Blueberry Ginger Ricotta Cheesecake

It was Mr. Tango´s birthday yesterday, so I modified The Sicilian Ricotta Cheesecake and used the left over Shortbread Cookie dough for a crust and added a Blueberry Ginger Topping.

Pre-bake the Shortbread cookie dough in the bottom of pan, just press it in covering the bottom, bake for about 10 or 15 minutes on low, until the crust turns to a light golden colour. You can do this the night before to save time.

Ginger Ricotta Cheesecake:
INGREDIENTS:

* 750 g ricotta cheese
* 120 g white sugar
* 30 g all-purpose flour
* 3 eggs
* 0.6 g grated ginger
* 4 g orange zest
* 10 ml vanilla extract
* 0.8 g salt (*oops i forgot to add)

DIRECTIONS:

1. **Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Set rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and flour a *6 1/2 inch springform pan, and ***tap out excess flour.
2. Place the ricotta in a large mixing bowl, and stir it as smooth as possible with a rubber spatula. Stir the sugar and flour together thoroughly into the ricotta. Stir in the eggs 1 at a time. Blend in the vanilla, cinnamon, orange zest, and salt. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the center of the oven for about ****1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until a light golden color. Make sure the center is fairly firm, and the point of a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. It will sink slightly as it cools. Cover, and chill till serving time.

* Forgot to add the salt!

** In Argentina our ovens basically have 2 settings low and hot, I used low

*** Forgot to butter and flour pan

**** I used a Pan Dulce Spring Form Pan, which is about 6.5" and much taller. Cooking time was about 90 to 105 minutes more or less.

Blueberry Ginger Topping:
INGREDIENTS

* 250 g blueberry jam
* 75 ml water
* bit of grated ginger
* 15 mls maizena (corn starch)
* 15 mls sugar

In a small pot warm jam, ginger, water and sugar, stirring out lumps.
Add some of the warmed liquid to a cup and add maizena through a sieve, stir thoughly and add back into mixture on stove. Keep stirring until thickens...you can put in the freezer for a bit to cool down before adding to top of cake.

End result:
I was a bit worried the crust would burn in the second baking phase, sooooo I read that you could bake the cheesecake in a bath water. Well little good was that! My pan was not hermetically sealed and some water seeped in. So I dumped out the water as best I could and poured the batter back into the bowl to drain out the remaining water. The crust became a bit damp, but in the end once the baking was done everything was perfectly fine...crust and all. I found the ginger flavour did not come through in the cake, so I will try and add more the next time, but I could taste it in the blueberry topping. All together the ingredients added up to around 11 pesos more or less, pretty good considering a small cheesecake costs about 30 pesos, or 10.50 for a slice with coffee at Bonafide.