cherry vanilla cheesecake

Happy Fall!

Happy October first!

Do you have any special plans or traditions once it's October--not including Halloween, because that gets it's own discussion! ;)

Fall time means cooler temperatures--a most welcome event for 100+ degree weather here in Arizona! I love being outside, taking evening or morning walks around my neighborhood, and seeing the leaves slowly turn autumnal colors. and who could forgot pumpkin stuff?---oh that's another separate post of celebrating!

With cooler temps, means I get to bake more often(because it heats up the house)...YAY! I LOVE baking things from scratch for my house people (nurses/caregivers) family and neighbors!

I have a yummy recipe for you today. I made this cheesecake a few days ago. I never in my life used yogurt before in a cheesecake!

I adapted it from Joey's Cheesecake by Jennifer, on Allrecipes.com, however, since we couldn't find cherry-vanilla yogurt, I mixed a little light vanilla yogurt with a full 6oz. cup of light cherry yogurt, with the total amount of yogurt being around 8oz. I also added more vanilla.

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
• 2 (8 ounce) packages lowfat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar (next time i'm using splenda)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract ( used 1 teaspoon)
• 2 eggs
• 1 (8 ounce) container blueberry flavored yogurt (see notes above)

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)
2. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in yogurt. Pour filling into crust.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until filling is set. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. (the cheesecake needed baking for about an hour). I kept adding  3-5 more minutes of baking time after the 35 minutes was up. I recommend to just keep checking to make sure it doesn't burn. I baked it til the outer edges were turning golden brown and the middle wasn't as jiggly. refrigerated overnight and ate the next night...perfect!!

whatever flavor of yogurt you choose will be the flavor of the cheesecake. next week, I am making this cheesecake again for another one of my caregiver's birthdays, but with lemon flavored yogurt--yum!! Maybe i'll even add some lemon juice!

This recipe was so easy to make, I highly recommend!