Blueberry Cheesecake

Believe it or not, this Blueberry Cheesecake was inspired by a Broccoli Salad!  I absolutely recommend you try the Broccoli salad, it’s one of Simon and mines faves.  The recipe calls for Blueberries, which is something I haven’t really eaten in the past and we had been leaving them out of the salad because they haven’t been in season.  But, they are in season now, and I am loving them!

This is a no-bake cheesecake and is packed full of blueberry – none of that plain cheesecake business with a few blueberries scattered on top, or a swirl of syrup (although, I have done that too!), this one has blueberries all the way through.  Which, has got to be good for you right, considering they are super high in antioxidants?

I topped my cheesecake with a thin layer of plain cheesecake mix with blueberry jam swirled through it.  I also made candied lemon peel to sprinkle over the top to pick up on the lemon juice that is in the cheesecake - I’ll include how to make this in the recipe below.  However, if you can’t be bothered with the extra work, I think spreading some whipped cream over the top and decorating with some extra blueberries or simply grating some white chocolate over the top would be perfect (this would be amazing if you use the same biscuits that I did for the base).

Ingredients:
Base:
350g biscuits (I used Farmbake’s White Choc variety and they were delish!)
80g butter, melted

Filling:
3 teaspoons gelatine
¼ cup boiling water
375g cream cheese
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup cream
3 cups blueberries (this worked out to be three small punnets from the supermarket)

Topping:
¾ cup of cheesecake mixture (reserved from main recipe)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons blueberry jam

Candied lemon peel:
3 lemons
4 cups water
2 cups white sugar, or as needed

Method:
Grease a 20cm round tin.  Place the biscuits into a food processor and process to a fine crumb.  Mix through the melted butter.  Press into the base of the prepared tin and place in the refrigerator to set.

In a glass, sprinkle the gelatine into the quarter cup of boiling water.  Mix until dissolved, then set aside.

Using a hand beater or stand mixer, in a large bowl beat together the cream cheese, caster sugar, vanilla essence and one tablespoon of lemon juice.  Once the mixture is a smooth buttery texture, add in the cream and gelatine and beat until the mixture is smooth again. 
At this point, if you want to create a marbled effect on the top of the cake as I have one, reserve three quarters of a cup of the cheesecake mixture into a small bowl and set aside.
Using a blender, puree the blueberries (some bits of skin will still remain).  Pour the blueberry puree into the main cheesecake mix and stir through until combined.
Pour the mixture over the prepared base and place into the refrigerator to set.

To make the candied lemon peel, boil 2 cups of water in a small saucepan.
While the water is heating up, remove the rind from the lemons and cut it into thin strips.  I find the easiest way to do this is to use a vegetable peeler and peel off the skin, then cut it into thin strips using a small knife. 
Once the water is boiling, add the lemon peel strips.  Boil for about 5 minutes, until tender.  Remove peels from the water.  Replace the water with 2 new cups of water and stir in the sugar. Return to a boil, add the peels, and boil for about 15-20 minutes until the peels translucent.  Stir regularly as the mixture can burn. 
Taste a piece of the peel – if it is bitter tasting, change the water and sugar so you have a fresh pot and re-boil the peel.  Continue to do this until you are satisfied with the flavour.  Drain and allow to dry either on a wire rack or on a paper towel.

To make the thin marbled layer on the top of the cheesecake mix a teaspoon of lemon juice through the reserved cheesecake mixture.  Once the top of the blueberry portion of the cheesecake in the tin has set across the top, gently spread the plain mix across the top in a thin layer.  Dollop blobs of the jam randomly around the top of the cake.  Using a skewer or a fork, rake through the jam blobs to swirl them into the cheesecake mixture.  Place into the refrigerator for 5 minutes before topping with the candied lemon peel and extra blueberries.  Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight before cutting into wedges and serving.

