Does anybody have a recipe for cheesecake ..BUT with an alternative for cream cheese?

Question

Since cream cheese is so expensive in India what alternative can i use, without truly comprising taste??? HELP PLEASE !!!

Answer 1

I have made a cheesecake before that uses cottage cheese instead of creamcheese...and its acctually REALLY GOOD. It's obviously not exactly indentical to the regular cheesecake but its still delicious and much lighter...here is the recipe I used

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups cottage cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Melt butter in an 8 inch square pan. Stir in graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Pat over bottom and onto sides of dish. Set aside.
In a blender, combine cottage cheese, milk, eggs, flour, lemon juice, vanilla, 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Blend until smooth. Pour into prepared crust.
Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until filling is firm. Allow to cool completely.

Answer 2

Substituting anything for cream cheese, which is the main ingredient of the type of cheese cake that you are talking about, is certain to give you a different taste. As some people have noted, cheese cakes can also be made with other types of cheese, such as ricotta, mascarpone, cottage cheese etc. These are also very good, but are different, just as many milk based Indian sweets are delicious but are different desserts than cheese cake. As I live in the United States, I am not sure about the relative prices of various ingredients in India (here in the United States cream cheese is relatively inexpensive compared to mascarpone and even yogurt). In the U.S. the main reason for trying to find a substitute for cream cheese is that it is high in fat, so people often try to find a more healthy substitute that will still taste good. Ricotta and cottage cheese are definitely healthier than cream cheese. Another such substitute for cream cheese is yogurt that has been filtered through a coffee filter or perhaps several layers of cheese cloth for a day or so. When much of the water has drained out, what remains has a texture very much like cream cheese although the "yogurty" taste still remains. This product could be used in a cheese cake recipe, and although the taste is different it is still delicious, especially when the cheesecake has fruit as well. Perhaps adding sour cream (which is often added to the best cream cheese based cheese cake recipes anyway) would make the result taste closer to the original.
Another idea since your desire for a cream cheese substitute was based more on economy rather than on health is to try making your own. Here is a link to a purported home made cream cheese recipe, although I have not tried it so I'm not sure whether this product would be closer to commercial cream cheese or to the "yogurt cheese" described above:
http://mixes.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/75/Homemade-Cream-Cheese76184.shtml
(The recipe begins almost like a recipe for making yogurt except that buttermilk is used for the culture rather than yogurt and ends kind of like the yogurt cheese recipe).

Answer 3

Use mascarpone cheese or ricotta. Or, don't make a cheesecake. If you are making a cheesecake, you need cream cheese! It's like trying to make a hard-boiled egg without an egg; you just can't.

For recipe ideas (mascarpone or ricotta cheesecakes) here are a few:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108848

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/13110

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/235611

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/102594

P.S. You live in India--why on earth would you make a cheesecake with all those delicious milk sweets around?? (My favorite is Pala Kova, also called Doodh Peda--I bring it up because it resembles cheesecake but tastes 500 times better!) I guess we crave what we can't have.

Answer 4

Cheddar cheese cake
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup cubed Cheddar cheese
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the Cheddar cheese. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternating with the milk until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Answer 5

Try using cream cheese like a half a block melted in a regular cake mix. Sorry but cream cheese is the only thing I know of for cheese cake.

Answer 6

I am not sure exactly what type of cheese cake you are looking for, but I have attached a website below to view. After a quick search on it i found a Cheddar cheese cake, Ricotta Cheese Cake, Avocado Cheese Cake, & a Mock Cheese Cake Pie. I am sure that there are plenty more. (You can either put these names directly in the search, or do an overall search for cheese cake.)

Answer 7

Sure--I know several.
(1)
1-1/2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
4 cups mrscapone or Neufchatel
2 tsp. vanilla, divided
1 container (16 oz.) BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream, divided
4 eggs
2 cups strawberries, sliced

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Mix crumbs, butter and 2 Tbsp. of the sugar; press firmly onto bottom of prepared pan.
BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup of the remaining sugar and 1 tsp. of the vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add 1 cup of the sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Mix remaining sour cream, 2 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla until well blended; carefully spread over cheesecake. Bake an additional 10 min. Cool. Cover; refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Lift cheesecake from pan, using foil handles. Top with strawberries just before serving. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

(2)
Purchase & prepare Jello Cheesecake Flavored Pudding. Prepare a graham cracker crust & fill with pudding. Top with fruit, if desired.
Graham-cracker Crust:
1 1/2 cups (5 ounces) finely ground graham crackers
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt

Stir together crust ingredients and press into bottom and 1-inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.

Answer 8

You won't get the texture you're looking for using low fat or non fat cream cheese or substitutes. Cooks Illustrated tested every kind of cream cheese in all kinds of combinations and found nothing worked as well as regular full fat cheesecake. If it's the texture you're after, go full fat or you'll end up with something rubbery and unsatisfying.

Answer 9

Here's a couple different recipes that I have tried. (Both courtesy of The Food Network)

Gelatin Cheesecake

1 (12-ounce) container low-fat (1 percent) cottage cheese
2 (0.3-ounce) boxes sugar free strawberry gelatin, plus 1 box (recommended: Jell-O)
1 ready-made light graham cracker crust
1 pint fresh strawberries, plus extra for garnish
1 (8-ounce) container frozen light whipped topping, thawed

Put cottage cheese in a blender. Make 2 boxes of the gelatin, using 1 cup of hot and 1 cup of cold water. At once, before it jells, add to cottage cheese. Blend until smooth. Pour into crust and refrigerate until set. Cut up fruit and place on top of pie. Make remaining package of gelatin as per instructions on box. Pour it on top of fruit and put it in refrigerator until set. Put whipped topping on top. Garnish with more fruit.



Ricotta Cheesecake

This no-crust cheesecake has a light texture and rich, eggy flavor. It will rise like a souffli in the oven and then fall during the last 10 minutes or so of baking. To save time, I utilize both the food processor and the electric mixer--a little extra cleanup, but I'm able to whip the egg whites and mix the batter without washing and drying the bowl of my mixer during preparation.


6 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Two 15-ounce containers whole-milk ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray the springform pan with cooking spray. Separate the eggs, placing the whites in one of the large bowls and the yolks in the work bowl of a food processor.
Add the sugar and vanilla to the work bowl of the food processor and process until thick and light yellow, about 1 minute. Add the ricotta and zest and process until smooth, another 30 seconds. Scrape the mixture into the other large bowl.

Beat the whites on high speed with the mixer until they hold stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the ricotta mixture and scrape into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula.

Bake until the cake is deep golden brown and the sides begin to pull away from the pan, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Transfer to the rack to let cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving, at least 6 hours and up to 1 day. To serve, release the sides of the springform pan, dust with confectioners' sugar using the strainer, and cut into wedges.

Answer 10

I didnt know that we actually get ''cream cheese'' in india.
Pls tell me where to find it. thanx.
I think u cd substiture ''Paneer'' But the taste might not be the same.
For the receipe, go to google and type receipes,cheesecake & u will be flooded with a no. of receipes .
Happy cooking !!!!!!!!! HAppy Holi !!!!!!!!!