Ombre blueberry and chocolate cheesecake

I saw a photo of this cheesecake on instagram (originally from the German blog Butiksofie) and decided that it was so beautiful I just had to make it!  The original recipe was all in German and with some very unreliable help from google translate (“Curds thirds and 2 of 3 portions with the desired blueberry amount mull. Once little more even slightly less.”) and using my other cheesecake recipes as a guide, I came up with an approximation of the recipe which was pretty successful.  It does use a lot of blueberries (which can be expensive if you use fresh), and it’s time consuming to get the ombre effect as you have to set each section separately before adding the next (you need to start this the day before you want to eat it  or very very early in the morning) — but I love the effect and it’s worth it for a special occasion.

Ombre blueberry and chocolate cheesecake

For the base :

1 packet Romany cream biscuits or 200 g of any nice chocolate/oat type biscuits
50g melted butter

Grease a 15 x 10cm springform pan with butter and line with baking paper.   Melt the butter, crush up the biscuits in a pestle and mortar, mix together and press firmly into the tin using a spoon. Refrigerate until cold and firm.

5 tsp gelatine
4 tbsp hot water
500g cottage cheese (or quark)
250g mascarpone
80ml whipping cream
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon
500g blueberries

For the topping

blueberries
100g dark chocolate
35g coconut oil

Whip the cream until soft peaks form and refrigerate.  Combine the cream cheese, mascarpone, caster sugar, vanilla and the lemon juice and whisk until smooth.  Puree the blueberries in a food processor.

Now comes the tricky part.  Divide the cream cheese mixture equally into 3 bowls.  Put 2 of the bowls into the fridge until later.

Dissolve 2 tsp of gelatine in 1.5 tbsp of hot water and whisk into the first bowl until well combined.  Add about 3/4 of the pureed blueberries and mix in well, then fold in the whipped cream.  Pour onto the biscuit base and smooth the top.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Take the second bowl out of the fridge, add 2 tsp gelatine dissolved in 1.5 tbsp hot water, remaining pureed blueberries and 1/3 of the cream as above.  Pour onto the first layer carefully and smooth the top.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Take the last bowl out of the fridge, add 1 tsp gelatine dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water and the rest of the cream as above.  Pour carefully onto the second layer and smooth the top.

You guessed it - refrigerate for at least 2 hours!

Once the cheesecake is totally set, make a chocolate topping by melting the chocolate carefully in the microwave (or a double boiler).  Add the coconut oil and stir.  Allow it too cool so that it is lukewarm but hasn’t started to set.   Remove the cheesecake carefully from the pan, spoon the chocolate topping over the top so it drips down the edges a little.  Decorate with whole blueberries and put back in the fridge until the chocolate is set.