Blueberry-Lemon Cheesecake Squares from Cabot Creamery Farmers
I have been a Cabot fan for years. Their extra-sharp cheddar is my favorite supermarket cheese. What might not be apparent about the brand is that it is made up of a cooperative of family farms and has been since the turn of the 20th century. Beginning with 93 farm families near the central Vermont town of Cabot and culminating at this point in time with 1200 farms, they supply fresh milk for all of the dairy products – milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, dips, cream cheese and more. The Cabot Creamery Cookbookbrings us recipes for real home-cooking from the farmer’s themselves. Makes perfect sense. If you have that amazing cheese and cream around, you get creative! Cheesecake is a perennial favorite but sometimes bakers think it is too complicated. This recipe for Blueberry-Lemon Cheesecake Squares is from the Krebs family in Starks, Maine where they farm 400 acres. It features a creamy lemon flavored cheesecake dotted with blueberries and is baked simply in an oblong pan. Easy to cut into squares, it makes a great potluck, buffet or bake sale dessert. Also check out the book’s Savory Herb Corn Muffins.
Excerpted with permission. The Cabot Creamery Cookbook: Simple, Wholesome Dishes from America’s Best Dairy Farms. Published by Oxmoor House, 2015.
This luscious cheesecake is baked in a rectangular pan, making it very easy to serve to a crowd, as Billie Jo Krebs has done at Cabot co-op meetings. It features sweet wild blueberries, which ripen in August, but you can also use cultivated blueberries. Billie Jo credits her mom, Carolee Hand, the family baker, with the recipe.
- 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs (1 sleeve or 9 whole cracker sheets)
- 3 Tbsp. sugar
- 3 Tbsp. butter, melted
- 1 Tbsp. firmly packed lemon zest (from about 1 to 2 lemons)
- 3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from about 1 to 2 lemons)
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups (about 1 pt.) fresh or frozen Maine wild blueberries
- Preheat oven to 325°. Line a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with aluminum foil, allowing foil to extend 1 inch over edge of dish. Lightly grease foil with cooking spray.
- Stir graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar, and butter together in a small bowl. Press mixture into bottom of prepared dish. Bake 10 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour).
- Beat lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add sour cream, and beat until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating at low speed just until yellow disappears.
- Gently stir in blueberries. Pour batter over crust, and spread evenly.
- Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 15 minutes.
- Remove cheesecake from oven, and cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill 4 hours. Lift cheesecake and foil out of dish. Peel edges of foil away from cheesecake. Cut cheesecake into squares.
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