Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

A no-bake creamy cheesecake pie. The crust is made with ground almonds and the cheesecake filling is topped with a barely sweet homemade blueberry pie filling. We cooks love to elicit moans of approval, this one's not to be missed!

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

The Donut Diet

The Donut Diet, that's what I call the way my 90-year old father eats since he came to live with us almost four months ago now. Sure, he eats meat, vegetables and fruits with considerable gusto. But really, it's only the sweets that give real pleasure.

His Donut Diet started with actual donuts from old-time bakeries across St. Louis. Yes, we'll drive 20 miles for a good donut! So far, we'll drive out of our way for:

• The Donut Stop in Lemay Ferry and St. Charles (oh! the peanut butter donut!)
• Old Town Donuts in Florissant and Cottleville
• Bakers Dozen in Overland (oh! the c-i-n-n-a-m-o-n twists!)
• Fenton Old Towne Donuts in Old Towne Fenton near the river (famous for its bacon donuts!)

We've learned that he (and we) most like old-fashioned donuts. The acclaimed new-fangledstrangled Strange Donuts? Definitely not to our taste.

When Donuts Get Old? #PieDayFriday

But even excellent donuts get old – plus, you know, that drive. So I started to bake cookies and quick breads and make ice cream. And pie!

I've even designated Pie Day Friday. There's also Soup Sunday and Meatless Monday but no surprise, only Pie Day Friday makes Dad check the calendar and count the days.

His favorite pie is "yellow pie" – that means sunny slivers of Lemon Meringue Pie or Banana Cream Pie or an old-fashioned pie I've yet to master, Coconut Cream.

RESOURCES #PieDayFriday became a thing for almost two years! Just look at all those pies! And it took some doing but I totally nailed Coconut Cream Pie! It's now my #1 requested pie!

(Pie) Silence Is Golden

But no question, Dad and all of us really love this Blueberry Cheesecake Pie. It's a dreamy-creamy concoction that brings tables to silence, usually topped with blueberries, other times with summer cherries.

I'd also definitely top it with peaches or mango or sour cherries. It's a great recipe to keep on hand, easy to make with pantry ingredients.

In fact, while all three components (the crust, the cheesecake filling, the homemade pie filling) work together so well in this pie, individually, each one is a "keeper" useful for other dishes.

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BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE PIE

Hands-on time: 45 minutes
Time to table: 3 hours
Makes 1 pie, serves 8 or 10

ALMOND PRESS-IN CRUST
• 1 cup flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring or 125g
• 1/2 cup (60g) almond meal
• 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold salted butter

HOMEMADE BLUEBERRY PIE FILLING
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch stirred with 1 tablespoon water
• 3 cups (about 1 pound, 454g) fresh blueberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

CHEESECAKE FILLING
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces (225g) low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150g) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

ALMOND PRESS-IN CRUST Heat oven to 400F (200C). Spray a glass pie pan with baking spray. In a bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar and almond meal. With a pastry blender, cut the butter into flour mixture. Transfer mixture to pie pan. With the back of a spoon, press mixture to form a crust, the sides first, then the bottom, gently at first to shape the crust, then firmly to compress it. Bake for 13 minutes, remove from oven, use the spoon to press the sides and bottom of crust again, then finish baking until golden, another 2 or 3 minutes. Let cool.

HOMEMADE BLUEBERRY PIE FILLING In a saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir in corn starch-water mixture, let cook for 1 minute until slightly thick. Add blueberries and return to a boil. Let cook for about 5 - 10 minutes, until berries soften but do not pop. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and almond extract. Let cool.

CHEESECAKE FILLING In a bowl, whip the cream until thick. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract until light. With a spatula, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

FILL & CHILL Spread Cheesecake Filling into the cooled Almond Press-In Crust. Chill for at least one hour.

TOP & CHILL After the Cheesecake Filling has firmed up, gently spread the Homemade Blueberry Pie Filling over top, leaving a narrow edge of exposed Cheesecake Filling. Continue chilling for at least another hour.

MAKE-AHEAD TIPS Best made and served the same day.

VARIATIONS I also make Homemade Cherry Pie Filling. Wow, so so good and so so pretty! It does take a good 30 minutes to pit the generous pound of sweet cherries it takes to yield a pound of pitted fruit, so plan ahead! I do think frozen cherries would work beautifully, however.

RESOURCES If you make pie crusts (or aspire to ...), a pastry blender is an inexpensive tool that really helps cut the fat (butter, shortening, etc ...) into the flour, almond flour, etc. My Disclosure Promise But if you don't have one, use a large meat fork. Increasingly I turn to a "free" pastry mixing tool, my own hands! Just cut the butter into tiny cubes, then press some almond flour and a cube between your thumb and forefinger, flattening the butter into a almond-laden disk. It seems weird (and slow) at first but you set up a rhythm after a bit, using both hands at the same time.

ALANNA's TIPS No baking spray? Just wipe the pie pan with the butter's paper wrapper. A little bit of fat in the pie pan makes a big difference later, getting clean slices of pie to release from the pan. Look for almond meal at Trader Joe's or use a food processor to finely chop whole almonds with their skins on. No pastry blender? Use a large fork like a meat fork. The Homemade Blueberry Pie Filling isn't especially sweet, it works beautifully with the sweet and creamy Cheesecake Filling. If you want to use it alone for another purpose, however, you might want to use more sugar. Could you use a canned filling? Sure! We are l-o-v-i-n-g the blueberries from Sam's Club right now, inexpensive and bursting with flavor. For cleaner slices, I tried freezing the cheesecake pie. Too bad, it doesn't really freeze, the cheesecake filling is a little too soft and the berries get hard and frosty. Embrace slightly messy slices, the oohs and ahhhs will compensate.

RECIPE INSPIRATION Some while before her death, my dear friend Linda Behrends shared this recipe, it came from her sister-in-law Lanette Price. Her notes say she made it with pecan meal (great idea!) in a 10-inch round cake pan and it occurs to me, it could also work well in a tart pan with a removeable bottom. Linda liked the crust itself so much, she'd some times press the dough onto a baking sheet, bake it and then crumble onto fresh peaches or nectarines. (In 2010, I wrote a remembrance for Linda, shared with my recipe for Deviled Eggs with Tomato-Herb Relish.)

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Slice, assumes 8: 544 Calories; 31g Tot Fat; 19g Sat Fat; 92mg Cholesterol; 209mg Sodium; 56g Carb; 3g Fiber; 37g Sugar; 7g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 13 & PointsPlus 15 & SmartPoints 25 Wow, total indulgence, the points really add up. It's why I continue to calculate points. Because, really, how many times do we see recipes and think, "Well, it can't be so many points, it's got fruit after all" or see a nutrition label for 500+ calories (or worse still, a restaurant dish for 1000+ calories) and think, "Well, that's not so bad." Better to make conscious choices than to pull the wool whipped cream over our eyes. One issue? A slice of pie is B-I-G. Perhaps a bite-size dessert? We adore these little Mini Blueberry Tarts!

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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