As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases linked in this post, at no charge to you. When you purchase items I've linked here, you help support my blog; thank you :)
Vegetarian/Nut-Free
Skill Level: Intermediate
Yield: 8-10 servings
Prep Time: 40-50 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour/30 minute cooling time in oven
Chill Time: 2 hours minimum prior to slicing
Equipment Needed:
The Recipe:
This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Michal Korkosz/Crust recipe is by Cooks Illustrated
Ingredients:
For the crust:
6 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter to grease pan
For the filling:
2 3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (120 grams) powdered sugar
5 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 tablespoons finely grated orange zest, from about 2 oranges
1 tablespoon cornstarch
For the topping:
12 ounces fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
Juice from 1 orange (about 1/4 cup)
Pinch of Kosher salt
Procedure:
Make the crust: Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Process graham crackers and dark brown sugar in food processor until they are finely ground (about 30 seconds). Use a wooden spoon or silicone scraper to move pieces around/scrape down sides as necessary to ensure that the whole mixture is finely ground.
Add flour and salt and pulse 2 more times to combine. Add melted butter and pulse about 10 times, until crumbs are evenly moistened.
Use a folded paper towel or pastry brush to coat the bottom of a springform pan with 1/2 tablespoon melted butter. Add all of the graham cracker mixture to the pan, then use your hands to firmly pack into the bottom of the pan.
Bake crust until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 13 minutes. Cool completely before filling.
Make the filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add cottage cheese and heavy cream to a blender or food processor and blend until very smooth.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the softened butter on medium speed until smooth.
Add powdered sugar and beat on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy (this will take about 5 minutes).
Reduce speed to medium and add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add cottage cheese mixture, orange zest, and cornstarch. Mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, use a whisk or hand mixer to beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (see notes on this in the Tips section). Gently fold this mixture into the cottage cheese mixture using a rubber/silicone scraper.
Add filling into springform pan on top of cooled crust. Put pan in oven, and immediately reduce the heat back down to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bake until the edges are set but the center is still wobbly, about 45 minutes. The top of the cheesecake should be just starting to turn golden.
Turn off the heat, crack the oven door open, and allow the cheesecake to start cooling while still sitting in the oven for 30 minutes.
Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Optional: At this point, you could refrigerate the cheesecake overnight until you are ready to top it.
Make the topping: Bring the cranberries, sugar, orange juice, and salt to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
Reduce the heat and simmer until the cranberries have almost all burst open, 6 to 8 minutes. Let this mixture cool to room temperature.
Top the cooled (or chilled) cheesecake with the cranberry topping. Cover tightly in plastic wrap, and chill a minimum of 2 hours before eating.
To Serve: When you are ready to serve, run a flexible/straight-edge spatula or butter knife around the perimeter of the cake before releasing the clasp and removing the outside ring of the pan. Cut cake into 8-10 slices, wiping your knife clean after each slice.
Adjusting for your diet: I used full fat cottage cheese (no shame over here), but if you are looking to lighten this cheesecake up, I'm certain it would work with low-fat cottage cheese as well. I have not attempted a vegan version of this recipe yet; if you dabble you'll have to let me know how it goes :)
Tips:
If you don't have a springform pan, I think you could bake this in a deep dish cake pan, your presentation just won't be quite as nice as with a springform pan.
