Low-Fat Cheesecake versus Regular (Fatty) Cheesecake: An Experiment

For the 2011 holidays, my friends requested that my next baking project be a cheesecake. But not everyone likes the idea of a low or non-fat cheesecake. I have friends that love the taste of fat, so to speak, in certain foods. In my baking projects, though, my challenge is always to see how popular baked goodies can be made healthier.

So the roundabout question is...

Can cheesecake be made low in fat?

I decided to bake a tester cheesecake, low in fat using all the same recipe ingredients except using non or low fat versions of those ingredients (which were cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter, and [for the crust] graham crackers).

First Homemade Low-Fat Cheesecake

My coworkers and friends taste-tested my first homemade low-fat cheesecake, and it was successfully liked as they could not tell it was low in fat. Even the person who gave me the recipe (who is also a great baker himself as he is a descendant of a well-known baker who owned Anderson's Bakery back in the olden days) really liked the cheesecake and had nothing bad to say about it. This was a good sign!

Then came the "game day" - I had planned on baking both the low-fat and regular full-fat versions of the cheesecake using the recipe I had and offer it at my friend's infamous holiday party to determine if anyone could tell which was low-fat and which was a regular full-fat cheesecake. The results are in:

• All attendees enjoyed both versions of the cheesecake and could not tell the difference between the two versions
• Three attendees who are known for "loving the taste of fat" enjoyed the low-fat version and guessed incorrectly as to which cheesecake version was which
• Only one out of the 23 attendees guessed correctly but commented that he could not really tell but is just guessing

 So perhaps it is possible to bake a healthier cheesecake that can be enjoyed by everyone =)