Carson High culinary student creates low-fat cheesecake recipe

At the end of November, students from Carson High competed for top places in the Carson High Dairy Recipe Contest. Students in Penny Reynolds' culinary classes made their dairy product recipes at home and brought them in for a panel of five judges to taste and evaluate.

The judges, all members of the Carson Area Coalition on Obesity, spent two hours tasting, reading recipes and listening to students tell about how they concocted their creations.

Rachel Neitzke won first place in the 12th-grade low-fat cheese category. Here is her Pumpkin Low-Fat Cheesecake.

Pumpkin Low-Fat Cheesecake

Graham cracker crust:

1 cup of graham crackers or vanilla cookie crumbs

1 T cinnamon

1 cup of margarine melted

Filling:

1 pound low-fat cottage cheese (1 percent fat)

1 pound low-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 eggs, plus 4 egg whites or 1 cup of egg beaters

1 T vanilla extract

Topping:

Pumpkin pie purée

1 cup of nonfat sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare crust: Mix crumbs and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the margarine and stir. Press evenly into the bottom and up about 1-inch in a 9-inch spring-form pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Let the crust cool.

Prepare the filling. Purée the cottage cheese in the food processor, scraping down the sides. This will take about 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and purée until smooth. Add the sugar and purée again. Add the eggs, egg whites and vanilla; continue to purée until smooth. Pour the mixture into the crust. Tap the pan a few times on the counter to knock out any bubbles.

Bake the cheesecake for about 45 minutes. The top should lightly start to brown. Remove it from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees.

While it is baking, in a large mixing bowl, prepare the topping. Stir the sour cream and pumpkin together. Spoon the topping evenly over the cake. Return cake to the oven and bake for 7 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Remove sides of spring-form pan just before serving.