Yogurt Cheese "Cheesecake"

That's a teaspoon of  apricot fruit spread on top of it.

Yogurt is one of those things that is rather more versatile than most people imagine. As a breakfast food, it rather leaves me cold, not to mention hungry. However, as an ingredient in various dishes, particularly as a partial substitute for sour cream or mayonnaise. It also works wonders in the lemon yogurt soufflé I make.

Cheesecake is one of those things which I love, but the problems with it are two-fold. The first is that Japanese cheesecake doesn't really do it for me. It's more of a sponge cake and it often tastes like Gouda instead of cream cheese. The second is that it is, undeniably, calorific.

So, when I've got the urge for cheesecake, I have limited options so I decided to attempt a yogurt-based version. I found this recipe online, and figured it was a very good starting point. I figured that it couldn't possibly taste bad because it contains the same basic ingredients as the lemon soufflé, and the batter from that always tastes so good that I'm more than happy to eat a bit of raw egg to sample it. This cheesecake has the virtue of being far less fussy than the soufflé.

This makes a very small "cheesecake" for a 17 cm./6.7 in. pie plate. If you use a regular pie plate, you'll want to double this. I wanted to keep the size down for my first attempt. Also, I don't expect my husband to have any of this and having a lot of it around probably would take so long to eat that it'd go bad before I reached the end of it all.

Yogurt Cheese "Cheesecake"

• 1 egg 
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 packets of Splenda (or use about 3 tbsp. of sugar)
• juice of half a lemon (I didn't squeeze it dry)
• 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 cup strained yogurt*/yogurt cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F./160 degrees C. Spray your pie pan with cooking spray or lightly grease it. 

Whisk the egg, vanilla, Splenda, and juice until well mixed and slightly frothy. Add the yogurt cheese and whisk until all the lumps are gone. Whisk in the cornstarch until smooth and thoroughly incorporated. Add the mixture to the prepared pie pan and bake for between 20-25 minutes until set. Cool completely and refrigerate uncovered before eating.

Determining the calories for this is tricky because straining the yogurt changes the volume. The original recipe uses sugar and is 100 calories per serving. For this, I'd say it is 4 servings and my best guess is that it is 65 calories per serving. That's likely on the high side as I'm counting the calories in an entire 400 gram (14 oz.) container of plain low-fat yogurt and I don't think I used the entire thing, but can't know how many calories are drained off in the whey and don't know what proportion produced 1 cup of yogurt cheese. Note that I used a "mild" yogurt which I can get here in Japan. I don't know if such types exist in other countries, but I think this makes for a mellower result.

As for how it was, it was surprisingly good. It wasn't really "cheesecake", but it did have a nice texture and tangy flavor. It is, however, missing all of the richness of cheesecake and has a bit of a "too set" feeling. I also think I also whisked too much air into it (hence the air bubbles in the cut view). Rather than whisking, one might be better off stirring, but I can't say I'm too fussed about it. The only thing I can say is that it might be better at double the volume in the same size pan. I think it's a bit too flat to get a good sense of the texture. It strikes me that this would make an excellent breakfast treat for people who want something high protein, but sweet.

*Strained yogurt or yogurt cheese is plain, unsweetened yogurt which has been suspended in cheese cloth or a coffee filter above a container overnight and the whey has been allowed to drain off. The result is a much thicker, less watery version of yogurt.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Whole Wheat Orange Yogurt Muffins (sugar-free)

I picked up 9 oranges for a bargain price of 498 yen ($5.62)... well, a "bargain" by Tokyo standards and thought some orange muffins might hit the spot as well as use an orange up before some of them start to spoil. Since I'm still interested in "healthifying" or at least "decalorating" my baked goods, I figured I'd create the orange muffins based on the existing banana and blueberry bread recipes that I've been using. The result was surprisingly good. In fact, I'm thinking I may modify the banana bread recipe after my experience with these muffins.

Note that the texture of these muffins is not going to be like those made with white flour, lots of sugar or fat, but it really is quite good. They're a bit denser than a conventional muffin, but not in any way like the dense hockey pucks you sometimes get when using whole wheat flour and skimping on the oil. I did not sample one fresh but rather had one for breakfast the next morning. With whole wheat baked goods, the next day is often better because the moisture tends to settle, though I recommend tightly wrapping them so no air gets in and freezing any that you won't be eating soon immediately.

