[Phillygirl2]

This takes some prep the day before, converting the yogurt into yogurt cheese.

Preparing the Yogurt cheese the day before:

Two 32 oz. cartons plain nonfat yogurt

The day before, line a larger strainer with cheesecloth or coffee filters, place over large bowl, and pour in yogurt. Let drain in refrigerator at least 24 hours - I let mine drain two days, just because I didn't have time to make the cake that day. Drain the liquid a couple times, especially in the first few hours. I found that my strainer was sitting right on top of the drained liquid. You will end up with a cream cheese-like textured yogurt cheese. (Yeah, hubby will beatch that it's taking up all the room in the frig, but tell him to just get over it!)

Prepare pan:

Right before mixing up the filling, spray a springform pan with Pam, and dust it with crumbled cookies like you would with flour in a regular cake. Since this is really just a dusting, I can't figure out the points. I used some chocolate tea biscuits I found in the kosher section, that only had one gram of fat. The original recipe called for a 6-1/4 oz. box of Health Valley Fat-Free Date Delight Cookies, but I couldn't find them. You also only really need to coat the bottom half of the pan as the cheesecake doesn't rise to the top.

Filling:
Yogurt cheese prepared as above
1 cup honey
2 tsp vanilla
5 tablespoons of arrowroot (this is in the spice section, it's a thickener. I am learning new things everyday!)
5 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Beat yogurt cheese, honey, vanilla, arrowroot and egg whites until thoroughly blended with mixer
3. Pour filling into crumb lined pan.
4. Bake at 300 degrees for 60-75 minutes, until center is set and surface is lightly browned.
6. Remove from oven, cool to room temperature, refrigerate for several hours until thoroughly chilled.

Yield: 12 servings, at 4 pts each, or 8 servings at 6 pts each.

Nutrition Info per 1/12 serving:
Calories: 214
Fat: .3 grams
% of Calories from Fat: 1%
Cholesterol: 2.7 mgs.
Sodium: 156 mgs.
Dietary fiber: 1.3 grams (I'm not sure where this comes from -- the cookie crumbs?)

I made this for the first time yesterday, and got a cheesecake with dense texture, and a mild, honey-like flavor. It's not as cheesy-tasting as I'd like, but it is tasty and less than half the calories of regular cheesecake. And it counts as a dairy. I'll take it.