Blueberry Pie or Blueberry Cheesecake?

Blueberry, originally uploaded by bcymet.

 

We are rather big fans of Food Network Challenges but aren’t usually inspired to recreate anything we see. Last week however a recipe for a blueberry pie with a layer of cheesecake caught my (N.) eye. The concept was to use a regular pie crust and pie filling but between the two is a thin layer of cheesecake. Of course the lady didn’t go into details about how to make the pie since it was a contest so I decided to see what I could find online. As I’ve mentioned before I’m a huge fan of finding recipes online because you can see what hundred of people thought of the recipe and any changes that they made.

In this case though I let the changes people made lead me stray. The original recipe is here. I follow the added instructions from Kathie. She in turn was following the instructions of many reviewers before her who recommended doubling the amount of cream cheese. That’s what we did and while it is REALLY good it makes it a cheesecake with a blueberry pie topping versus a blueberry pie with a cheesecake layer or filling. I realize I may be quibbling over a small thing but if you make this I want you to know what to expect.

In addition to doubling the cream cheese Kathie also suggested adding 1/2 cup sour cream and 1 tsp of vanilla to the cream cheese. I think this added a lot to the overall flavor and would highly recommend it. We bought graham crackers and smashed them ourselves would adds a nice texture versus the store bought graham cracker crumbs, we used 8 tbs instead of 7 because I like a thicker crust. We purchased 1 qt of blueberries but only used 3/4 of that. With all the cream cheese filling the pie was ready to overflow! Overall we love the pie but I will say that we both thought it was a little too sweet. And let me tell you, I LOVE sweet! So it’s really a big deal for me to say that. One of the reviewers cut the amount of sugar in half but felt it wasn’t sweet enough so perhaps you should try 2/3 and see if it doesn’t come out “just right.” We didn’t use whip cream on top and I don’t think it would add anything. In fact I think it would take away from the taste and texture of the slightly tart berries and the sweet cream cheese.

If you are looking for a dessert to use up some berries we HIGHLY recommend it. It has such great flavors and texture and it really isn’t all that hard to make. It took less than an hour to make and though you are supposed to let it sit overnight in the fridge we ate it right away 🙂