Whole Wheat Orange Yogurt Muffins:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plain unsweetened yogurt (low-fat is fine)
• the juice and finely grated zest of one medium orange (I used a Sunkist navel)
• 1 tbsp. Canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used whole wheat bread flour)
• 1 cup Splenda granular (or use white sugar)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 6 walnut halves for garnish (optional)

Whisk the applesauce, egg, yogurt, juice, zest, oil, vanilla, Splenda, and salt until well-blended. Add the flour and mix until just moistened. Allow the flour to rest in the wet ingredients for 15-30 minutes. This allows large grain whole wheat flour to absorb more moisture. If you're worried about the egg, put the bowl in the refrigerator. Grease the bottom and lower sides of 6 muffin cups or a 6-cup tin. After the batter has rested, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F./190 degrees C. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. They should be between 2/3 and 3/4 full. Gently push half a walnut into the batter so that it is half-submerged. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. 


Each muffin is about 190 calories (not counting the walnuts).

I really liked these and will definitely be making them again. Originally, I planned to put dates in them, but the ones I had on hand were too old. I think they'd be great with some chocolate chips as well, though that would wreck the "sugar-free" angle. If you're a fan of nuts in your quick breads, some chopped walnuts would be a healthy add-in. Frankly though, I enjoyed mine as it was with some butter. (As an addendum: I had one a few days later wrapped in foil and warmed in the toaster oven and it was soft, fluffy and delicious - I recommend having them that way!)

As a point of comparison to my other quick breads, the batter for these was much wetter. I think that helped them to rise better, although that could also have been the fact that they were muffins. This time, I chose muffins over a loaf because of the summer heat. The breads take up to an hour to bake and the muffins take less than half that time. The only problem is that they are fussier and therefore there is more clean-up, but it was worth it.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Lemon Yogurt Soufflé (sugar-free)

Sometimes I think it would be useful for someone to start a content aggregate site which only includes trusted recipes from sites that actually test the recipes and have positive feedback from people who successfully duplicate their results (not just rave about the pretty food pictures). A great many recipes out there are mere eye candy for attention and the resulting food is pretty crappy. In other words, the food looks good, but the texture or taste is really disappointing.

There are more recipes for sugar-free, low-carb or low-fat foods that disappoint than any other type of recipe. It's easy to fail when it comes to such things since sugar, fat, and flour are integral parts of many successful dishes. One of the reasons I blog about these types of things (besides the fact that it helps me keep track of what I have tried) is that it allows me to say, "this is a good recipe" or "this is a bad recipe".

I tend to give sites two chances when it comes to "bad recipes". If I try them and the result is poor, I leave a comment and ask if I made an error and that perhaps contributed to the poor result. If the comment is published, then I will give the site's author's recipes another try. If the comment isn't published, I will never try that author's recipes again since they clearly can't be trusted not only to be honest about the results of their cooking experiments, but they also won't allow anyone to say the recipe may not turn out well for those who have actually tried it. They'll publish a hundred comments about how good the food looks in the picture, but not one dissenting opinion about how the results were disappointing for a particular person. For the record, no one who I have left a comment with saying I tried the recipe and it failed has ever published my comment, even when I am polite and ask for advice on where I may have gone wrong. They just delete it in moderation.

One site which I absolutely trust when it comes to healthy variations on recipes is Eating Well, Living Thin. The mistress of this site had bariatric surgery and is maintaining her weight, at least in part, by modifying old favorites so that they are lower calorie and healthier. I've tried several of her recipes, and they have always turned out well. This lemon yogurt soufflé recipe from her site was my latest attempt at one of her recipes, and it turned out very well. I did change it a little based on a desire to cut back the recipe a bit, and because I only had 3 ramekins. Here is the recipe with my (small) modifications. The original recipe is a little better nutritionally than mine, and mine is more lemony and uses regular yogurt instead of Greek.

Lemon Yogurt Soufflé

• 1/2 cup of strained plain, low-fat yogurt*
• 2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
• 4 tbsp. granular Splenda (or just use white sugar if you want)
• 1.5 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cream of tartar

In a large bowl, whisk the yogurt, egg yolks, 3 tbsp. Splenda (or sugar), flour, vanilla, lemon juice and salt until smooth.

