Blueberry Cheesecake Tart – desserts that spell happiness!
Blueberry Cheesecake Tart … a delicious dessert that has a few of my favourite things – berries, cheesecake, tart! Tarts are easily the most underrated desserts, also quite easily the easiest desserts to make. There’s so much you can do with them, so many flavours and elements you can put together. and this tart’s no different.
It has a few of my favourite things – a quick, no bake biscuit base, a berry compote which adds deep flavour and colour, then a smooth vanilla bean cheesecake filling that covers the compote lusciously. That’s really all there is you need to do. Leave the tart to set and you have dessert!
Use any fruit filling you like – all berries are good here, an apple compote with fall spices will also taste wonderful, maybe salted caramel, perhaps a peanut butter layer. Let your imagination loose and make a tart of your dreams!
If you struggle to get a neat tart shell, then I have you covered. I have made tarts forever, and each time I learn something new. Head to the bottom of the post for a tart shell FAQ. Fell free to ask if you have any questions!
More BLUEBERRY recipes to inspire you! More TART recipes & EGGLESS DESSERT ideas
Do tag me on Instagram at passionateaboutbaking if you make this, or any other recipe from the blog. I’d love to see it! Thank you for stopping by!
Blueberry Cheesecake Tart
Ingredients
Tart base
- 150 g digestive biscuits
- 40 g clarified butter/ghee melted, cooled
Blueberry Compote
- 225 g fresh/frozen blueberries
- 50-65 g granulated sugar
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour stirred into 2 tbsp water
Vanilla bean cheesecake filling
- 225 g Amul Fresh cream / 25% fat cream
- 2 tsp agar agar
- 30 g sugar {to taste}
- 100 g white chocolate chopped
- 1/2 vanilla bean scraped {or vanilla extract}
- 200 g cream cheese whisked, smooth
Instructions
Tart base 8”
- Place the biscuits in a processor and blend to a fine meal. Stir in the melted clarified butter/ghee. {If the weather is cool, you might need 5-10g more melted ghee}.
- Work up the sides of an 8" loose bottom tart tin firmly, then press firmly to make the base. {See FAQ below}
- Place the tin in the freezer for an hour while you make the filling. Once the base is chilled and firm, gently loosen the edges of the chilled tart shell and return to the tin and leave in the freezer.
Blueberry Compote
- Place all the ingredients in a heavy bottom pan and simmer slowly until the berries begin to soften and release their juices and the compote thickens.
Vanilla bean cheesecake filling
- Place the cream, sugar and agar agar in a saucepan and whisk until smooth. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes stirring often to activate the agar agar.
- Pour this over the white chocolate and leave to stand until the chocolate melts, then stir in the scraped vanilla bean. Strain.
- Whisk in the cream cheese just before you need to pour the filling. Taste and adjust sweetness as desired.
Assemble See video
- Pour the blueberry compote over the chilled biscuit base and place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Reserve a tbsp for the top if you like.
- Pour the cheesecake filling over the compote and place the tart in the freezer for an hour, then place in the fridge for about 6 hours or overnight {still in the tart tin}.
- Demold, top with the reserved compote, fresh herbs, edible flowers etc.
Can I use gelatin instead?
Yes you could. Usually, agar agar and gelatin are equally substituted, for eg 1tsp agar agar powder = 1 tsp gelatin powder.
Please use it as per instructions as gelatin needs to be bloomed, not cooked.Why didn’t my tart set?
It could be any of the following reasons.
1. Brand of agar agar
2. Incorrect measurement of agar agar.
3. The mixture not simmered/heated/cooked enough to reach 79C to activate the agar agar.
4. The tart was not left for long enough in the fridge.
Pro Tip: Make a small portion of the filling and test the set in advance. Different brands might have slightly different setting properties. I use the one from Urban Platter mostly.How do I get a clean tart shell?
1. Use a loose bottom good quality tart shell. Here’s the TART TIN I use. It’s available on Amazon.in.
2. Line the base with a circle of parchment. This is optional but I find it useful.
3. Begin by building the sides first, nice and neat and firmly built to the top. Use your fingers or a spoon. Once the sides are built, make sure they are parallel to the edges, scrape off any extra to the bottom so you get a straight, flat wall right around. Once this is done, firmly push the remaining crumbs to form the base, then neaten up the edges where the base meets the walls.
4. Once done, place the whole tin in the freezer for about an hour until it is frozen, then gently push the base up, applying equal pressure all around to loosen the biscuit shell. Once loose, return to the tin and leave in the freezer until required.
5. Always be gentle when handling the biscuit base since it isn’t baked. Once the filling has set, the tart isn’t that fragile.
Tip: Please don’t remove the biscuit base from the tin before filling it. If you do, the tart will collapse with the pressure from the yet to set filling.
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
2 Comments
Ashley
The overall product was fine. However, I truly think the cheesecake filling only needs a single tsp of agar agar. The texture was very off putting. Overall you can’t go wrong with canaliza bean and blueberry.
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Ashley. Thank you for taking the time to comment. Agar agar is honestly a tricky ingredient and an extra bit of it can be very off putting, I can imagine. It worked quite beautifully with my recipe in the written amounts. I recently learnt that it comes in different strengths too. That might have been the reason, and the other one possibly the kind of cream. We get very limited brands and ingredients here so I make do with what is available locally. I hope you try the recipe again with a lesser amount of agar agar. Alternatively, if you get a 40% whipping cream that holds well, you might not need agar agar at all! Thank you again.