SAY CHEESE

Over the past 6 months I have developed an obsession with cheesecake. Lemon cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, New York cheesecake, coffee cheesecake, raspberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake....you name it, I will eat all of it.

My mum gave me a gift of an amazing recipe book for Christmas that is full to the brim of recipes for nothing but cheesecakes. Heaven!! My new years resolutions for 2014 were; to be happy and enjoy the simple things in life, to learn to let go of negative people who make me feel sad and bad AND to make at least one cheesecake from this book every month. So far, I have done incredibly well with each of my resolutions, so much that most of the pages of this beautiful book are speckled with ingredients and folded at the edges. 

I prefer baked cheesecakes to no-bake cheesecakes. At first I had this idea in my head that cheesecake is impossibly difficult to bake, but it's actually really simple. My favourite cheesecake to make is blueberry swirl! I've made it three or four times now and it just gets yummier and yummier.

Here's the recipe:

90g digestive biscuits

240g sugar 

3Tbsp. sugar (for the base)

45g butter or margarine, melted

900g cream cheese

1 tsp. vanilla

250 g sour cream

4 eggs

300g fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

This makes a HUGE cheesecake, so usually I halve the ingredients because more often than not, I'll be eating all of the cheesecake myself. My family have all been on "healthy eating plans" for the last few months, and they aren't too delighted that I make yummy cheesecakes fortnightly. 

Anyway, basically you preheat the oven to 160 degrees C or gas mark 3. 

crumble up the digestive biscuits and mix with the 3Tbsp of sugar and the melted butter. Press this crumble onto the bottom of a cake tin and bake for 10 minutes, while you prepare the cheesy part.

Beat the cream cheese, remaining sugar, and vanilla with an electric whisk until blended. Add sour cream, mix again. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition. Then pour over the crust. 

Purée the blueberries and then drop spoonfuls over the batter. Cut through the batter a couple of times to get the swirly effect. 

Bake for 45 mins (a bit less if you halve the ingredients) and when it's done refrigerate for at least four hours, but ideally overnight. 

I garnish with a few blueberries (and some bizarre hawhaw, couldn't resist) and enjoy!! YUM

I also like to drop random little blueberries into the mixture because I love when you take a bite of cake and a blueberry explodes in your mouth!

yummmmmm

Nighty Night from Harvey and I <3