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 !!

Cinnamon cheescake with Dutch stewed pears & a speculoos base

Autumn & winter aren't my favorite seasons. I don't like the cold. I don't like the darkness & the gloomy atmosphere that comes with it. But I do love the food. It's comforting & traditional. The smells & tastes bring me back to my youth, when life was simple. And the food is just as simple. 

This cheesecake combines the best of autumn & winter: cinnamon, speculoos cookies (or as we call it speculaas) and typically Dutch stewed pears. Whenever I make them, i think of my grandma, who made them for us when we came for dinner and they always tasted so delicious. She was so good at them. They make me smile & this cheesecake will warm your heart & tickle your tastebuds as well. 

I did not invent this recipe, it's someone else's clever & delicious invention. I altered a bit of the recipe to my grandma's way of making the stewed pears (with port wine, you cannot do without!!) and a gluten free base with my "kruidnootjes" dough as base. Here's my gluten free version:

It might not look all that pretty, but it makes up for it in taste

Ingredients:

Stewed pears

• 4-5 Gieser Wildeman pears
• 350 ml (12 fl oz) water
• 2 tablespoons of granulated vanilla sugar
• 1 cinnamonstick
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 star anise
• 1.5 glass of port wine

For the gluten free speculoos base

• 25 grams (1 oz) of soft butter
• 125 gram (4,5 oz) of dark caster sugar 
• 8 grams (0.25 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of gluten free buckwheat flour
• 200 grams (7 oz) of gluten free cookie flour (I used Shar's C mix)
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder
• 2 tablespoons of gluten free mixed spice/speculoos spices (a mixture of ground cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, kardemom & orange peels) 

For the Cheesecake

• 400 grams (14 oz) of cream cheese (I used Dutch Mon Chou cream cheese)
• 250 grams (9 oz) of cottage cheese 
• 125 grams (4,5 oz) of granulated sugar
• 8 grams (0.25 oz) of vanilla sugar 
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 
• 1 tablespoon of mixed spice/speculoos spices 
• 1 vanilla bean

How to make the stewed pears:

It's best to make them the night before so they are cold when used in the cake. 

• Scrape the vanilla from the bean'pod and put in a separate bowl. 
• Put the water, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean and star anise in a small saucepan. Stir so that the juice absorbs the sugar. 
• Peel the pears, slice them in quarters and remove the core. Add them to the pan. Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat to low, cover the pan and cook the pears for about 1 hour. Then add the port wine & cook for another 30 minutes. 
• Turn off the heat and let the pears cool in the pan with the lid on, outside of the refrigerator.

How to make the cake:

You start with the dough for the speculoos base:

• Beat the butter with the sugar until creamy. 
• Beat in the egg.
• Then add the mixed spice/speculoos spice, cinnamon, xanthan gum, salt, cream of tartar and all of the gluten-free flour and kneed the dough (using a mixer) into a firm ball. 
• Put this, covered with foil, in the refrigerator for an hour.
• Line a spring baking tin with baking parchment and butter the sides. 
• Roll out the dough on a clean surface and line the baking tin with it. Put it in the fridge.
• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade / 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Now make the cheesecake filling as follows:

• Mix the cream cheese, cottage cheese, sugar, cinnamon, mixed spices and vanilla until you have a smooth mixture. 
• Fold in the eggs one at a time. 
• Remove the tin from the fridge and pour the mixture onto the crust. 
• Put the pears on top. 
• Bake the cake about 1 hour in the preheated oven. 
• The cake should have a beautiful golden color and there should be no more moisture to be seen. 
• Allow the cake to cool for at least three hours on a wire rack before you serve it. 

Enjoy!

Ps. next time I'm making this cheesecake, I'll chop up some 1 extra stewed pear and mix it through the cheesecake mixture. That would make it even more fabulous!!