The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. The instructions also said to get creative, so I tried to make this dessert pretty and memorable, which is was.

I was excited about a cheesecake challenge, because it is not something I make often. I had another challenge though, and that was to make it a bit more figure friendly. Summer is almost here afterall!

This past Sunday I found a Williams-Sonoma gift card. I stopped by the store and checked the balance and it had 88$ bucks on it! Score! I picked up some Madagascar Vanilla Bean Paste, a Madeline baking tray, a mini cheesecake baking tray and some other goodies.

I knew I wanted to use the vanilla in the cheesecake, and I also had some ripe bananas on hand so I decided to add both to the cake for a banana cream pie taste. My finished product was a Banana Cream Tofu Cheesecake with a Reduced Fat Honey Graham Cracker Crust drizzled with a Brown Sugar Butter Sauce.

Banana Cream Tofu Cheesecake
(yield: 1 springform pan or 3 tarts)

1 lb. soft tufu
1 lb. reduced fat cream cheese
1 banana, sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 T brown sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 t Madagascar vanilla bean paste
3 eggs + 3 egg whites

1. Beat tofu until smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat together until smooth.
2. Add the banana, sugar, brown sugar, flour and vanilla. Beat together until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, waiting until each one is fully incorporated.
4. Pour mixture into a springform pan on a par-baked graham cracker crust (recipe below).
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 2/3 cup graham cracker crust (I used Reduced Fat – Honey)
1/4 cup sugar
1 t honey
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.
2. Press mixture into the sides and bottom of a well greased 9in springform pan. (I used a tart pan which worked perfectly fine).
3. Preheat oven to 350 and bake crust for 7 – 9 minutes, cool before using.

Simple Brown Sugar – Sauce

6 T butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 T cream

1. Whisk the brown sugar and butter over heat until melted and smooth. When it starts to caramelize take away from the heat and whisk in cream.

The cheesecake was so delicious and so light. It was smooth and tasted like banana pudding. The crust had a nice crunch. Everyone who tried it couldn’t believe it was half tofu. I am glad I became a Daring Baker, or else I would have never had to make cheesecake and I wouldn’t have such a great recipe to add to my collection!