Happy Healthy Valentine - Yoghurt cheesecake with Pomegrante Cranberry Compote and Ragi Biscuit Base

Happy Healthy Valentines - Yoghurt cheesecake with Pomegranate Cranberry Compote

   It is Valentines day on Sunday..Sunday being a busy day for other reasons, I decided to celebrate the emotion of love a little earlier..Going back to this year's resolution to make things healthy, the bake had to be good not only in taste but bring some nutritional benefit to the consumer. With very limited stuff available in my pantry, I had a tough time planning my recipe. But once decided, it was a breeze to make it. It is absolutely divine in taste and importantly pretty healthy too.

Everyone associates cheesecakes with cream, cheese, butter, gelatin and everything heavy and costly. This recipe is everything opposite, super light, yummy ,and very economical. And there is nothing cheesy about it...honsestly:)
Earlier in the week, I had a failed experiment with chocolate Ragi biscuits.
I thought I had done a fine job but the family thought it was too dry in texture and no one asked for a second one.My perspective was that it is difficult to shift one's palate to healthy choices after years of sugar laden maida biscuit consumption.Anyhow the biscuits were lying in the cookie jar, staring sadly  from the top shelf in the kitchen, when an inspiration kicked in.
I have used these ragi chocolate biscuits as the base for my cheesecake. I crushed them in the food processor and added two tablespoons of milk to get the powder together...softened butter is the conventional route but a fat one too..hence I chose to add milk..You can choose biscuits of your choice..digestive oats biscuits would be great too.

For the main cheesecake I used hung curd. I had prepared hung curd for a salad dressing but used it here instead.Again you can use the traditional route for making hung curd by tying up the curds in a muslin cloth and waiting for the water to drip away.I use store bought curd, so I just pricked some holes in the aluminium foil cover of the yoghurt box and kept it inverted over a mug in the fridge for a night.Which ever way you use to make hung curd, make sure the residue curd should not have any water and should be very thick in consistency.

The Pomegrate and cranberry compote gives a sweet and sour punch to the creamy cheesecake. A dash of chilli gives the required extra heat and balances the sweetness of the dish very well. The rich crimson color of the compote not only adorns the dish ,it is also very good for your heart...Bake away...love

 

Ingredients

 for the base

· 20-25 Ragi biscuits
. 2-3 tsp of milk

for the cheesecake
. 2 cups hung curd
. 2 eggs
. 1/2 cup sugar
. 1 tsp vanilla custard powder/plain cornflour
. 1 tsp vanilla extract
. a pinch of salt
for the Compote
. 2 cups of fresh pomegranate juice
. 2 tsp of sugar
. 1/4 dries cranberries chopped
. 1 tsp cornflour
. A dash of chilli flakes

Instructions

1.Take a cheesecake mould with a loose bottom. Crush the biscuits in the mixer and add the milk. Mix it well and press it in the cake mould.Place the mould in the refrigerator till further use.
2. Blend the hung curd, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract together in a food processor or mixie.Add custard powder/corn flour and salt and blend again. Pour this mixture over the earlier prepared biscuit base and bake in a preheated oven for half an hour at 180 degrees. After half an hour the cheesecake would have set and maybe the centre is still jiggly. Don't worry and leave this in fridge for 2to 3 hours.
3. For the compote, heat the pomegranate juice, sugar and chopped cranberries in a pan. In the meanwhile, mix one tablespoon of cornflour with one tablespoon of water. Add this mix to the juice when it starts boiling.Add red chilli flakes and keep stirring. Very soon the sauce will thicken and you can take it off the heat now. Cool this sauce before using.