Patriotic (and low-fat) Cheesecake

Happy 4th of July! Holidays are a great time for families and showing off your culinary skills. I am a huge meal planner around holidays, and it also gives me an extra "cheat day" on my farm food diet.

Cheesecake is one of the most dreaded desserts to avoid when trying to cut weight. Regular cheesecake can pack as much as 18g of fat and 40% of your daily saturated fat. BUT IT'S SO GOOD! I was able to find and combine two cheesecake recipes that use ricotta cheese and low-fat cream cheese to cut a lot of the cheese fat out of this irresistible dessert. So you can double your guilty day for a holiday dessert that is low-fat, festive and very tasty.

I combined Martha Stewart's Red, White and Blueberry Cheesecake with Cooking Light's Ricotta Cheesecake. Either recipe is excellent on it's own, but my version tries to keep more of the texture of cheesecake without including all the cream cheese calories.

I first made this dessert for my husband for being sweet and going out of his way to help me. I am not a huge cheesecake fan, but this combination is excellent. It was one of the few times we finished a dessert before throwing it out. There is a little bit of room to play with the proportions, so be sure and check the links to the recipes if you want more or less firmness, fat or ricotta.

Patriotic Cheesecake:

Crust:

6-8 graham crackers (one pack)
1/3 cup raw almonds (optional)

1/4 cup sugar (optional)
4 tbsp butter, melted

Filling:

1/2 cup organic sugar

12 oz (1.5 bars) reduced-fat cream cheese
1/2 pint (8 oz) low-fat ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
salt, pinch
1 tsp fresh lemon zest

Topping:

1/2 cup organic sugar

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 plums, pitted and cubed

1 pint blueberries

Do not use store-bought graham crust - the cheesecake will fall apart. Graham cracker crust is incredibly simple to make if you have a food processor. If you have heart-healthy raw almonds, only use 6 grahams and crush together in processor. If you don't have almonds, use the whole pack of grahams. All graham crust calls for 1/4 cup sugar. I have always forgotten to add it and the crust is still divine. So don't add the sugar unless you think it needs it. I know 4 tbsp butter is a bit much for a low-fat recipe, but you really need the moisture to hold the crust together. Pour the butter into the processor while it is crushing the grahams. Pack the buttery crumbs into a 9 inch pie dish. Use a greased spatula to spread the crumbs evenly. Bake the crust for 8 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

A few tips here: This is obviously a lower-fat dessert and not exactly screaming healthy, but I try where I can to make this less bad-for-me. I have become hung up on organic sugar lately. I do like Sugar in the Raw, but it doesn't always do best in baking. It is GREAT in cookies, but not other baked goods, so stick with fine, organic sugar. The price is not much different esp since it takes me a while to go through a 5lb bag of sugar. Also, when zesting your lemon, be sure to save a tablespoon of the juice for the topping. It's best to roll the lemon on the counter and press your palm into the lemon to break up the juices before cutting it.

Be sure to clean and dry your food processor completely before moving onto the filling. Make sure your cream cheese and ricotta are at room temperature, which will help with blending. Blend together cheeses and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla, zest and salt. You might have a fancy food processor, but I do not (got it from Visa reward points), so be sure and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the cream cheese isn't caked on the bottom. Once mixture is well blended, pour the batter into the cooled pie dish. Place pie on a cookie sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely.

As cake cools, combine plums, 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat on medium until at a rapid simmer. Reduce heat to simmer and stir until fruit starts to turn to jam. Remove from heat and stir in blueberries. Once cake is cool, spread fruit mixture over cake and refrigerate at least two hours.