Ok, the name for this probably sounds a little bit like an oxymoron. But stay with me here, will you? Cheesecake is normally super rich, creamy, heavy, and full of fat and calories, right? Well this cheesecake is still creamy and rich, but not full of all the fat and calories. And because we saved some calories with the cheesecake, we can afford to add in a few peanut butter cups.
Over the summer we had some friends visit. Against all of my better instincts, I didn’t make dessert. We were going to be gone most of the days they were here, so it seemed like it might go to waste. The day before they left, David made a comment about craving some cheesecake. I told him he should have said something earlier, because I would have had it ready for him the day he arrived! He felt guilty about “requesting” something when he was staying at our house. So a message out there to anyone who visits us (except for you, Dad. I know you want brownies), you can request a dessert. I will happily make it for you! Forget about manners, I will drop everything to bake.
The next day our friends spent the day being tourists before they had to leave. I spent the day making cheesecake. Pretty sure you guessed that by now. To make this cheesecake on the skinny side I used fat free cottage cheese for some of the cream cheese. The texture is slightly different than a New York style cheesecake, but still creamy and all the flavor you would normally expect. The graham cracker crust doesn’t have all the butter it normally does either, so you have really cut down on a lot of the calories. You can fold in your favorite candy of choice, but for David (and me) that would be peanut butter cups!
- 2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 2 cups fat free cottage cheese
- 1 (8oz) package light cream cheese
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup fat free sour cream
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup peanut butter cups , chopped
- Chocolate sauce , optional
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a 9 inch baking pan with foil, and spray with nonstick spray.
- Press the graham cracker crumbs into the pan.
- Add cottage cheese and cream cheese to a food processor. Process until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, sugar, sour cream, flour, vanilla, egg, and egg whites. Pulse until just blended. Fold in 3/4 cup of chopped peanut butter cups.
- Pour over graham cracker crumbs.
- Bake for 1 hour or until almost set on top. Turn off the oven, and let cheesecake set in there for 1 hour with the door closed. Remove from the oven and cool.
- Cover and chill for about 8 hours in the fridge.
- To serve garnish with the remaining peanut butter cups, and chocolate sauce if desired.
Adapted from Cooking Light
Erin S
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Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
September 30, 2013 at 9:05 amWell hello there gorgeous! This looks insaaaaaanely good!
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
September 30, 2013 at 9:27 amSkinny cheesecake sounds perfect to me, love the PB cups!
Christina says
September 30, 2013 at 11:03 amThis is my kind of dessert! I love a fancy trashed up cheesecake.
Jean says
September 30, 2013 at 7:46 pmI love it! I’d also rather get a request than have friends or family be too shy to ask me to make something. Love this cheesecake!
Sandra | Sandra's Easy Cooking says
September 30, 2013 at 8:18 pmDelicious!!!! I could just dive in that cheesecake!
Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen says
September 30, 2013 at 11:27 pmCheesecake and peanut butter cups are so good together!!
Alida says
October 1, 2013 at 4:53 amThis looks wonderful! Peanut butter cups are my candy if choice as well. 🙂
Shawn @ IWYD says
October 1, 2013 at 7:53 amThis looks totally awesome, and I had to do a double take at the name of the recipe and the picture. I love sinful looking desserts that are also SKINNY!!! YAY!!
Crystal says
October 1, 2013 at 9:12 amMy daughter and I have been craving cheesecake, but we are trying to watch our calories/food intake. This is perfect. A little treat, but a much healthier version. I never thought of using cottage cheese!! Thanks for the recipe!! Can’t wait to try it 🙂
Jocelyn @BruCrew Life says
October 1, 2013 at 2:00 pmWhy hello there good looking!!! I love that you subbed cottage cheese to make it more waist friendly! And peanut butter cups are always my choice of candy too!!!
Diane {Created by Diane} says
October 1, 2013 at 6:26 pmwhat a DELICIOUS combination!
Lisa {AuthenticSuburbanGourmet} says
October 1, 2013 at 7:57 pmWhat a tasty treat! Love that there is a skinny component in it – that makes that extra bite even that much better!
Stephanie @ Macaroni and Cheesecake says
October 2, 2013 at 3:22 pmThis looks so decadent and creamy! I love that it’s lightened up too!
Suzanne says
October 2, 2013 at 11:34 pmSounds good and you would never know by looking at this beauty that it’s on the skinny side at all. I can’t wait to be invited to your house because I would not hesitate to ask for this!
Jessica S. @ Floptimism says
October 5, 2013 at 11:56 amI’m usually pretty skeptical of “skinny” desserts because so often they use really processed ingredients to keep the calories down…but I’m really loving this recipe! I actually featured it on my blog’s Weekend Wrap-Up today, and hope you’ll stop by to check it out. Thanks for a fantastic post, and enjoy your weekend!
http://www.floptimism.com/2013/10/weekend-wrap-up-self-love.html
Jennifer @ Not Your Momma's Cookie says
October 6, 2013 at 12:50 pmOh man! Once this little lady is evicted, I HAVE to try this!!
Mary Canaday Gray says
October 7, 2013 at 5:52 pmDo you have the nutritional stats that go with this? Calories? Fat? Carbs?? Much appreciated!!
Erin S says
October 7, 2013 at 6:20 pmHere is the original recipe – I only changed out the candy, so it should be close to accurate
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/snickers-cheesecake-10000000223607/