Blueberry Labneh Cheesecake

I used homemade Labneh in a cheesecake instead of cream cheese & it was delicious!

Replacing the cream cheese in the cheesecake worked out really well. I worked out the calories on an online site for the same recipe with cream cheese & then using the Labneh…. there was a big difference…the one with the Labneh was a lot less calories. I am not posting the calorie count because I am not sure how accurate it was and I would not want anyone actually using that information!

One thing about making the cheesecake with Labneh instead of cream cheese in the mixer is that it mixes up really smooth, sometimes I find that there a little lumps of cream cheese in the filling mixture… unless I use the food processor..

The consistency of the cheesecake was good, the flavour was good… so …. it was a win! I made the Labneh the day before I wanted to make the cheesecake using this recipe, Labneh doubling the recipe to make sure I had enough Labneh for the cheesecake & extra to eat on toast!

Using a recipe from myjewishlearning.com as a guide for the method & baking time.. I came up with this recipe

Here it is !

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups graham crumb

1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

6 eggs

2 cups Labneh, homemade or bought

500 g plain greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 cup of blueberries, I used fresh

Topping

blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 300f

1 9 inch springform pan

Crust

1. Mix the graham wafer crumbs with the melted butter
2. Put the crumb mixture into the bottom of the springform pan. Givethe pan a shake to distribute the crumbs evenly in the bottom of the pan..then press them firmly using your hands or the bottom of a glass… Set aside

Filling

1. Separate the eggs. Put the whites into the bowl of your mixer & set the yokes aside
2. Using the whisk attachment on your mixer…beat the egg whites until stiff them very gently, put them into a bowl & set aside, trying not to inflate them
3. Change the attachment on the mixer to the paddle one.. & put the bowl back on to the machine.. no need to wash it
4. Beat the egg yolks, Labneh, yogurt, vanilla, sugar & flour together until smooth
5. Gently fold the reserved beaten egg whites into the Labneh mixture…
6. Now mix in the blueberries.. really gently!
7. Pour this into the prepared crumb crust
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off & let the cheesecake stay in there .. then open the oven door a bit.. I put an oven mitt in the side of the oven door so it stays ajar.. then let the cheesecake sit in there another 30 minutes. This cools the cheesecake gently & Norene Gilletz told me that it helps eliminate cracks in the top.
9. Remove from the oven & cool a bit, then put in the refrigerator to cool completely before serving
10. I topped this cheesecake with fresh blueberries, but you can use canned pie filling if you like that… I love the cherry pie filling.. or other fresh berries if you want!

Enjoy!