08 Jun Recipe: A Simple blueberry cheesecake

A simple cheesecake recipe that will be a winner amongst the whole family.

Serves: 8

Ingredients

For the crust
8 oz/230 g gingernut biscuits
115 g/4 oz butter
30g/1 oz demerara sugar

For the filling
55 g/2 oz icing sugar
1 tablespoon honey
230 g/8 oz plain cream cheese, room temperature
175 ml/6 fl oz cream
175 g/6 oz blueberries
1 heaped teaspoon gelatine (you can also use agar-agar)
115 g/4 oz crab apple or quince or red currant jelly

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.

Put your gingernut biscuits in a plastic bag and bash it until you have crumbs, or whizz the biscuits in a food processor. Melt the butter and add it, with the sugar, to the crushed biscuits. Stir well and press the biscuits into the base of a 23 cm/9 in a loose-bottomed pie tin.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Stir the icing sugar and the honey into the soft cream cheese. Then beat the cream and incorporate this too.

Separate about half of the blueberries and squeeze a few in your fingers. Leave others whole. Then incorporate these into the cream cheese mixture. You might need to use your hands to do this.

Fill the cooled ginger biscuit pie shell with the blueberry cream cheese mixture. Cover the surface with blueberries in a pretty pattern. Put it in the fridge to cool for at least 2 hours.

Once cool and firm, melt the gelatine in whichever jelly you are using in a saucepan over low heat until just dissolved. Once it has melted, set aside until it begins to thicken slightly.

Now, work quickly. Remove the blueberry cheesecake from the fridge and pour the jelly glaze over the top. Return to the fridge to set.

Serve with Poached blueberries with rosewater.

Note: You don’t have to bake the base, but I think it adds to the chewy texture, which is nice.

This recipe features in and is from From The Garden: Fresh Seasonal Cooking By Hattie Klotz, Photography by Leigh Clapp and is published by New Holland, $45.00, available now in all good bookstores and online.