New York Cheesecake

I happen to love cheesecakes unfalteringly.

While most people whoop over tons of gooey cheese within their savories, im happier having cheese in my desserts. Don't get me wrong. I still sink regularly into pizzas and gratins & their irresistible relatives with no disdain, but the cheesy sweets take me to a higher realm of delight.

I'll usually keep a close watch for my favourite species: American, Blueberry & Walnut. Or anything bearing the blood of cheese, say cheese+tart, cheese+brownie, cheese+souffle, cheese+icecream, or cheese+whatever's morally acceptable...

So when i saw Jamie Oliver's screamingly-mouthwatering New York Cheesecake emblazoned on the cover of a Delicious issue, i took almost immediate action. The product: a creamy, moderately dense cheesecake smacked with robust vanilla Yum! Double yum with a dollop of blueberry topping (:

Here's the original recipe, unmodified.

Jamie Oliver's New York Vanilla Cheesecake
recipe from Delicious Magazine march 2009 issue

His recipe reacted quite well to modifications so you can try adding your own touches. i tweaked the base's butter-to-biscuit ratio, added walnuts for crunch & adjusted the proportions of some ingredients for mine.

Serves 8-10

250g digestive biscuits, crushed

150 unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup cornflour

900g Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature

2 large organic eggs

1/2 cup thickened cream

seeds of 1 vanilla pod, or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (1/2 tsp for me =p)

grated zest of 1 lemon

Blueberry Topping

450g blueberries

1/4 cup caster sugar

Grease and line the base of a 24cm springfoam cake pan. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix the biscuits and butter in a bowl, press into the base of the pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Turn oven to 200C. Combine sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Add cream cheese and beat with an electric whisk until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Gradually add the cream, beating until smooth, then beat in vanilla and zest.

Tip mixture into pan, level the surface and sit on a baking sheet. Place in centre of oven and bake 35-40 minutes until top is browned and the filling is set around the edges. A piece of foil over the top wihh stop it from browning too much. Allow to cool. Place in fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

Put the blueberries in a sacuepan, sprinkle over sugar and add 1 tbsp of water. Put ona medium-low heat to simmer gently for 10 minutes. Cool and serve with cheesecake.

Maybe i'll try incorporating some fresh berries into the cheese batter next time, so it'll become a true-blue blueberry cheesecake. Oh i so love those =D