Blueberry and mascarpone cheesecake with amaretti crust
Lets talk cookbooks. To start, I have plenty of them and though the exact number has never been identified, my cramped shelves could speak for themselves. How many of them do I actually use? I guess two or three at most!
The problem I find with a lot of cookbooks is that I buy them, I cook a couple of recipes from them and that’s where it usually ends. I tend to buy the books having read recommendations about them or after falling in love with a recipe or two, but after carefully going through the book, I don’t find more than 20% of the recipes inspiring enough to be brought to life.
There are exceptions to this rule of course, as some cookbooks or books meant to inspire cooking are so on the spot that they become best friends in kitchen. The two books I always refer to are The Flavor Bible and Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making. The first one is the source of stimulus or a kick for creativity when it’s needed; the second one covers the fundamentals of cooking and something that could be considered as the backbone of cooking.
When I was thinking of something for the first blog giveaway (still time to enter), those were the first two books I thought of. The Sauces is a book not for the faint hearted my dears, it’s pilled up with information that can’t be browsed through but rather needs study and understanding approach. The Flavor Bible on the other hand has no recipes, but plenty of words to send your imagination for a swing! Hence for the first giveaway, I’ve went with the latter, but stay tuned as the Sauces will be one day as a giveaway item.
The idea for this recipe actually came from The Flavor Bible. I was searching for what to do with my leftover pack of blueberries, when I came across the note of the flavor affinity of mascarpone, cream, blueberries and lemon.
This is why l love this book so much, once it gives a hint of the star ingredients to work with, it gives way for your imagination to do the rest. When you think of these ingredients, the possibilities are limitless. You can make ice cream, parfait, trifle, fool and as in my case I’ve went for cheesecake.
There are a couple ways to make this goodness; one is by caramelizing the blueberries to a sticky candy like consistency, the other is by simply making a coulis to add to the cheesecake.
The idea of caramelized blueberries I’ve actually discovered rather by accident, I was heating up the blueberry coulis to melt the sugar and have left if for a little too long. By the time I took it of the heat, it was looking quite intriguing and inviting to be tasted, hence I’ve overlooked the bubbling signs, indicating how hot it actually was. Result? A week of walking around with a burned lip. Don’t try to repeat this particular step!
- 100g amaretti biscuits
- 110g digestive biscuits
- 90g butter, melted
- 320g blueberries
- 160g sugar
- 1 lemon zest
- 300 g mascarpone, room temperature
- 250g cream, chilled
- To make the crust: Heat the oven to 180C
- Crush the both biscuits in the food processor till fine crumbs, be sure not to leave any lumps. Then stir in the melted butter, coating all the crumbs.
- Line 4 mini cake tins with parchment paper Divide the crumbs between them and press them in. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- When done, let them cool completely.
- For the blueberry layer, blend 140 g blueberries and pass them through a sieve. Add the 150 g of sugar and cook on a medium heat for 5-10 minutes stirring all the time.
- This will result in a caramel like consistency (if you prefer to have the cheesecake without the blueberry caramel, then cook for not more than 2 minutes, the rest of the cooking process is the same).
- Top the cheesecake crust with sticky blueberries (equally between all 4) and let everything cool completely, otherwise the mascarpone layer will start melting once added.
- For the cheese layer,
- Whip the cream with 10g of sugar until soft peeks. Mix the lemon zest with mascarpone and gently stir in the whipped cream. Divide between the 4 cake tins and finish by decorating with remaining blueberries.
- Let it set in the fridge for 3-5 hours.
- Before serving, run around the edge of the cheesecakes with the tip of the knife and carefully remove the cake ring, lift of the base and serve!
- Tip: If you choose to make the cheesecake with blueberry coulis rather than caramel, you can chill it completely then stir in into the mascarpone cream cheese mixture and then top the crust.
Those are the prettiest blueberries I have seen & your cheesecake is such a beautiful platform for them! It looks so beautiful that I wouldn’t have the heart to slice it… I have no doubt it was yummy too! I know what you mean about the cookbooks – there are only a precious few that I keep going back to. Those books are winners! Thanks for sharing yours & this fabulous recipe
Thanks so much Marsha! It would be great if there was a good directory saying which cookbooks are worth the attention… Maybe some day
haha cracked up at the burnt lip story…sorry though!
fabulous recipe and pic here!!
i guess everyone goes by cookbooks the same way!
