Frozen Lemon Cheesecake
This is a great dessert for any time. It is refreshing and very easy to make. No special equipment, other than a blender or food processor. No ice cream maker required. The result is sweet and creamy with just enough lemony tang. We enjoyed it in class the other night. The surprise ingredient is cottage cheese.
I couldn’t really call it ice cream, so I called it a frozen cheesecake. It kind of reminded me of cheesecake. It is a combination of cottage cheese and lemon curd, with a few other ingredients. Crumbled graham crackers are stirred in before freezing. You can make it without the graham crackers, if you like. I used homemade, egg free lemon curd, but you could use a jar of store bought. The recipe for the lemon curd is below the cheesecake recipe.
So here is the recipe.
Frozen Lemon Cheesecake
1 (28 oz.) carton of cottage cheese
Sugar to taste, I used about ½ cup
1 recipe lemon curd- recipe follows, or 2 cups store bought lemon curd
2-4 T. lemon juice
1 T. vanilla extract
6-9 graham crackers, crumbled, optional
Combine first 5 ingredients in a food processor or blender until very smooth. Taste to see if you want to add more sugar or lemon juice. Pour into a 2 quart bowl and stir in the crushed crackers. Place mixture in a freezer safe container that has a lid. Affix the lid and freeze. Makes 5-6 cups.
Egg Free Lemon Curd
½ c. sugar
1½ T. cornstarch
½ c. milk, or non-dairy ”milk”
1/3 c. lemon juice, or the juice from 2 lemons
Zest from 2 lemons, about 1½ tablespoons
¼ c. oil
¼ t. turmeric, for color, optional
Place sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan and whisk together. Stir in remaining ingredients, then place over medium heat and cook, stirring continually, until mixture thickens and gets bubbly. Cook another minute or so, then remove from heat and cool down before serving. Makes about 1¼ cups. Serve with cakes, scones or cookies. Store in fridge.
Lemon Cheesecake Squares
We made these cheesecake squares in cooking class last night. It had been awhile since I had them. I forgot just how good they are. Between the crust and lemon cheesecake topping there is a layer of raspberry jam. They are just so good. As an added bonus, they are also very easy to make.
This is a slightly non-traditional cheesecake. For starters, the crust is oatmeal-based not graham cracker. This cheesecake is also not baked in a spring form pan, but in a 9×13 inch pan.
Like other cheesecakes, they can be frozen.
So here is the recipe. Enjoy!!
Lemon Cheesecake Squares
Crust
¾ c. butter
1/3 c. brown sugar
1¼ c. flour
1 c. oatmeal, old-fashioned or quick cooking
¼ t. salt
Filling
½ c. raspberry jam
2 (8oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
¾ c. sugar
2 T. flour
2 eggs
3 T. lemon juice
2 t. grated lemon peel
Heat oven to 350-degrees. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan. Beat together butter and brown sugar then stir in rest of crust ingredients. Press into bottom of prepared pan and bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Crust should be golden around the edges. Spread jam over hot crust. As the jam warms it get easier to spread. Beat cream cheese sugar and flour until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in juice and peel. Pour over jam and bake for 25 minutes, or until set. Cool then chill. Store covered in fridge. Makes 24 squares.
