Ringing in 2015 With Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake

Happy 2015! This year is off to a rollicking start. The Fancy Food Show and Cheesemonger Invitational hit San Francisco this weekend (I’ll be at both as press! Let’s meet up!)! It all kind of crept up on me. But this year, I’m starting things off with cheesecake—a blueberry lemon zest cheesecake with lavender whipped cream that my friend, magnificent baker and entrepreneur Megan Kierstead, brought over for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone around the table was transported to another plane of pleasure with her confection, and for good reason. Since then, people have been asking for the recipe, so here it is!

Note: You’ll need to let your cheesecake rest overnight, and also to let your whipping cream steep overnight, so start this the day before you serve it!

This recipe has been adapted from this recipe by Dorie Greenspan, baking hero and author of many books, including, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 3/4 cups crumbled gingersnap cookies

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:

2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sour cream

For the blueberry lemon topping:

1 15 oz. bag of frozen wild blueberries

1 tablespoon tapioca starch

1/4 cup sugar

1 lemon’s worth of zest

For the lavender whipped cream:

1 cup heavy whipped cream

1 tablespoon dried lavender

2 tablespoons sugar

Procedure

For the lavender whipped cream:

1. The day you do your baking: Steep the lavender in the whipped cream overnight. No need for sugar here!

2. Next day: add sugar and whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Serve alongside the cheesecake, or pipe it on top for some artistic flair. Save any unused cream in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

For the crust:

1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.

2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. (You can use your fingers.) Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Don’t worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn’t have to be precise. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

3. Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

For the cheesecake:

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil.

2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and becomes creamy, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream.

3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.

4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.

6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.

7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight is better.

The next day:

For the blueberry topping:

1. Thaw the blueberries in a colander, keeping a bowl underneath to catch all of the juice. Whisk all of the blueberry juice, tapioca starch, and sugar together in a saucepan, and cook over low heat until slightly thickened.

2. Remove mixture from heat, and fold in blueberries and lemon zest. Let it cool to room temperature.

3. Gently spoon the blueberry topping over the top of the cooled cheesecake.

4. Top your cheesecake with whipped cream.

Happy baking! And above, all, happy eating!

Are you going to the Fancy Food Show? Get in touch with me!

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