Honey and Cinnamon Cheesecake

We're going to have a quiet Easter this year, just the 2 of us on Easter Sunday, but we had friends coming on Good Friday. I'd made  Hot Cross Buns, but wanted to make a nice dessert to have after the fish pie.
I fancied a cheesecake, but a baked one, and looked in my books and online for inspiration.
I found this recipe, and as we love honey and I adore cinnamon, it was just the thing.
It was on an Australian blog, in cups, so I've changed the measures and adapted the recipe to suit our tastes. It uses cottage cheese and cream cheese and I wasn't sure about this, but it tasted delicious. It's an unusual cheesecake in that it has a pastry base - so is it a cheesecake? Well, seeing how much cheese is in it, I think so!

pastry:
225g plain flour
125g cold butter, chopped up
55g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tbspn finely grated lemon rind
about 3 tspns cold water

Filling:
250g cottage cheese
250g cream cheese
265g honey
110g caster sugar
2 tspns cinnamon [or more!]
4 eggs

grease a 22cm springform tin.

preheat oven to 200C/gas6

Rub butter into flour; add egg yolk, sugar, rind and enough water to make a dough.
Wrap in clingfilm and put in fridge for 1/2 hour.
I rolled the pastry out between 2 sheets of clingfilm, as I find this easier. Lift the pastry into the tin, and again put in fridge for 1/2 hour.
Cover pastry with foil or baking parchment and beans and bake for about 10 mins, then take beans and paper out and bake for further 10 mins or till it's light brown. Take out and leave on the side.
Turn oven down to 160C/gas 3
Filling - beat the cheeses, honey, sugar and cinnamon with electric mixer till nearly smooth, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one.
Pour into pastry case and bake for about 11/2 hours or till filling is firm. Leave to cool, then put in fridge overnight.
When you're ready to serve, drizzle with a little honey.

Everyone enjoyed this. Nice contrast between the pastry and the soft filling, and the flavours of the honey and cinnamon together was delicious. It's very rich, but not too sweet for our taste.An unusual cheesecake, but one I'd certainly make again.

Blueberry streusel cake

There seem to be a lot of blueberries on offer in the supermarkets, so decided to buy some to try out a recipe given to me by my friend. She says it's a cross between a blueberry muffin and an old fashioned cheesecake with a cream cheese filling. Sounds interesting. I think the original recipe must be American, as it's called a coffeecake.

Topping:
120g butter, softened
150g sugar
30g brown sugar
60g chopped nuts
11/2 tspn cinnamon
1/2tspn nutmeg

Cream cheese filling:
375g cream cheese
90g sugar
1 egg
grated rind of a lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tspn almond essence

Cake:
500g plain flour
4 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
120g butter, softened
300g sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tspn almond essence
300ml milk
750g fresh blueberries

Preheat oven 375F/190C/gas 5

Generously butter a 32x22cm [13x9"] glass baking dish

Topping - rub all the ingredients together till large crumbs.
Filling- soften cheese and beat with the sugar using an electric mixer till creamy. Beat in the egg, lemon rind and juice and almond essence till smooth.
Cake - Put flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl put the butter and sugar and beat with an electric mixer till light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and then the almond essence.
Beat in rhe flour mixture gently, alternating with some milk, till it's well mixed; if it's too stiff, add a little more milk, then fold in the blueberries.
Spread about half of the mixture on the bottom of the dish, smoothing the top and making sure it's right in the corners. Spread the cheese filling over and sprinkle with about a quarter of the topping. Drop the remaining cake mixture on top by spoonfuls, but try not to mix up the layers! Sprinkle the rest of the topping evenly over the surface.
Bake till the topping is crisp and golden - about 50 mins to 1 hour.
When cool, cut into squares.

The recipe sounds complicated but it isn't. It's a bit of a faff making the topping, but I added the spices to the flour, then rubbed in the butter and sugar and finally the nuts.

I love the cheese filling and the streusel topping which give the cake different textures.

 The reason a glass dish is suggested for cooking is because the blueberries 'could react with metal'. Not sure I agree with this, as I've cooked blueberry cakes many times in a springform tin with no problems. Anyway, I used my glass shepherd's pie dish, which was about the right size.

It's not an every day cake, well not for us anyway, too many calories, but it's a nice cake to make to share with friends, or as a dessert maybe, with some creme fraiche.