Sometimes, I have grand plans for a new recipe, and it all falls apart somewhere, leaving me wondering why I ever thought that was going to work in the first place. That happened with a quick bread a few weeks ago, that morphed into a cake, that ultimately ended up being a completely failure.
Then we have recipes like this one.
This began life as an idea for a no-bake cheesecake. I did a few trials of the filling, and we agree it was one of the best things ever, so one day I set out to get the whole put together and blog-ready. Then, while I was baking the graham cracker crust, I got distracted and missed the timer going off. The smoke alarm got my attention though.
Darn – that was the last of my graham crackers too. I don’t run to the store for a single item ever – it’s a bit of a haul to go to town, and I just make do with what is on hand – it’s a thing with me. But the filling was all made and extremely luscious, so today you get a recipe for Blueberry Cheesecake Mousse. If you want to make it and plop it into a graham cracker crust, I will be happy for you, but it is excellent all on it’s own. Just keep an eye on the crust while it’s baking is my advice.
It is a really good year for blueberries around here, so this will very likely not be the only recipe using them that you will see – it is going to be a hard ac to follow though.
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- ¾ cups granulated sugar
- juice of 1 lemon - 2 or 3 tablespoons
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin powder
- 3 tablespoons cold water
- I cup heavy cream, very cold
- 2 8 ounce packages regular cream cheese
- Place the blueberries and sugar in a medium saucepan, and mash the berries slightly, so that a little juice starts.
- Heat over a low flame, until they become quite juicy and then cook about 5 minutes.
- Mix in the lemon juice and salt, and while they are still hot, run them through a fine mesh strainer, pushing in the solids to extract all of the juice.
- Place the gelatin and water in a small dish for about 5 minutes, so the gelatin softens.
- Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, until the mixture becomes all liquid and uniform.
- Place in the fridge to cool, but not long enough for it to get at all solid - 5 minutes will probably do it.
- Beat the cream slowly for a few minutes, until it starts to get foamy [a stand mixer is easiest for this, but a good size bowl and an electric hand mixer will work].
- Turn the speed up to medium and beat until it begins to gain some good volume.
- Scrape the gelatin mixture into the cream, turn up the speed, and beat until it forms slightly more than soft peaks. Stash the cream in a small bowl for a few minutes.
- Return the bowl to the mixer, and keep on the whisk attachment - no need to wash it out - and beat the cream cheese for 2 minutes, until it is fluffy.
- Beat in the blueberry mixture.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer, and fold in half of the whipped cream - you can actually use the whisk from the mixer for the first half if you like.
- Gently fold in the second half of the whipped cream, trying to maintain as much volume as possible.
- Chill for at least 3 hours before serving. I used baby martini glasses for serving - a serving of ½ to ¾ of a cup is plenty. Sprinkle a few more berries on top, or top with some additional whipped cream. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.
If you are going to have a recipe “fail”, in my opinion, this is the way to do it!
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