I was flattered when Mardi of Eat. Live. Travel. Write. invited me to participate in the newly-revived (by Denise of Chez Us) “Hay Hay It’s Donna Day” monthly cooking event, dedicated to Australian star cookbook writer and home economist, Donna Hay.  I’m always flattered when one of my food blogger friends invites me to participate in one of these challenges.  I’m a little intimidated by some of the company I keep, these days.  By the way, I’m not “in it to win it.”  I just think it’s a lot of fun to see what different people in different parts of the world do with the same basic recipe to make it their own. 

Anyway, I’d never heard of Donna Hay before now, but she is quite famous on the other side of the pond for her super-simple, yet elegant, dishes.

The object of the game is to take one of Donna Hay’s recipes, prepare it – giving it your own personal twist, photograph it, and post it.  Mardi, our hostess this month, chose a light summer dessert: Blackberry Cheesecake Pots. To see the original recipe, click on that link.

MJ’s not fond of blackberries (or raspberries either, for that matter), and in any event, we don’t really see those in any quantity down here.  But Florida blueberries are starting to come in, and they’re a perfect substitute!  First, the Donna Hay recipe, with my modifications, then my notes.

Blueberry Cheesecake Pots

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. package cream cheese (soft, at room temperature)
¼ cup caster (superfine) sugar
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
 1 cup fresh blueberries

• 8 biscotti, to serve

Preparation:

Combine the cream cheese, sugar, cream and vanilla in a medium bowl with an electric mixer (I used my hand mixer) at high speed, until well-mixed and fluffy.  Crush half the blueberries with a fork, and add to the cream cheese mixture.  Spoon into 4  6 oz. dishes and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Serve with the biscotti and the remaining blueberries. Serves 4.

Notes:  All the usual adjectives apply here: rich, but light, delicious, quick, easy.  You can throw this together in 5 minutes in the morning (leave the cream cheese out to soften overnight – you know, someplace where the cat won’t get at it), and have it for dessert that evening… if you can wait that long.

In Mardi’s post, she says that the texture of hers didn’t firm up as well as it should, more the consistency of yogurt.  Mine firmed up perfectly, and I suspect it’s due to a couple of differences in the ingredients.  The original recipe specifies 250 grams of cream cheese.  Here in the U.S., cream cheese comes in 8 ounce packages – that is, 226 grams – and I didn’t feel the need to make up the difference.  Also, Mardi used “single” cream (what I assume to be the equivalent of our “regular” whipping cream), while I used “heavy” whipping cream.  I did not whip the cream before adding to the cream cheese.

The original recipe instructs to use a food processor.  I did just fine with my hand mixer. You can certainly buy superfine sugar, but I just took my regular granulated sugar and ran it through the mini-chop attachment of my hand blender for about a minute and achieved the same results. Frankly, I’m not sure you really even need to worry about it at all – I use regular granulated sugar for normal cheesecakes, and I’ve never had a problem with it.

I took the recipe literally when it said to serve with biscotti, so I baked up some coordinating Blueberry Biscotti to go with:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

3/4 tsps salt

6 Tbs (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbs grated lemon peel

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 cup dried blueberries

3/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking liners. 

Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. 

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl to blend well. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in lemon peel, vanilla, and almond extract. 

Beat in flour mixture just until blended. Stir in blueberries and almonds (dough will be sticky). 

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Gather dough together; divide in half. Roll each half into 12-inch-long log (about 2 – 3 inches wide). Carefully transfer logs to 1 prepared baking sheet, spacing 3 inches apart. (I actually do this directly on the baking sheet, rather than moving the dough back and forth.)

Bake logs until almost firm to touch but still pale, about 28 minutes. Cool logs on baking sheet 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Carefully transfer logs still on parchment to cutting board. Using serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, cut logs crosswise into generous 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place slices, 1 cut side down, on remaining 2 prepared sheets.  (Be very careful if you’re doing this on the silicone baking mat, as you can cut right through it.  If at all possible, run an offset spatula gently under the biscotti log to loosen, and move it to a cutting board.)

Bake until firm and pale golden, about 9 minutes per side. Transfer cookies to racks and cool.

This was fun and added a new easy-to-make-but-good-enough-for-company dessert to my repertoire.   I’m also curious to learn more about Donna Hay and her recipes.  If they’re all like this, well, MS – move over!

The round-up for this challenge should be posted by June 5th, so stay tuned to see where it goes!