheesecake by first covering the top with a piece of tightly stretched plastic wrap and then invert it over a flat dish. Pound gently on the pan to loosen the cheesecake. Carefully peel away the coffee filters and invert onto another plate so that the cheesecake is now right side up. Remove plastic wrap. Press the cookie crumbs to the sides of the cake. The cake will cut more neatly if you use a small sharp knife and dip it in hot water and dry it between cuts.

9.  Cheesecake keeps at least one week, covered in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Note:  Recipe adapted from Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate by Alice Medrich.