“Cheesy” Celebrations

As soon as summer hit, it infected my friends and me with the celebration craze. Birthdays, graduations, and now… MCATs!

My old roommate, a beautiful and smart lady, spent the past 6-8 months studying for her exam. She holed herself up in the library for hours each week, pouring over textbooks and clicking through online practice exams. At the end of last week, it all culminated in a grueling 4½-hour test.

Although it’ll take a little while before she receives her scores, I wanted her to celebrate keeping her textbooks shut for a few months! So I baked her a cheesecake, her 2nd all-time favorite cake (carrot cake just barely won 1st place). And when med schools send out their acceptances, she’ll definitely need to celebrate again!

Lemon Cheesecake

based on CL’s lemon cheesecake

Be sure to soften the cream cheese for a long time; if added straight out of the fridge, it takes a lot of upper arm strength to cream it! Serve plain or with a fruity sauce.

1 c. finely crushed gingersnaps, around 27-30 cookies

2 tbsp melted butter

¾ c. sugar

3 tbsp flour

3 (8 oz) packages of nonfat cream cheese, softened

1 (8 oz) package of ⅓-less fat cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 (6 oz) container of nonfat lemon yogurt

zest from 1 lemon

juice from half of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 300°, and lightly coat a 9” springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. To prepare the crust, mix together the gingersnaps and butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, and bake at 300° for 8 min. Set aside on a wire rack to cool. To prepare the filling, cream the sugar, flour, and cream cheese in a large bowl. Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the yogurt, zest, and juice. Pour the filling over the cooled crust, and bake at 300° for 1 hr 10 min. Leave the oven door shut, turn off the oven, and let the cheesecake sit inside the oven as it cools for 1 hr. Remove the cheesecake, let it cool to room temperature, and cover it before placing in the fridge to chill for at least 8 hrs before serving.