Berry Crumble Slice

This Berry Crumble Slice is delicious – the recipe comes from my Nana and my Mum has started making it too!  To make it, use whatever berries are in season with a matching jam for the filling.  I first tired this slice at Christmas time when my Nana had made it using strawberries.  It was amazing!  I couldn’t get my hands on any strawberries so I used blueberries instead.  The slice turned out just as great (it disappeared pretty quick when I took it into work) and I can’t wait to try out using different varieties of berries.  This is a simple slice and makes a delicious sweet treat to fill the tins.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
240g butter, softened
150g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 punnet of berries (at least 125g – the slice in the photos is made using blueberries)
1 cup jam (in a the same flavour as the berries)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a slice tin (the one I used was 16cm x 26cm) and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat through the vanilla essence.  Mix in the flour and baking powder.  Press ⅔ of the mixture into the base of the prepared tin.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the base starts to go golden in colour.
While the base is baking, chop the berries in half.  In a medium sized bowl, mix the berries and jam together. 
Once the base has begun to go golden, remove it from the oven and spread the berry mixture over the top.  Place bits of the remaining dough mixture over the top of the berry layer (my Mum and I flatten pieces of the mixture in our hands and break off bits to cover the jam with.  I think my Nana crumbles it between her fingers over the top of the jam layer).  Bake for a further 25 – 30 minutes, or until the crumble on the top has gone a golden brown colour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into slices.

Blueberry and Courgette Loaf

We made this loaf in the weekend and man it was yum!  I’ve been busy making some cushion covers for a buyer through my felt. shop and haven’t done any baking lately, but really wanted to try out this recipe because I couldn’t imagine what courgettes and blueberries would taste like together, it sounds disgusting.  However, the loaf was delicious – sweet and moist and eaten up pretty quickly!  And, I suppose it kinda counts towards your 5+ a day of fruit and veg - did you know the courgette is actually a fruit?  Personally I couldn’t really taste the courgette but you see flecks of green through the loaf which looked quite pretty with the purple blue colour of the blueberries.

3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 175°C.  Lightly grease 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in the zucchini.  Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Gently fold in the blueberries.  Transfer to the prepared loaf pans.
Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre of a loaf comes out clean.  Cool for 20 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

White Chocolate and Blueberry Crumble Muffins

White Chocolate = Yum.  Blueberries = Yum.  Crumble topping = Yum.  Muffins = Yum.  All these things mixed together = Mega Yum!

 
Makes about 16 muffins.

Muffin Mix:
450g plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
175g caster sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
zest of ½ lemon
250g blueberries
200g white chocolate, chopped coarsely
50ml unsalted butter, melted
350ml full fat milk
1 egg, beaten

Crumble Topping:
50g plain flour
65g caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
25g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 190˚C.  Line two muffin tins with muffin cases.
Start by making the crumble topping.  In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar and cinnamon.  Chop the butter into small pieces then pinch through the flour mixture until it forms a breadcrumb texture.  Set aside.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and then mix in the sugar and salt.  Add the rest of the remaining ingredients and mix together until all ingredients have amalgamated.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cases.  Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the batter.  Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out cleanly.

And, here is a picture update on my crochet blanket:

This project is going to take me a while as the blanket measures about 145cm wide and each row (because I’m a slow beginner) takes me a little under half and hour to do.

Blueberry Jam & Cream Cheese Muffins

 
This is an old ‘food in a minute’ recipe (a little TV advertisement segment we get in New Zealand).  You can make these with whatever flavour jam you like – I’ve experimented and haven’t found a bad flavour yet.

Makes 12.

2 ¼ cups self raising flour
½ cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
¾ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
6 tablespoons blueberry jam
¼ cup cream cheese

Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Mix egg, milk and vanilla essence together.  Stir into the dry ingredients along with the melted butter and golden syrup.
Half fill 12 well greased muffin tins.  Place a heaped teaspoon of jam and a teaspoon of cream cheese into the centre of each muffin.

Carefully cover the jam and cream cheese with the remaining muffin mixture.  Bake at 220˚C for 12 – 15 minutes, or until well risen, golden and firm to touch.
Cool in the tin for 5 minutes.  Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.