BLUEBERRY SWIRL CHEESECAKE
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Crust:
- 1-2 cups of crushed Graham crackers
- 5/8 stick of melted unsalted margarine or butter
====== Mix ingredients well and press onto bottom of 10" springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated 325 degree Fahrenheit oven.
Topping:
- 1 bag (4 cups?) of frozen Blueberries
- 2 capfull of Rum
- 1.5 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
- Forgot to add but should have: 1 tsp butter
====== While blind baking the crust, put the frozen blueberries into a pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook medium heat until the mixture begins to boil. Let it simmer and reduce to half its liquid volume. Then let it sit until ready to pour over the cheesecake.
Filling:
- 3 pkg(8oz) softened Neufchatel cheese(No fat cream cheese) or Cream cheese
- 3/4 cup sugar + 1/2 cup sugar
- 6 large egg whites
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
====== Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Beat egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar to soft peaks. Add vanilla extract. Mix the room temp cream cheese in a large bowl. Mix in 3/4 sugar. Fold in egg whites. Fold well until consistent. Pour most of the filling over graham cracker crust. With about 1/3 cup of the filling left in the bowl, mix in some of the blueberry syrup/juice from the topping. Carefully use a spoon to dig a small pocket in the cheesecake filling in the spring formed pan and fill with the blueberry cheesecake filling, then spoon over the non-blueberry cheesecake filling to cover it. Repeat with the rest of the blueberry cheesecake filling in random spots of the cheesecake in the pan. Take a knife and carefully drag it through the cheesecake to create swirls. Bake in 275 degree oven for 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn off the oven and let the cake sit in there for 60 minutes.
Add the topping after the cheesecake has been moved to its serving plate/platter. (See above for topping instructions.)
Let it cool down then refridgerate 3 hours or overnight. OR
Use the quick cool down method.(see below)
If you can help it, do not cut into the cheesecake until the topping has cooled as well and has settled so it doesn't fall off as easily when cutting out a slice.
Notes:
Toothpick test: Insert toothpick into center of the cake. If it comes out clean, then the cake is done.
Softened Cream cheese: Either let the cheese sit outside the refridgerator until room temp, or microwave a cold block of cheese for 10-15 seconds until soft.(Take it out of the metallic wrapper and place it in a microwavable bowl)
Neufchatel cheese: It is still cream cheese but with no or really low fat. Just as tasty.
Quick cooldown method: Take an ice chest, enough ice to cover the bottom of a section of it larger than the springform pan. Place the cheesecake/springform pan over the ice. Close the ice chest. Make sure you take precautions that the water does not leak into or onto the cheesecake. Only use this method with metal pans/pots, as glass may shatter.
Notes about this cheesecake: This one ended with a big X shaped crack in the cheesecake. I let it cool a little faster so the center would go down and end up flat with a small ridge around the outside to keep the blueberry topping. The crack was still there but it just means more blueberry topping in the center. I think I put in too much sugar but people though it was really good.
Edit: After putting it in the fridge overnight or longer, the cheesecake was not as fluffy but not too solid. It made it taste even better.
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