Cheese for Cheesecakes

Our answer

Cream cheese is a soft cheese with a fat content of around 33%. It is particularly popular for cheescakes as it gives a smooth texture and although it may be seen as a "sweet" cheese it has a very slightly acidic tang which helps to stop cheesecakes from tasting too cloying. Probably the closest substitute is mascarpone though this has a fat content of 40% and doesn't have the same acidic tang as cream cheese, so will give a very rich cheesecake.

Otherwise a curd cheese would be a possible alternative. The type of curd cheese needed for a cheesecake is the firm type, such as quark, farmer cheese or paneer, and not the type with small curds, such as cottage cheese. However these cheeses have a much lower fat content, typically 20% or below, so they may not give the best flavour or texture if used as a straight substitute for cream cheese. Instead we would suggest making a cheesecake from a recipe specifically uses curd cheese. Nigella's Old Fashioned Cheesecake from Kitchen (p173) would be a good one to try.