japanese tofu cheesecake.

Sometimes, when our days have been filled with a pound too many of butter and sugar, yet we want to bake some more, we try to cheat ourselves a little by slashing a few calories of the recipe. Thankfully, the pastry world is merciful- there are some desserts that are destined to be made less pant-busting. Like this cheesecake. Because it uses tofu. The tofu replaces a huge percentage of the cream cheese, lowering the calorie count significantly. The resulting dessert is also incredibly smooth and pudding-like. Of course, if you are a hardcore traditional cheesecake fan, you would probably notice the noticeable lack of cheesiness. This however, is precisely why I'm pretty okay with this cheesecake- I'm not a cheese habitue. Except for buffalo mozzarella. That stuff rocks.

I first saw this recipe over at Evan's Kitchen Ramblings, who suggested altering the recipe's proportions of tofu and yogurt, using more of the former and less of the latter because the original amount of yogurt made the cheesecake too tangy. I followed her suggestion, and the cheesecake turned out hardly tangy at all, which is fine with me. A bit more tang though, would be more refreshing. Perhaps a better balance could be achieved by changing some of the omitted yogurt's worth in weight to cream cheese too instead of just tofu. Using too much tofu can dilute the taste of cream cheese.

I decided to remake the cheesecake in cups and I felt that something was missing at the top so I added a layer of apricot jam that I melted down with some lemon juice before spooning it on top of the already set cheesecake. It's an extra step, and a superfluous one. The taste of the jam is so strong that it can overwhelm the delicate cheesecake.

Japanese Tofu Cheesecake
makes 6 glasses
adapted from here

If you like your cheesecake more tangy, up the amount of yogurt but be sure to subtract the equivalent from the cream cheese and/or tofu. Similarly, feel free to increase the amount of cream cheese if you like your cheesecake cheesier, but be sure to decrease the equal weight of from the other two ingredients.

135g digestive biscuits, crushed finely
62g melted butter
150g silken tofu
100g cream cheese
50g yogurt (I used sour cream- yogurt was MIA at the moment)
50g whipping cream
50g sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
5g powdered gelatin
50ml hot water

Mix the crushed digestives and melted butter together in a bowl. Divide the mixture equally amongst the 6 glasses.

Pour the hot water into a small bowl and sprinkle over the powdered gelatin evenly.

In a blender, combine the tofu, cream cheese, yogurt, whipping cream, sugar and lemon juice and blend until completely smooth and combined. When the gelatin has softened, pour it into the blender and blend until combined. Pour the cheesecake batter in equal amounts into the glasses. Refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.