Blueberry cheesecake

It's been over a year since I last made a cheesecake, so a month ago, I made a raspberry cheesecake with a chocolate glaze from Dr William Davis's Wheat Belly Cookbook. It was beautiful and tasted divine, but all the photos of this cake mysteriously disappeared from my mobile before I had a chance to upload them. 

So a couple of weeks later, I tweaked the original recipe slightly and made another cheesecake, this time with blueberries and leaving out the chocolate glaze. The result was still satisfying. 

Blueberry cheesecake

Ingredients for the Crust

1 ½ C ground walnuts
4 tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp xylitol
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Ingredients for the Filling

515g cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ C (200g) sour cream
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
½ C xylitol
1¼ C frozen sugar-free blueberries, pureed and strained
½ C fresh blueberries, for garnish

Instructions for the crust 

1. In a large bowl, stir together the ground nuts, melted butter, xylitol, and cocoa. Chill in the fridge for an hour.
   
2. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a 9” pan (I use a silicon pan). Chill in the fridge for an hour.
   
3. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, or until browned around the edges.
   
5. Let the crust cool completely. Set aside. 

Instructions for the filling

1. In a large bowl, use an electric beater on medium and beat the cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and xylitol till smooth.
   
2. Stir in most of the puréed blueberries, leaving 2 tbsp. 
   
3. Chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
5. Swirl in the rest of the blueberry purée.
   
6. Pour the mixture into the crust. 
   
7. Bake in a water bath for 50-55 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. 
   
8. Let the cake cool completely on a rack and then refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
   
9. Turn the cheesecake out and place on a serving dish.
10. Top with fresh blueberries and serve.
    

This cheesecake was very light and the blueberries provided a refreshing taste against the creaminess of the cheese. The filling turned out a bit wetter than a traditional vanilla cheesecake (like the ones I made before). I'm not sure if this was down to the frozen blueberries or the overall amount of blueberry purée used. I'll have to test out a few different options to see.

The walnut base was wonderfully nutty and went with the filling well, but it was much softer than the almond biscuit base I've used in the past. I wonder if 4 tablespoons of butter was too much and I could have got away with 2-3 tablespoons of oil.