If you are unfamiliar with the process of separating egg whites from yolks, don't be intimidated! The absolute easiest way to do it is to wash your hands thoroughly, then crack an egg and hold one hand over a bowl (palm facing up), while holding the cracked egg in your other hand. Then, simply open the egg up into your open palm, and spread your fingers apart ever so slightly, letting the white run through the small spaces between your fingers. The yolk should stay securely anchored in your palm, and you can dump it into a separate bowl once most of the white has gone through. The key in this recipe (and any recipe that asks you to beat egg whites), is that none of the yolk can go in with the white, or the whites will not whip up the way they are supposed to with the addition of the fat from the yolk. Another method is to pass the yolk back and forth between the two halves of the shell over a bowl, letting the white fall into the bowl; this can be a little trickier and your two shell halves need to be somewhat even for it to work. I think there's a water bottle trick you can do too, but you'll have to search Tik Tok for that one because I've never tried it ;)
When beating egg whites, an electric mixer is definitely the easiest method but it can certainly be done by hand with a whisk as well (your arm may be tired when all is said and done). There are several stages that occur when beating egg whites: Foamy, soft peaks, and stiff peaks, which is what we want here. To test for stiff peaks, stop your mixer (or stop whisking) and dip the ends of the beater attachment (or whisk) into the egg whites, then slowly pull it upwards, out of the mixture. If you are left with a little peak that droops over and curves back down (I always think it looks like the big hill from Nightmare Before Christmas that uncurls and Jack walks down, if you're familiar), then you have soft peaks. But, if you are left with little points that stick straight up (see photo below), you have stiff peaks.
Substitute light brown sugar for dark brown sugar in the crust if it's what you have on hand.
For an interesting twist, you could try subbing Nilla wafers or even animal crackers for the graham crackers in the crust. If you are doing this, I think you'd have to measure by weight to ensure you have enough crumbs. 6 graham crackers will weigh roughly 23.22 grams.
When zesting your orange, I highly recommend using a microplane zester if you have one. If you don't, you can use the smallest holes of a box grater in a pinch. Only take off the outermost layer of the orange peel; the white pith that is in the next layer will taste bitter.
I did actually weigh my powdered sugar, which I recommend if you have a kitchen scale. If weights are offered in a baking recipe, I usually use them since they are more accurate and baking relies heavily on accuracy.
As I mentioned in the recipe, I made this recipe a 2-day adventure. Day 1, I made the crust and baked the cheesecake. Once it was mostly cooled, I transferred it to the fridge. Day 2, all I had to do was make the topping, top the cake, and chill for the 2 hours.
When topping the cheesecake, I left a 1/4-1/2-inch border of the top of the cake bare because I liked how it looked. You could definitely push your topping all the way to the edges as well.
The Story:
Although I haven't been making a ton of desserts lately (mostly because they tempt me way too much), it was my birthday last week, and I decided to find a fun dessert to make when my parents and brother came over for dinner on Sunday. I had recently gotten a Polish cookbook from the library (our last name is VERY Polish/my husband's family has Polish roots) that I have been having so much fun studying; the recipes in it are so intriguing and different. When I got to a recipe for a "cranberry cottage cheese cheesecake," I knew I had found the one.
Cottage cheese is having a real moment right now, in case you haven't heard. And for good reason! Besides the fact that it's a literal blank slate, cottage cheese is pretty nutritious; it's packed with protein and vitamins like B12, calcium, and folate and pretty low in fat and calories.
I feel like most times, when you bite into a slice of cheesecake, you know what you're getting, right? Creamy, smooth, sweet, exquisite, rich, with ultimate cream cheese flavor. So what can you expect when you bite into a piece of cheesecake with no cream cheese?? Not as smooth, but the word I used was "rustic," and it was a completely enjoyable texture/mouthfeel. Not as sweet, but I don't care for a super-sweet dessert. The sharp tartness of the cranberry topping, in tandem with the subtle bitter flavor of the orange zest in the actual cake and the sweetness of the crust was really quite lovely.
The original author of this recipe did not use a graham cracker crust; he uses a simple flour/sugar/butter crust which I imagine would be similar in taste to a pie crust. However, since I could not envision cheesecake without a graham cracker crust, I turned to my old faithful Cooks Illustrated graham cracker crust recipe. I go to this crust recipe for it's simplicity, but I stay for the insanely good flavor. Caramely, sweet, slight crunch, everything a graham cracker crust should be, and it pairs so beautifully with this cheesecake.
I couldn't have asked for a more perfect birthday treat! If you try this stunning cake, let me know how it goes :)
Happy tasting!
Comments