Blueberry cheese cake

Baked this wonderful blueberry cheesecake for Father's day. I topped this up with whipped cream frosting but it is completely optional. Also, as I didn't have fresh blueberries I used a few de-hydrated ones (rehydrated them back to life and pureed). For the topping, I used blueberry jam, gently warmed up in a couple of tablespoons of water. You can also make a quick blueberry compote by lightly crushing the blueberries and cooking them on low heat with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar till the berries break down.

Ingredients

For crust

• Digestive biscuits 120 gms

• Caster sugar 1 or 2 tablespoons

• Butter 70 grams

For cake

• Cream cheese 500gms

• Plain flour 1 and 1/2 tablespoon

• 2 eggs Zest and juice of one lemon

• Powdered sugar 1 cup (approx 120 grams)

• 3/4th cup Sour cream (or full fat cream with 1 tablespoon lime juice)

• Vanilla extract 1 tsp 

• 1/4th cup blueberry puree

For cream topping

• Full fat whipping cream 200 grams

• Icing sugar 50 grams

To serve

• Blueberry Jam / Fresh blueberries

Preparation

Crust

1. Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Line the base of an 8 inch springfoam or loose bottom cake tin with baking paper

2. To begin with the crust, crush digestive biscuits in a bowl, mix sugar and add melted butter. Crush with your hands till it resembles fine bread crumbs. Bake for 10 mins and let it cool in the tin

Cream cheese filling

1. As the crust cools down, reduce oven temperature to 150 degrees. In a bowl beat cream cheese till soft and smooth, about 5 mins when mixing by hand.

2. Add sugar and continue beating softly, I did not use my blender as it may be too fast for cream cheese

3. Add one egg at a time until well blended

4. Add sour cream, flour and lemon zest and juice, vanilla extract and pureed blueberries one by one.

5. Increase oven temperature to 180 degrees again.

6. Pour cake filling over cooled crust and tap the sides gently to ease out any air bubbles. The top should be smooth and free of any lumps

7. Cover bottom of the pan in foil to avoid liquid oozing out into your oven 10. Total baking time is 60 minutes. However, temperature of the oven needs to be gradually reduced during this time.

8. First 30 minutes, bake at 180 degrees. Then reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees. After 15 minutes reduce oven temperature to 160 degrees and finally after another 15 minutes reduce to 150 degrees. At this point, we have passed 60 minutes of baking time and the cake must be almost ready.The top should appear to be golden yellow. If it appears to be browning too much cover the top with a foil. We are looking for a cake which is leaving the tin from the sides but still has a little wobble in the centre.

9. After total baking time has elapsed, switch off the oven and leave cake in the oven for another one hour

10. For a perfect cheesecake without any cracks, the temperature needs to be lowered gradually. Any sudden dip in the surrounding temperature will lead to a brittle cheesecake

11. After one hour, open the oven door with cake still in

12. Once the oven is completely cooled down, take the cake out and leave on a table top until it is at room temperature Chill the cake in fridge over night or minimum 6-8 hours

For the topping

1. Before you serve, whip full fat cream with sugar until peaks are formed and spread evenly above the cheesecake

2. Top with diluted blueberry jam and serve