Lemon and blueberry cheesecake
I didn’t mean to make a cheesecake. Sometimes, I’ve realised, that what I mean to make and what I end up making are two separate things connected by a few delicious stepping stones.
Everyone’s been making hot-crossed buns and I’m jealous. A hot-crossed bun, tea and an ungodly amount of butter equate to coronary heart disease and utter joy, probably not in that order. Unfortunately it turns out the ol’ flour mill has run dry in light of coronavirus so I’ve had to adapt. This is where the aforementioned stepping stones come into play. They’re often based on one specific flavour and this time it was the zestiness of lemon peel that got me.
The next idea was Pasha. For those of you who aren’t of the half-Finnish persuasion, Pasha is a Easter dessert made in Finland and a several other nordic states that’s made of quark and sultanas and flavoured with lots of lemon. It’s a staple when I go home to visit my parents at Easter and makes for the perfect dessert to follow a roast.
As it turns out Quark isn’t currently the easiest thing to come by and so the final stone was this: lemon and blueberry cheesecake. With readily available ingredients and the right flavours to satisfy my citrus craving it was a win. With this recipe you can either make one large cheesecake if you have a deep-dish or if you have shallower tin, the kind you’d use for a layered cake, you can bake one cheesecake and freeze the rest of the mix for the next time you have a sweet craving (I’ll probably last till this afternoon).
Ingredients:
1 x Base:
175g digestive biscuits
75g melted butter
2 x topping for 18cm x 3.5cm tin:
450g Cream Cheese
85g Sugar
65g Icing sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
zest of 1 lemon
2 large handfuls of blueberries.
A sprinkle of icing sugar to decorate
Method:
Preheat your over to 190c.
Melt the butter in a pan or in a bowl in the microwave.
Blitz the digestives in a food processor or put them into a food storage bag and bash them with a rolling pin. Disclaimer: the first time I did this I broke the bag. There were biscuits everywhere. Please learn from my failures.
Mix the melted butter into the biscuit crumbs either by pouring it into your food processor or combining in a large bowl.
Tip the mixture into a loose bottom baking tin. Spread the mix so it evenly covers the whole base of the tin. Use your hands or the back of a spoon if you’re fancy.
Refrigerate the base until you’re ready to bake.
Now mix the cream cheese, sugars, eggs, vanilla essence and 3/4 of your lemon zest in a large bowl with an electric whisk. Make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese left at the bottom or sides of the bowl.
Now get your base, scatter with 3/4 of your blueberries and pour the mix to the top of your tin.
If you’ve used the quantities listed you should have the same amount again left over. Freeze it in a Tupperware to use when your next cheesecake craving calls.
Bake the cheesecake on the middle shelf of your over for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes has passed take it out and lightly shake the tin. If it wobbles to much put it back into the oven and check again in a few minutes. 25 minutes should be the maximum time you need.
When it’s baked leave it to cool out of the fridge. After 20 minutes run a knife around the edge and remove the tin.
Decorate the cake with the reserved blueberries, lemon peel and a dusting of icing sugar.
For the best results lock the door before anyone sees and eat the whole thing yourself. Enjoy.