It may be funny know, but I can assure you as I was running around the kitchen with an ice cube in between the teeth to cool it down, there was nothing comical about the situation
Beautiful! I love mascarpone. I always have it in my kitchen.
This cool I just pinned and stumbled this!
Great recipe! Yummy!
These are cute – love the individual size with all those blueberries on top! Ad the crust with Amaretti cookies – yum!
That’s an original cheesecake!! I’ve never made one with mascarpone, it must be delicious. And i like the way you decorated it with blueberries!
So true about cookbooks, I used them but I always add something on my own..I have hard time following exact recipe
)
Your cheesecake looks so beautiful, and of course it would be hard to resist and not to eat it!!!
I love each and every of those photos..so delicious!!!
The use of amaretti biscuits in your crust sounds so good. I always seem to buy two pints of blueberries, use one right away and then wonder what to do with the second. Love to have a little cheesecake.
The fresh blueberries look beautiful on this! I love mascarpone cheesecake so much. This is a great dessert for summer!
mascarpone, cream, blueberries and lemon is actually a great flavor combination! And the amaretti crust must be making these cheesecakes just perfect! Thanks for sharing.
ps: on the contrary I have very very few cookbooks. I’m always tempted to buy more but I know I would not be using them much
Beautiful mini cheesecakes…love all these flavors….must be divine!!!
Oh my, this looks incredible, and I just happen to have some extra mascarpone…. thank you for the inspiration
Wowee! Very yummy cheesecakes. Love the amaretti crust!
Wow, these cheesecakes really look delicious and I love how you used amaretti biscuits for crust. I like how you put all the blueberries on top. So cute! Nice pictures and food styling! I hope your burnt lip will heal fast.
I love cheesecake, especially with fruit topping, and this little cheesecake looks amazing!
Wow! This looks so good! I have yet to find blueberries in Israel. I am hoping they pop up soon. I am completely with you on cookbooks. I have a collection that just sits collecting dust having only been used a handful of times. *sigh*
Wow! that looks gorgeous! love blueberries and the contrast with the white middle layer looks awesome…beautiful!
-Shilpa
That looks amazing! I too have way too many cookbooks to count – I actually end up rotating them in the Kitchen by season in hopes they will get more use, or give a little inspiration
Oh my goodness this cheesecake is gorgeous!! I love the amaretti crust. YUM!
Guilty of the very same recipe book issue! Lovely recipe. Your pictures are just fantastic.
Wow, this looks fabulous. Such a pretty little dessert
Ouch! that must have hurt! Hope it is all ok now…
Love your creation!..the combination of flavors..the pictures and styling..
amazing
oo these are so pretty! i have been craving cheesecake lately! will definitely have to enter the next giveaway
These look amazing! I love anything blueberry. Such beautiful photos!
Mascarpone cheesecake is by far my favorite! I love the crust idea on this. I usually do a plain almond crust with a chocolate-hazelnut ganache – I bet your crust would be a great edit to it!
This is a great dessert and you made it looks so pretty !
That blueberry swirl is so fun!
Beautiful! And looks so delicious!
Sunt foarte incantata de reteta, pare o minunatie, imi place extrem combinatia mascarpone+afine.
This looks an absolute delight, im adding it to my favourites now!
This looks fantastic! Marscapone and blueberries sound so delicious together!
Wow, I wish I could eat this through the computer. It looks amazing!
Those pictures are absolutely drool-worthy! I love busting out my Flavor Bible for moments like these – definitely going to be trying this one =)
Mmmm – this looks awesome!! Really nice pictures.. I am sure it tastes as good!!
This looks divine! I am not a sweet tooth, but it looks so cool and inviting. I will certainly try this out.
Wow! Beautiful!
Will you supply US measurements? I would like to bake this delish desserts.
Thanks for sharing !
i’m gonna wish you congrats top 9 in advance from now on!!
Congrats on the top 9!! These photos are amazing and I HAVE HAVE HAVE to make this dessert!!
I only recently discovered mascarpone. I don’t know how I could be unaware of the stuff was for so long…love it. I’ll definitely have to try it in a cheesecake. Yours is beautiful.
Thank you so much for the sweet words everybody! Makes my day a very happy one to read all the comment
Wow this looks fabulous — mascarpone is so expensive but sooooooo good!
Blueberry and amaretti is a great flavour combo!
mmmm… looks so good. I can’t wait for the blueberry season!
Mmmmmm I’m ready for dessert!