Holiday Special: Pumpkin Cheesecake

This cheesecake is ethereal and light due to being made in a blender and using nonfat ingredients. It's extremely guilt-free for the holidays and any other time you want some cheesecake. Remember to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. This will (hopefully) keep the cheesecake from cracking and also make blending the ingredients together easier. This recipe was made for a 10-inch springform pan so if you only have a 9-inch pan, like I do, you have some excess. Fill it as full as you can.


Ingredients
½ cup ginger cookie crumbles
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups nonfat cottage cheese
1 – 8oz. package fat free cream cheese
1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1¼ cups sugar or Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 – 15oz. can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 275°F. Prepare a 9-inch (or 10-inch) springform pan by placing a sheet of parchment paper in the bottom and spraying the bottom and sides with canola oil. Combine crumbled cookies and canola oil and press into the springform pan. In a blender, blend cottage cheese until smooth. Add the cream cheese, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, pumpkin, and spices and beat until smooth. Blend in the whole eggs, one at a time. In a large separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold them into the batter and pour the whole lot (or as much as you can) into the pan.

Bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside for another hour. Remove and cool completely. Transfer to the fridge and cool overnight.