Low-Fat Cheesecake Fit for Adults

One of the great advantages of adulthood is being able, with impunity, to eat dessert for dinner. I didn’t catch onto this until I was a year out of college, when a friend two decades older than I introduced me to the practice. Whenever she would serve dessert for dinner, however, she would also serve a salad first. Her desserts were more or less wholesome, like this cheesecake made with low-fat cottage cheese.

LOW-FAT CHEESECAKE

Butter

1 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs

Dash ground cinnamon

1 orange

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

2 cups low-fat cottage cheese

6 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup granulated fructose or sugar

6 extra large eggs, separated

Fresh fruit, fruited yogurt, or combination

Butter 9-inch springform pan. Combine bread crumbs and cinnamon. Dust pan with mixture.

Squeeze juice from orange and grate peel. Combine orange juice with buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

In blender or food processor, combine cottage cheese, flour, fructose and orange peel. Add juice-buttermilk mixture. Process until smooth.

Blend egg yolks until smooth and lemony. Beat whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold yolks into cottage cheese mixture, then gently fold in whites so that everything combines while mixture stays light.

Pour into prepared pan. Cover with foil tent and bake at 350 degrees 1 hour. Without taking cake from oven, remove tent, close oven door and turn off heat. Leave cake for another 1 hour. Remove from oven, let cool, then refrigerate several hours or overnight. Do not remove from pan until chilled through. Top with fresh fruit.

CONFETTI SALAD

1 small head green cabbage, shredded

1/4 cup chopped red onion

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup cooked garbanzo beans

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

2/3 cup Dressing

Combine cabbage, onion, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and cheese. Toss well. Add Dressing and toss again. Chill 3 hours or more. Makes 4 servings.

Dressing

2/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

Dash dried oregano

Dash dried thyme

Cayenne pepper

Whisk together yogurt, garlic, cumin, paprika, oregano and thyme and season to taste with cayenne. Refrigerate until ready to use.