Pseudo Cherry Cheesecake

I love cherry pie, and in my family, we always had cherry pie for Washington's Birthday. Of course, we also had a cherry tree in the backyard, so we had cherries that my Mom and Grandma had put up. Once we got a deep-freeze, they were frozen, and I think those were even better. But I have to rely on canned cherries or canned cherry pie filling. I'm talking about tart pie cherries, which I never find in the store fresh, even in season, or even frozen. I can get dried ones, which I do use in a lot of things, but not pie, at least so far.

This year, although I keep meaning to make a pie, I am sort of avoiding it from the calorie standpoint. But I wanted my cherry fix. I had a can of a fairly good quality cherry pie filling in the pantry. I had a carton of very good Greek yogurt in the fridge. I thought: Hmmm.

I scooped out some yogurt, scooped out some cherries. To be honest, while eating I stirred them together.

It tasted like rich, creamy cherry cheesecake. I kid you not. Heaven.

The cherry pie filling obviously has been "color-enhanced," which is pretty but might not appeal to some people. (Regular canned cherries in juice taste as good but are more pink-grey than red, so not as pretty.) Other than that, it has sugar and cornstarch. But still, the whole can is 630 calories, so about 105 calories for one-sixth, which is what you would get in a standard piece of pie. In the pie, most of the calories are in the crust, especially from the shortening or butter. The USDA says there are 490 calories in the standard slice of cherry pie. Cheesecake, depending on the recipe, can be 500 and up.

The Greek yogurt I like is 2% fat (brand is Fage, although there are others, and the skim is also not bad) and is 150 calories a cup. Shown here is about half a cup, maybe a little less. So, 180 calories for a very rich-tasting dessert. You could have a bigger serving, although I think this would satisfy most people. It really tastes rich. I think a big part of it is the "mouth feel," which comes from using the thick, wonderful Greek yogurt. (I also think the cornstarch in the pie filling helps with that.)

Of course, there's no crust, and most of us who like cheesecake love that crumbled-cookie/graham cracker/whatever crust. But face it, there's usually a ton of butter and sugar in that. Not that there's anything wrong with that. For the pseudo cherry cheesecake, you could crumble up a couple of Girl Scout cookies (also a February tradition), I suppose. I did think about it.

I really do like the Greek yogurt far better than other kinds. It's thick, it tastes rich, it has a little tang but is more like creme fraiche than the ordinary kinds of plain yogurt. I love it (without the cherries, of course) on baked potatoes.