Milestone in Life... Blueberry Cheesecake

I’m absolutely excited to say that I passed my PhD viva last week & now I’m a doctor, well, not official until I receive a confirmation letter from my university.

So, what next? (I got asked so many times)

The first thing I did was baking cakes from my kitchen, blueberry cheesecake & japanese cotton cake roll.

The plan afterwards is taking a break & slowing down for a bit, well, until Christmas then I’ll start looking for jobs in research & development.

I do miss all the fun of baking, food styling & photography.

I can’t wait to start baking, blogging & travelling.

The recipe I’m sharing is a chilled blueberry cheesecake, which I’ve made several times.

I finally managed to take some photos before it’s all gone :)

Blueberry cheesecake is my sister, Jenny’s best make, she is now busy working as a pastry chef in a hotel so I recreated the recipe for my family.

Don’t miss out the jelly layer, it’s absolutely delicious with the tangy cream cheese mousse & the nutty crust.

Recipe (8” round):

Blueberry jelly (7” round)

200 g fresh blueberry

100 ml 30°B syrup

1/4 lemon, juice only

60 ml Kirsch

9 g sheet gelatine, bloomed

In a saucepan, bring the 30°B syrup to boil.

Add blueberry & lemon juice, keep it simmering until the blueberry is tender, remove from heating.

Pour in Kirsch & stir in bloomed gelatine until dissolved.

Reserve 120 ml for topping.

Pour the remaining in a 7” round pan & freeze to set.

N.B: To make 30°B syrup, combine 130 g granulated sugar & 100 g water, stir to dissolve & bring it to boil in a small saucepan.

Crust base

160 g digestive biscuits, crushed

60 g unsalted butter, melted

Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Toast in a preheated oven at 180°C for 10-15 min.

Once cooled, pressed into a 8" cake pan.

Cheesecake filling

300 g cream cheese

80 g granulated sugar

216 g natural yogurt

1 tbsp lemon juice

150 g whipping cream

8 g sheet gelatine, bloomed

100-120 g fresh blueberry

In a large mixing bowl, whisk cream cheese with sugar until smooth.

Whisk in yogurt & lemon juice.

In another mixing bowl, whisk whipping cream to soft peaks.

Combine bloomed gelatine & 2-3 tbsp whipped cream, microwave 10-15 sec & stir to melt, fold quickly with remaining whipped cream & then fold in cream cheese batter.

Fold in the fresh blueberry.

Assembling

Pour half the cheesecake filling into the prepared pan.

Place the blueberry jelly on top.

Pour the remaining cheesecake filling over the jelly.

Refrigerate to set.

Carefully pour the warm blueberry jelly on top & refrigerate to set.