16/52 Blueberry Cheesecake

New York Cheesecake is my absolute favorite! I just felt that you should know that before I continue...

It was my friend Martina's birthday last week and I told her that I would bake her any cake she wanted. So after some thinking, she decided that she wanted a cheesecake. But not the NY kind...
It is hard to believe but there are actually people out there who do not like NY cheesecake! And Martina happens to be one of them. She likes the German version that uses 'Quark' (curd cheese or fromage blanc).

Since I promised to bake whatever she likes, I grudgingly had to give in... But not before trying to convince her to at least add something to the filling, like tangerine slices (very good in cheesecake) or chocolate chips (never tried that but imagine it to be good, too). So she gave in a little as well and decided for blueberries.
Fine by me.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Adapted from here

For the base/crust:

200 g (1.6 cups) flour

75 g (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) sugar

75 g (1/3 cup) margarine

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

For the filling:

125 g (1/2 cup) margarine

225 g (1 1/8 cup) sugar

1 packet vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

1 packet (= 40 g) vanilla pudding powder (or: 4 tablespoons corn starch + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

3 eggs

500 g (2 1/4 cups) quark

200 g (0.87 cup) sour cream

200 g (0.84 cup) heavy cream, fluid

250 g (1 2/3 cup) blueberries

• Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F).
• Mix all ingredients for the crust and quickly combine them using your hands, until you have a smooth dough.
• For the filling, mix together margarine, sugar, vanilla sugar (or extract), pudding powder, and eggs. Add quark and sour cream. Beat heavy cream until stiff and carefully fold into the quark-mix.
• Spread out crust into greased springform pan (and don't forget to pull it up the sides as well). Using a fork, put some holes in the crust bottom and arrange blueberries on it.

• Pour cheese filling on top and bake for about 1 hour.

• When done, leave oven door open for a couple of minutes before taking out the cake so that it doesn't collapse too quickly. Be prepared for it to collapse though, that's how it's supposed to be!

My modifications:

The original recipe does not include any fruit or other additions to the filling.

The taste:

I love New York Cheesecake. Wait... did I mention this already?
But - I have to admit that this cake is delicious! It looks perfect and it tastes perfect. You should definitely try it!

Oh, and in case you're wondering why I know how it tasted if I made it for Martina - we agreed that we will split the cake so she got half and I got half. That's fair, right?

Do you like cheesecake? Which is your favorite version?