Prep. time : 25 minutes
Cooking time : 45 minutes
Refrigeration time : 12 hours

“Vergeoise” is made from beet syrup obtained from the first centrifuging of sugar. It may be blond (one cooking) or brown (two cookings).
You can obtain it in certain specialty food shops – otherwise, substitute brown sugar. 

Vergeoise is used a lot in northern France and Belgium to flavor crêpes, caramelize crème brûlée and make speculoos biscuits.

1. Preheat the oven to 150 °C / 300 °F.
2. Grind the speculoos biscuits into crumbs in a blender.
3. Melt the butter and add to the speculoos crumbs.
4. Butter a cake pan and press the crumb base into the bottom of the pan. Refrigerate. 
5. In a bowl, whip the cream cheese with 80 g sugar, the cornstarch and vanilla seeds and blend until smooth. Mix in the eggs.
6. Whip the chilled cream with an electric beater and add the remaining powdered sugar. Fold in the whipped sweetened cream. Add the bilberries and pour the batter into the pan.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, then turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven.
8. Place the cheesecake in the refrigerator and chill for 12 hours before serving.

For the coulis

1. In a saucepan, bring the water and vergeoise or light brown sugar to a boil.
2. Add the bilberries and cook for 10 minutes over low heat; blend and cool.

Serve cheesecake with coulis.