From the ACS cookbook Celebrate! Healthy Entertaining for Any Occasion

Our recipe for cheesecake blends several low-fat ingredients to create a deliciously creamy dessert. Web visitors will find directions here to adapt this basic recipe to create amaretto or strawberry flavored cheesecake … in addition to the chocolate version found in Celebrate!.

• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
• 4 ounces low-fat cream cheese
• ¼ cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Nonfat cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350º.

Coat an 8 x 8-inch pan with nonfat cooking spray. Puree in blender the yogurt, cream cheese, ricotta cheese, maple syrup, cocoa, egg whites, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. Pour in pan.

Bake cake for 50 minutes or until set and cooked. Let cool, then decorate with slices of strawberries if desired.

For any of these variations, replace the vanilla extract in the plain cheesecake recipe above with the ingredients listed below.

Chocolate Cheesecake

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon coffee liqueur or brewed coffee

Amaretto Cheesecake

• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. amaretto liqueur
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

Strawberry Cheesecake

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. strawberry extract

Makes eight slices.

Celebrate! Healthy Entertaining for Any Occasion is available online or by calling 1-800-ACS-2345.