Low-fat orange cheesecake

I am terribly guilty of disregarding the fat content of my food! I tend to throw caution to the wind, especially when it comes to using cream, sugar and butter in my desserts. That’s why I’ve decided to make a low-fat dessert for a change, making sure that there will be no compromise on the flavour.

I came up with this low-fat no-bake orange cheesecake, made with low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat milk, orange juice and gelatin. For those who are also watching their sugar intake, you can use Canderel Yellow (for baking) instead of regular sugar to sweeten the filling. I’ve kept the Tennis biscuit & butter base as for a regular cheesecake, but I have to say that you can leave it out completely as this filling really holds it’s shape beautifully without the need of a base.

Guilt-free cheesecake? Believe it. 🙂

Ingredients for base: (optional)

• 200 g Tennis biscuits (coconut biscuits), processed to crumbs
• 80 g butter, melted

Ingredients for filling:

• (3 t) 15 ml gelatin powder
• 100 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) Canderel Yellow or sugar
• peeled rind of half an orange
• 250 g low-fat smooth cottage cheese
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) low-fat milk
• grated orange rind for decoration

Method:

1. Mix Tennis biscuit crumbs with melted butter, then pour into a loose bottom tart tin. Press down and into the corners to smooth it out evenly. Set aside.
2. Stir the gelatin powder with half of the orange juice (15 ml) and leave for 5 minutes to sponge.
3. Heat the other half of the orange juice and peeled rind with the lemon juice on medium heat, adding the sugar and stirring until dissolved. When it just reaches boiling point, remove from heat and stir in sponged gelatin. Stir for a minute until dissolved. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. In a mixing bowl, add the cottage cheese and milk, then whisk for a minute until smooth. Now remove the rind from orange juice mixture, add warm liquid to the cheese mixture (it’s OK if it’s still warm) and whisk for another minute until smooth.
5. Pour filling into base, then refrigerate for about 2 hours. Remove from fridge, decorate with grated orange rind and serve cold or at room temperature.

Note: This cheesecake holds it’s shape very well at room temperature.