Yoghurt cheesecake with blueberries and a country cookie base

This recipe popped up in my mind  the moment I saw the biscuits cakes they were baking in last weeks Heel Holland Bakt- episode (this is the Dutch version of the Great British Bake Off). But... just before the new broadcast tonight, it is finished: a gluten-free yoghurt cheesecake with blueberries and a country cookie base.

My kids (and I am too) are crazy about country cookies based on (gluten-free cultivated and processed) oatmeal. It seemed to me an ideal crust for a zingy cheesecake. And blueberries and cheesecake .. they just belong together? Right? So that cheesecake had to be made before it drove me crazy.

Ingredients:

For the bottom and some cookies for decoration

• 300 grams of oatmeal (gluten-free cultivated and processed)
• 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 100 grams of ground coconut
• 4 small eggs
• 10 tablespoons honey
• 125 grams of butter (melted)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling

• 500 grams of Greek yogurt
• 300 grams of cream cheese (at room temperature)
• 4 small eggs or 3 large ones
• 150 grams of fine caster sugar
• 50 grams of rice flour (gluten-free)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of  lemon zest

For the blueberry topping

• 100 ml of pear juice
• 150 grams of blueberries
• 3 leaves of gelatin

NB. Make sure you have some extra blueberries to put on the bottom of the cheesecake

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius (325 Fahrenheit).
2. Cover a spring tin of 20 cm diameter with baking paper and grease it.
3. First make the dough for the bottom and the biscuits. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a mixer until you have a cohesive mixture (it will not be a firm dough, but all oatmeal and coconut must be sticky with the other ingredients). Fill the tin with 2/3 of the dough and make sure you coat the edges.
4. From the remaining dough, make small biscuits, that you bake on a baking tray covered with baking parchment for 10-12 minutes at 200 degrees Celcius.  This can be done while your cheesecake is in the oven (or if you only have 1 oven: after baking the cheesecake, as this must cool down for 3 hours in the fridge).
5. Now make the cheesecake mixture. I put everything in the bowl of my kitchen machine and that beat it until well combined. To prevent lumps (that's what happens with the Monchou cream cheese if you have just taken it out of the fridge like I did) I used my blender to whip it into an airy mixture (and the lumps will also have disappeared ;-) ).
6. Sprinkle blueberries over the dough and pour the cheesecake mixture over it.
7. Put the cheesecake in the oven and cook it for about 60-80 minutes. The top is then light brown and the middle can no longer wobble. If the cheesecake is slightly cracked in the middle and it doesn't wobble it is usually cooked. First let it cool down and then refrigerate the cake to completely cool in 3 hours.
8. When the cheesecake is in the oven, make the blueberry jelly. Cook the pear juice with the blueberries  and let it boil for 5 minutes or so. Take it off the heat. Soak the leaves of gelatin in cold water and add to the warm blueberry mixture, puree it with a blender to get a smooth jelly. Allow to cool and pour over the cheesecake when it is cooling down in the oven (in my case the jelly was too set already so it is slightly less smooth than I intended).
9. Decorate with some cookies and serve your guests (or eat it yourself ;-))

Bon Appetit !!