Think Thin Tuesday: Peachy Guy but the [Cheese]cake is a lie!

“Dear Mario:
Please come to the castle. I’ve baked a cake for you.
Yours truly–
Princess Toadstool – Peach.”

Words that forever haunted my childhood. Super Mario for Nintendo 64 was the greatest game and I definitely spent far too many hours securing every star in the castle after the greatest caketease of all time. Oh wasted youth.

Why did I think of that today when writing up my blog post? This post is actually a convergence of a number of topics. It’s a Think Thin Tuesday, it’s my good friend Dallas’ birthday and a recipe for a Skinny Peach Cheesecake. As it turns out Cheesecake is Dallas’ favorite dessert so this all wraps up nicely in a big, pink bow. Except that the cake is a lie and Bowser is lying in wait for your tastebuds. I know that’s not where the meme comes from but I definitely think of that damn letter luring Mario into yet another quest to save the damsel whenever I hear it.

Dallas kind of reminds me of the Italian Plumber–not because he is Italian or a plumber.  Nor does he have a mustache and certainly is not a short, squat man in red overalls.   No her reminds me of Mario because no matter how many times the girl is in trouble, Mario comes to her rescue. Dallas has been a good friend to me like that. The guy is always willing to listen to me when I’m upset, even at 3AM, and while I’m lucky enough to have a lot of friends who would do that…well this post is about Dallas OK?! Geeze. I guess he gets a little more attention from me because I feel like the guy doesn’t sing his own praises enough. I’ve got quite a few more friends like that too come to think of it. God damn it you guys, you know who you are, would you give yourselves some credit once in awhile??

Anyway here’s an example of a great story about Dallas and how ridiculously awesome he is. A few posts back I wrote about how I wanted to get Peter Beagle’s autograph at SDCC this year. Beagle wrote a book called “The Last Unicorn” a beautiful and sad (funny how those things always go together) story that was adapted into a film in the 1980’s. I grew up with the movie and read the book as a young adult. The story follows a Unicorn who overhears some men commenting that there are no more Unicorns left in the world. She sets out on a quest to discover why this has happened. Simplistic in scope and yet really a very adult, sad story that is anything but Disney at the end. As I’ve said many times before I have a real love for fairy tales, especially the sad ones.  So much so that I often read them as an adult as lessons in cultural psychology, sociology and comparative lit…i.e. I find reasons to justify why a 24 year old girl owns tomes of fairy tale lore.

I had been planning on going to get Beagle’s autograph on Sunday but every time I left the hall where I was staked out waiting for the Buffy panel, something came up and I constantly had to run back to the room to keep my spot without ever getting to Autograph Alley. Finally 4PM rolls around and I’m debating if I should stay through for the Buffy Musical Sing-a-long or if Mr. Beagle would still be present at his booth. The hall was going to close at 5PM so I really could not do both things. I didn’t want to leave the musical if my author had taken to walking Man’s Road and abandoned his post. Dallas was out on the floor and so I texted him asking if he wouldn’t mind checking the booth to see if Beagle was still there. The response I got back was “This is Peter Beagle. I am waiting for you.” and then a photo that Mr. Beagle had taken of himself and texted to me.

Yeah. I shot up with a squeal and ran out of the room, with “Walk Through the Fire” playing as my background music. It was pretty awesome actually to have a theme song blaring and people singing in chorus around me while I ran XD Apparently it took a little cajoling to get Beagle to actually use Dallas’ phone and message me, but it had the desired effect. I was there faster than I thought possible to move on the con floor during the last hour of nerdvana. I got my signature…sadly on a paperback copy of the book as the hardback is out of print. I’ve been looking everywhere! Only modified/abridged copies and the graphic novel are being printed. Very upsetting. I want a hardback version damn it! I own the graphic novel too….

So that was how I got to end my con and it was all thanks to Dallas. I’m really blessed to know him and so I wanted to dedicate a blog post on his birthday, with a treat that he loves and since I know he is also trying to get healthy it makes this even more personally relevant. Unfortunately it’s not the greatest cheesecake recipe on the planet. Frankly I don’t know how that is possible to do while cutting back on fat. I’m working on at least developing a purely carb free one for another friend of mine but baking with artificial sweeteners is tricky. Sadly that’s the only way to cut out carbs so it’s still in process.

As for the peaches? Well isn’t it obvious? That all comes back to Princess Peach, forever being rescued by a patient man who clearly loves himself some (cheese)cake.

Happy Birthday Dallas! Next time I visit we’ll have to bake up a real cheesecake and splurge on the calories. In the meantime this one is made with Farmer’s Cheese (half the fat, half the calories) and served in bite sized portions. The farmer’s cheese isn’t as creamy as traditional cream cheese and so the texture of these guys was not quite right.  An alternative to this would be to use a reduced fat cream cheese but while that cuts back on fat it adds in more sugar so your overall caloric reduction isn’t nearly as significant. They did taste good though and I think that was the benefit of the peaches and cream combo. Can’t go wrong with a classic like that.

Kind of like Dallas. Classic good guy.

Look at that flirty peach poking through!

Reduced Fat Mini-Peach CheesecakesAn Olivia…experiment.  Yield 24 mini cheesecakes.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 package graham crackers, finely ground
• 4 Tbsp butter, unsalted, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar

Cheesecake

• 24 oz Farmer’s Cheese (I used a local brand from Berkeley,  if you don’t have access to a trendy cheese section at your Grocery look for anything labeled Neufchâtel)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup Peach Preserves (I used homemade of course)

Getting ready: prep your mini cheesecake pans and preheat the oven to 325F.

Mix together the crust ingredients by hand or with a fork.  If you do it by hand though you get an excuse to like the graham cracker butter sugar trifecta off of them after ;-)  Anyway mix it up and press about ¼ of an inch high crust into each of your mini cheesecake slots.  Bake this for about ten minutes in the oven, remove and cool.

In a large mixing bowl on medium speed, blend together the farmer’s cheese and sour cream.  The sour cream will help even out the Farmer’s Cheese which is a grittier cheese due to the removal of a lot of fats.  Scrape down the sides and add in the sugar.  Yum yum.

Reduce speed to low.  Add the eggs one at a time, again scrape down the sides after each addition, and then add in the egg yolks.  Add the vanilla extract.

Spoon a teaspoon of the peach preserves on top of your crusts and follow up with the cheesecake batter.  Bake these in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until the mini-cheesecakes look firm.  Remove and cool to room temperature.

These will keep for a day or so but are definitely best eaten the day they are made.