(Low-Fat) Marble Yogurt Cheese Cake

“Cottony soft steam-baked yogurt cheese cake. A healthy & savoury treat for you & your loved ones!”

Cheese cake is almost everyone’s favourite dessert! I had my non-baked cheese cake recipe earlier on.. And learnt this baked one from a baking class recently.

The thing I liked particularly about this recipe is the almost melt-in-mouth softness. With yogurt added into the recipe, it’s not just about adding fragrance and taste, it makes the cake more mellow.

Unlike creamy cheese cake, this cottony soft and moist cake was not too sweet. I have sweet-tooth, but I don’t like my dessert to have too much sugar. And, this recipe has the perfect sweetness for me. Thanks to the right amount of sugar added and also the contribution of yogurt taste to it!

Seriously, you may not know, if you don’t try this… fragrant, soft, smooth & moist cheese cake, fresh from your oven.. For goodness sake, serve this heart warming cheese cake to your friends and family during occassions and holidays, they won’t stop talking about you, and will come back for more.. The problem is, you have to do this everytime… (chuckling).

Marbled it or having just the plain yogurt cheese cake, they both are absolutely good to taste!

Yup yup, I used low-fat yogurt and milk to trim down the extra calories here! Yeah!

Ingredients
250 grams of cream cheese, softened (I used PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese)
125 grams of plain yogurt (I used Marigold low-fat plain yogurt)
100 grams of butter, softened
50 grams of white sugar
50 grams of fresh or skimmed milk (I used low-fat skimmed milk)

30 grams of plain flour, sifted
80 grams of corn flour, sifted
4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, without any stain of yolk
100 grams of sugar
⅛ teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 tablespoon of chocolate essence or cocoa powder

Optional:
1 teaspoon of lemon or orange juice or vanilla essence to flavour

Utensil:
9″ square metal baking tin/ 10″ round baking tin
1 large deep pan, at least 12″ in diameter with 1″ in height, for steam-baking.

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 150°C for 15 – 20 minutes. Beat soft cream cheese with electrical mixer/ beater till coarsely blended. Remove from mixing bowl, and place in a large cooking pot. Add in plain yogurt, soft butter, sugar (50 grams) and milk. Boil cream cheese mixture until all ingredients melted, and leave to cool.

2) Add egg yolks to cooled cream cheese mixture and mix well with a hand whisk. Combine and sift plain flour and corn flour, before adding into the cream cheese mixture.

3) Whisk pure egg whites, sugar (100 grams) and cream of tartar in a clean and oil free mixing bowl, with electrical mixture/ beater at maximum speed, until stiff peak (light and foamy texture). To test its readiness, turn over the mixing bowl, the meringue should adhered to the upturned bowl.

4) Combine cream cheese mixture with meringue and fold well, preferably by clean bare hand (or spatula), in repeated upward circular motion until batter looks glossy.

5) Grease the sides and line the bottom of baking tin with baking sheet/ non-grease paper. Pour almost all the batter into greased baking tin. Leave just a little batter (about a bowl) to create marble design.

6) To create chocolate marble design: Add 1 tablespoon of chocolate essence/ cocoa powder into the remaining batter, and combine well. Scoop and top dark batter onto light batter in the baking tin. Place dark batter right at the centre, and scatter it with a stick or chopstick for the marbling.

7) Place baking tin over a larger deep pan filled with 1cm of hot water to perform steam baking, for about an hour on the lowest rack of oven, or until a metal skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8) Remove baking tin from oven, and cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the tin. Cut and serve warm or store in refrigerator to serve chilled.

A thick slice of steam-baked marble yogurt cheesecake counts about 250kcal. Hey! I’ve had it skinnier with low-fat yogurt and low fat milk.

Tips: Place baking tray on the lowest rack to avoid cracks on top of the cake when baked.
* To beat the egg whites successfully, eggs must be fresh, and the whites must be free from any yolk. Beat egg white in clean and oil-free mixing bowl.
* Cream of tartar: Comes in powdery form, and easily available at most supermarkets and baking supplies stores. In any case if you do not have it, substitute with corn flour.
* Chocolate marble can be replaced with coffee flavour, if desired.