Spray 3 ramekins with cooking spray (or grease them manually). Dust them with Splenda (or sugar) and set them aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and 1 tbsp. Splenda (or sugar) until stiff peaks form. If you aren't familiar with the best way to beat egg whites, you might want to read the instructions in the original recipe but I was taught to first beat the whites at a relatively low speed until foamy, add the cream of tartar and sugar (or sweetener, in this case) and then beat at a higher speed until the peaks stand up straight.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F./190 degrees C.

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the lemon-yogurt-egg-yolk mixture. Be careful not to stir in or you'll lose all of the air from the egg whites. I use the "cutting" method to fold in egg whites. To do this, spoon in about 1/4 of the egg white mixture and cut through the center of the yogurt mixture with a large spoon. Fold over half of the mixture. Cut through and fold over the other half. Slowly add in the egg whites by quarters repeating the folding in this manner until there are no pockets of egg white.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins, place on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes until the tops are a golden brown. Serve warm. These are about 100 calories each, which is incredibly low considering the size and quality of the dish.

The soufflés will start to fall after about 40 minutes, but Linda (the person who originally posted this recipe) warns readers about that. She said it becomes like cheesecake after it falls. As of this posting, I haven't tried it cold after it has fallen.

My husband and I both really liked this a lot, though I made it this first time with only 1 tsp. lemon juice and we both thought it'd suit our tastes better with more lemon (hence the reason that I put "2 tsp." in the recipe above as that is what I'll use next time). The texture was really good, as was the flavor. Also, frankly, this was a little sweet for my tastes, but my husband thought it was quite fine as is so it's probably just me (and I have no plans to alter the sweetness levels the next time). We'll definitely be having this again!

Update: The next day, this was even better. It was like a sponge cake with a bit of a baked cheesecake feel. Also, it seemed less sweet (maybe because the granular Splenda on the outside was absorbed and not hitting my tongue directly). This was truly amazing as a low calorie treat.

*Strained Yogurt Instructions:

To make thick, creamy strained yogurt, buy regular plain, low-fat (unsweetened) yogurt. Take a coffee filter and affix it with rubber bands to the mouth of a glass or bowl which is the right size for your particular filters. The coffee filter should be suspended above the glass and there should be at least an inch (2.5 cm.) below it. Spoon the plain yogurt into the filter until just full. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and allow the whey to drain for at least 24 hours. There should be very thick yogurt the consistency of sour cream in the filter. Most yogurt will be reduced in size by 40-50% using this procedure.

If it seems too watery after 24 hours, drain the whey from the bottom of the glass or bowl, rinse it out, affix a new coffee filter to the top of it, and transfer the strained yogurt into a new filter. When you strain it twice, it gets even thicker, though usually straining it once is enough.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Blueberry Slushy Dessert

I know, it looks like purple poo. :-p

Note that you'll need a blender to make this.

My husband and I bought an enormous bag of frozen blueberries at Costco and I've been trying to think of ways to use them ever since. It's not that I don't like blueberries, because I like them quite a lot. It's simply that I'm generally not eating the types of things which go well with them like oatmeal. That being said, I did actually stoop to eating oatmeal because I had the blueberries.

Lately, I'd been adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of blueberries to frozen banana drinks to get the nutrition without too much of an imposition on the taste. Again, I like blueberries, but I wanted the banana drink to be banana-flavored.

I had tried to get together a blueberry version of the banana frozen drink I had, and I could never get the balance right. Using milk in particular seemed to add a funny taste and since the blueberries are more watery than bananas, it diluted it too much. After some experimentation, I came up with the following combination which worked well:

• 1 cup crushed ice
• 1 cup frozen blueberries (unsweetened - I used Radar Farms)
• 2-3 packets of Splenda sweetener (or use whatever you like - sugar, honey, etc.)
• 1 tbsp. powdered milk
• 4 tbsp. (about 1/4 cup) unsweetened yogurt
• a squeeze or two of lemon (to taste)

Add everything to your blender and frappe until it is well blended. It'll be thick and you'll have to pause occasionally to scrape down the sides. It should be similar in thickness to gelato.

