White Chocolate Cheesecake with Blueberry Preserves

I made this cheesecake a little while ago... it was the last thing I made before having to submit to revision (- I couldn't even fit in the time to do a post on it).

Fortunately, this is the kind of cheesecake that is worth the wait.

The cheesecake consists of a ginger crust, white chocolate filling and blueberry topping.

Though I'm sure the naked cheesecake would taste lovely, I think that, as it is of the baked variety, it would be a little dry without a topping.

The blueberry topping is great. I used frozen blueberries, and they worked wonderfully. It is so perfumed- I thought it might lack flavour, but it really didn't. By all means, sample while its hot- just leave some for the cheesecake.

The recipe is from A Bountiful Kitchen

White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

For the Crust

340g ginger biscuits

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

75g butter, melted (1/3 cup)

For the Filling

340g white chocolate, chopped into little chunks

4 x 225g packs of cream cheese

150g caster sugar (3/4 cup)

4 eggs, beaten

2 egg yolks

1tbsp plain flour

1tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

100g caster sugar (1/2 cup)

1tbsp corn flour

60ml water (1/4 cup)

425g fresh or frozen blueberries (3 cups)

1tbsp lemon juice and zest from one lemon

     

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/mark 3.

2. For the crust, crush the biscuits to fine crumbs and mix in the salt, cinnamon and butter. Press into a 10 inch spring form pan, covering the base and half way up the sides. Bake for 12 minutes and allow to cool.

3. Melt the chocolate and leave to cool. In a large bowl, soften the cream cheese and beat in the sugar. Gradually mix in the eggs and egg yolks. Mix in the cooled chocolate, flour and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the crust.

4. Transfer the pan to the centre of the oven and drop the temperature to 150C/300F/mark 2, then leave to bake for an hour. After the hour, turn the oven off and open the door by an inch- leave the cheesecake in the cool oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cover in cling film or foil (whilst still in the pan) and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving.

5. For the topping, bring the sugar, cornstarch, water and two thirds of the blueberries to a boil in a small/medium saucepan. Allow to simmer, whilst stirring now and then, for 10 minutes. Mash the berries in the pan with a potato masher. Add the rest of the berries and the lemon juice and zest. Leave to cool and top the cheesecake with.