The Best Blueberry Cheesecake

Seasoned Cook's Note:

AWESOME! DELICIOUS! This is my favorite dessert! My family has been a blueberry grower for the market for over 40 years. We have perfected many blueberry recipes and this is one of them! It is absolutely delicious! If you want sugar free, substitute Splenda for the sugar.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 8-10

Yield: 1.0 pie

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 8 ounces sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 2 cups blueberries
• 1 cup Cool Whip
• 1/4 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Press into bottom and up sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool.
2. Beat softened cream cheese and add 1 cup sugar, flour and salt until blended. Add eggs, one at a time and blend.
3. Add sour cream, vanilla and lemon extracts. Gently stie in blueberries. Pour mixture into cooled crust.
4. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 50 minutes. (Cheesecake will be done when it still jiggles in the middle.) Turn off oven and let remain in oven with door open for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool. Cover and chill cheesecake in refrigerator.
5. Lightly mix Cool Whip and 1/4 cup of sour cream. Spread over cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before cutting.
6. Note: Refrigeration time is not included.

Reviews

[Ellee]

This was awesome! We had gone blueberry picking and I wanted to make a blueberry cheesecake that incorporated fresh blueberries in the pie, and not just for a topping. This recipe fit the bill and was absolutely delicious. I used a store-bought graham cracker crust and was not able to fit all the filling in (I used a very generous helping of bluberries, which might have contributed to the overflow problem). Anyway, I filled the crust to above the brim and the resultant pie looked a bit like a blueberry muffin! I served it without the coolwhip and sour cream topping, and nobody missed it. Other than using a store-bought crust, the only other modification I made was under duress, I did not have any lemon extract. I was tempted to use lemon juice as a sub or ignore this ingredient altoghter, but luckily did a google search and learned that lemon juice is too acidic to sub for lemon extract. But I did learn that I could sub lemon zest. I had a fresh lemon in my fridge but no 'zesting" equipment, so I painstakinly peeled the yellow outer layer off my lemon w/ a carrot peeler and one of my boys chopped it fine and we threw in about 2 teaspoons of lemon peel - and WOW did it add a fabulous taste to the cheesecake! I also used reduced fat cream cheese - but could never have discerned that in the end product. I plan to use this fabulous recipe every summer!

[JTBung]

This cheesecake was AMAZING! So creamy and the lemon was a fresh tasty complement to the blueberries. I wasn't sure about the frosting/icing, but went with it. Good thing, too, it was a perfect topper for this cake. It was so good, we all stuffed ourselves silly! My husband requested blueberry cheesecake for his birthday - this will definitely become an annual tradition!! Thanks so much for a great recipe!! :-)

[The Real Cake Baker]

Substitutions I made were used palm sugar in the granola crust and xylitol for the sugar and made it sugar free.