The lemon is pretty important so don't skip it. It adds another flavor dimension to this rather than leaving it tasting rather flat (which is a problem with using only blueberry in my experience). It also makes a rather large serving.

by Shari (Orchid64)

Low Fat "Brownies"

I tag these as "brownies" instead of brownies because I believe some things are sacred. The combination of butter, sugar and chocolate that creates the divine fudgey nature of the brownie cannot be faked. Using anything other than those magical three foodstuffs with a few extra ingredients to make it all come together is absolutely required if you're going to call your result a brownie.

Despite my propensity for using what Shawn calls "fake sugar", I do believe that dessert should, in general, be dessert and use the real thing. That being said, if the result is not appreciably degraded by using fakes, then I see nothing wrong with lowering the calories. For instance, making cheesecake with fake sugars rarely has much of an impact on the resulting product since its the fat which carries most of the load in making cheesecake the delight that it is. Also, sometimes people simply want to lower the poor nutritional profile of their sweets and making some modifications can help with that.

Brownies are one of those things which notoriously cannot be faked because both the butter and sugar are essential to the texture and richness. I have made a type of "Amish brownie" before which used applesauce instead of butter. It was good, but more of a dense cake than a fudge brownie. It was by far the best fake I've ever made, and I've made some pretty miserable fakes with Splenda granular. You can try and replace the butter, but you cannot reduce the sugar in cakes in my experience. The result will always be like rubber if you use fake sugar.

I was inspired to find this recipe while reading a food review blog called "Nutritious Junk". The writer of that blog included a recipe and a picture of what appeared to be completely normal-looking brownies. I have some confidence based on my experience with Splenda-based baked goods that the brownies in her picture were not the ones you'd see if you used the recipe she detailed. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'd get a piece of brown rain boot material if you followed that recipe.

I found this recipe on Recipe Zaar. It's supposed to be a clone of a box mix of low fat brownies called "No Pudge". I have no access to such treats since I'm living in Japan, but I had read positive reviews of this brand's "No Pudge Fudge" before. Getting back to the recipe though, it has a lot of variations listed by readers and the author. You can include egg whites, or not. You can include wheat gluten, or not. The egg white version is supposed to be more cake-like, so I opted to leave them out. Wheat gluten is supposed to make them rise a bit better. Here is the recipe that I tried:

• 1/2 tsp. vital wheat gluten
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup plain, low-fat yogurt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the yogurt and vanilla extract then stir until just blended. Don't mix it anymore than necessary. Spread in a greased 8" x 8" pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Centigrade) for 25 minutes. I used a glass dish, so your baking time may vary. Don't overbake it because it may kill the fudge-like texture.


These brownies look exactly like the picture of them on Recipe Zaar. They aren't, however, indistinguishable from normal brownies as many reviewers say in the comments on Recipe Zaar. They definitely are different from the real thing in terms of taste and texture. They are fudge-like and have a pretty good chocolate flavor. They're more like moist cake though than a brownie. The top does not get crispy or crackly like real brownies. Unsurprisingly, they also taste different. They don't taste bad, but have an unusual taste because of the yogurt.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these are lower calorie than normal brownies, but they aren't low calorie. If you cut these into 16 servings, each is a small portion for 80 calories each. You have to ask yourself if the pleasure you get from these is worth it when you can have other small treats for the same number of calories. I think these would be best used for someone who has dietary concerns related to fat and cholesterol consumption rather than as a lower calorie replacement for brownies or chocolate treats. Frankly, I get more pleasure out of a 100-calorie pack of York wafer bars than I get out of an 80-calorie brownie made with yogurt.

I tried these both alone and as part of a reduced calorie brownie sundae (with reduced calorie vanilla ice cream). They remind me a lot of a type of low-fat cookie that my husband I used to buy many years ago made by a company called "Heaven Scent". Those cookies are no longer made by that company. I'm guessing that they discontinued their low fat cookie options when that fad died off. I have a sense that one could make a cookie out of these by reducing the amount of yogurt or adding in an egg and more flour. They definitely taste fine, but are not really a brownie.

Update: I served 5 of these at a get-together with a few former coworkers and they both seemed to really enjoy them. I was told they didn't really taste low fat or "healthy". I ate one of them and my guests consumed the other four, so I think these are possibly even better if you serve them to people who don't know what sort of fakery is going on. I also felt they were better the next day than the first day.

by Shari (Orchid64)