Description
Enjoy this light and lemony cheesecake with its delicious blueberry topping. It’s excellent as a summer dessert, especially if you can find wild blueberries or huckleberries, or use frozen thawed and drained blueberries.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
- 4 large egg whites
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 3 cups fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries, thawed
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 9 inch springform pan. Cut an 18 inch square of aluminum foil
- and wrap around the outside bottom of the pan.
- To make the crust
- mix the graham cracker crumbs and brown sugar together in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter until thoroughly blended. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until golden brown
- about 8 minutes. Remove pan from oven and cool on a rack.
- To make the filling
- place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl; beat until creamy
- about 2 minutes. Continue beating while gradually adding 1 cup sugar. Beat until sugar is thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg yolks
- one at a time
- scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Mix in the lemon zest
- lemon juice
- vanilla
- and sour cream until well blended.
- Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. Continue beating while gradually adding 1/3 cup sugar in a slow stream
- until stiff peaks form. Do not overbeat. Gently fold 1/3 of the meringue into the cream cheese mixture. Repeat twice more with remaining meringue
- mixing carefully to not deflate the egg whites
- until no meringue streaks remain. Pour the filling into the prepared pan
- and place in a large baking pan. Pour hot (not boiling) water into the baking pan up to 1 inch on the sides of the springform pan.
- Bake in preheated oven until the top is almost set
- 50-55 minutes. Turn off the heat
- prop the oven door open about 2 inches
- and allow cake to rest in the oven until completely set
- about 1 hour longer. Refrigerate at least 4 hours
- or overnight before serving.
- To make the topping
- place 1 cup blueberries and sugar in a saucepan; cook over medium heat until berries begin to break
- 6-8 minutes. While still hot
- strain the berries through a sieve or cheesecloth placed over a bowl
- reserving the juice. Discard berry pulp. Allow the juice to cool.
- Mix remaining 2 cups blueberries and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Stir in the strained blueberry juice. Just before serving
- pour the blueberry topping over the cheesecake.
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 50 mins
Total Time: 6 hrs 20 mins
Servings: 12