Silken Tofu Cheese Cake - Guit Free

First time I tried cheese cake with tofu as main ingredient. I was in big doubt how its going to turn out. But I am delightfully surprised with its sweet elegant taste. I am so happy. This cake is for my blogs 3 yrs of completion. Cheers.

Time: Preparation: 15 minutes + Baking: 1hr + cooling: few hrs
Serve: 8" cheese cake


Ingredients:

For Cake Base:
1 cup graham cracker(finely crushed)(I used Parle-G biscuits)
1/4 cup sugar(skip it if using Parle-G or any other sweet biscuits)
1/4 cup butter(melted)

For Cake filling:
10 oz tofu(I used silken)
6 oz fat free cream cheese 
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar(add 2-3 tbsp to make little more sweet)
2 eggs
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp all purpose flour




Method:

For cake Base:

1. In zip lock bag take parle-g buscuits/graham cracker. Using rolling pin crush 
into fine powder.

2. Melt butter and combine well with crushed biscuit and sugar(if using).

3. Preheat oven on 350F. 

4. Grease cake/ springform pan with butter and add crushed biscuit/crumbs . Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the cake pan.

5. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Keep aside.

For Cake filling:

1. Soften cream cheese to room temperature (you may warm it a bit inside a microwave oven) and mix with sugar using electric mixer.

2. Once the cheese and sugar mixture has become smooth, add cornstarch, flour, and milk or heavy cream and tofu by crushing it between your palms. Again whisk to get smooth mixture and avoid any lumps.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (about 30 seconds) after each addition.Scrape down the sides of the bowl until you obtain a smooth mixture.

4. Add lemon juice, vanilla extract  and beat until all incorporated well. 

5. Pour this filling on baked crust. Cover the bottom of the pan with aluminium foil to prevent water going inside. Place in water bath(see note2)(helps prevent the surface from cracking as it bake). 

6. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hr on 350F or until firm and only the center of the cheesecake looks a little wet and wobbly. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack.



7.  Remove from oven and carefully run a knife or spatula around the inside edge of pan to loosen the cheesecake (helps prevent the surface from cracking as it cools). 

8. Let cool completely before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate several hours,preferably overnight.

9. Spread the topping or Fruit or liquid chocolate as I did and relish guild free tofu cheesecake.

Note:
1. Typically springform pan are used in making cheese cake but I used regular aluminum cake pan.
2. If you are using springform cake then use these precautions - Even the best quality springform pans can leak water when placed into a water bath. To ensure that the crust does not get waterlogged, wrap aluminum foil around the base of the springform pan to ensure a watertight cheesecake. - Make sure that you do not overfill the water bath so that it will overflow when you place the cheesecake in.

Water bath -

3. I recommend buy silken tofu for cheese cake as it make process lot easy to make smooth cake mixture.