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Cheesecake, Basic (D, TNT)
Source: From my mother with love & more. My friend Meira Milo - Channa
Serves: 16

2-1/2 packages soft cream cheese -- 5 [about 8 oz. each]
4 tbsp. vanilla instant pudding mix/try lemon
3 tbsp. cornflour [Archivist's Note: cornflour is the British for cornstarch]
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 cup sour cream

Topping:
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 package vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 tbsp. grated lemon
1/4 cup milk

Beat egg white with 1/4 cup of sugar, until it hold its peaks. By hand blend all other ingredients, but the topping. Blend gently the egg whites with the cheese.

Spoon the cheese batter into a 26cm [about 10"] springform baking pan and bake for 60 minutes in pre-heated 325°F hot oven. Leave cake in oven with the door slightly open for another 15 minutes, cool. Keep in fridge. Prepare the topping only after the cake is 1 day in the fridge.

Topping:
Beat together the last 5 ingredients until well blended. put on top of cake. Keep it in the fridge until you serve.

Poster's Notes:
This cheese is for keeps. You taste it once, you can't stop. Try it and you will find out that I am right.

Raya Tarab, Z'L wrote: In Israel cheesecakes are made from what is called "white cheese" which is either 1/2 or 5 or 9%. It is much more wet than in the US and called here sometimes cream cheese because "they are creamy". If you were to use the recipe I would use either sour cream or mixture of sour cream and Philly - since it will be very hard to achieve the exact texture of the Israeli wet white cheese. Philly is marked at least here 30% but we do have here whipped low-fat Philly. I suggest you try once the cheese cake with the wet cheese - it is certainly lighter than the traditional American cheese cake.

Maxine in RI asked: Could drained yoghurt be used? There are a couple of fairly available brands that are whole milk, or about 4% fat.

One of the closest things to the Israeli white cheese is indeed Maxine's suggestion. Here goes:
Drain very very well in gauze (frankly, I use a fabric diaper that I bought especially for this purpose) either yoghurt, or buttermilk (in Israel it is almost always 3%) or a mixture. The taste would of course depend on if you took sour buttermilk, or yoghurt, or sour cream, or sweet buttermilk (= Eshel). What I do - I hang the diaper with 2 containers inside on the tap, over the sink, before I go to bed. In the morning I have inside a very close thing to the cheese.
Add salt to have a spread.
Add za'atar and olive oil (and use only yoghurt) to have labaneh.
Etc.

Posted by Rina Perry

Nutritional Info Per Serving: 157 calories