How To Make Blackberry Cheesecake
This awesome blackberry cheesecake is a German style cheesecake, made with quark or cottage cheese. A perfect way to enjoy your berry harvest!
Equipment
- grain Mill
- Hand mixer - If you're not using a cheese that requires a blender you can use a hand mixer to beat the cheese mix and to beat egg whites fluffy.
- Baking dish - I prefer making it in a 9x13" baking dish, but I've also made it in a 8x10", which gives you a higher cake. And you could also make it in a 10" deep pie dish or spring form, a deep sided cast iron skillet or as mini cakes in lined muffin tins. Just be sure to adjust baking times.
- Scale (optional). – I like to weigh my ingredients. It makes a recipe more fool-proof and it's easier to add the ingredients to the bowl without dirtying a bunch of extra dished. If you don’t own one, here is a inexpensive scale.
- Parchment paper (optional) - Parchment paper helps to keep the bottom from sticking to the pan and makes it easier to transfer the cake onto a platter for serving
Ingredients
For The Crust:
- 75 g fresh milled einkorn flour (abourt 2/3 cups of flour)
- 75 g fresh milled Kamut or spelt flour (abourt 2/3 cups of flour)
- 50 g evaporated cane juice sugar (1/4 cup) or other sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 6 tbsp butter softened
- pinch salt don't add extra salt if you use salted butter.
For The Filling
- 400 g quark or cottage cheese (1 ½ cups + 2 Tbsp) - or use ricotta, half cream cheese and half greek yogurt or queso fresco.
- 180 g heavy cream (¾ cup)
- 75 g honey or maple syrup (3-4 tbsp)
- 3 eggs, separated, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp arrow root flour or corn starch
- 2 tsp lemon zest or lemon paste
- Pinch salt - not needed if you're using cottage cheese or other salted cheese.
- 2-3 cups blackberries - fresh or frozen.
For The Crumbles
- ½ cup Fresh milled flour - use what you like, I used half einkorn and half Kamut just like in the crust.
- ¼ cup panela or coconut sugar - or unrefined evaporated cane juice
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup butter melted
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- This recipe is for a 9x13" pan for shallow bars or a 10" round, 8x10" or 7x11" deep dish for thicker bars.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease your baking pan. Line with a piece of parchment with 'handles' sticking up, if you want to be able to take it out to serve.
Make The Streusel
- In a small bowl mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt
- Add the melted butter and mix well with a knife or a spoon.
- Place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes while you prep the other ingredients, to firm them up a bit.
Make The Crust
- In a medium sized bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Cut the softened butter into bits and add them to the flour. I like to use a butter knife to cut the butter into the flour until it resembles crumbles.
- Add the egg and keep cutting away till the egg is mixed in pretty well. With your hands or the flat side of the knife, knead the ingredients together briefly.
- Place the dough into your baking dish and, using buttered finger tips, spread it out to make an even bottom. If your dough is very soft, you can refrigerate it while you prepare the cheese filling.
Make The Filling
- If you're using quark cheese, you can just mix everything in a bowl with a hand mixer. That works too with ricotta cheese and queso fresco, although the final texture will be a bit grainier.
- If you're using cottage cheese, you'll need a blender and this works well with ricotta and queso fresco too.
- Dump your cheese, heavy cream, honey, vanilla, starch, salt, and lemon zest into your mixing bowl or blender bowl.
- Separate the eggs and add the yolks to the bowl with the other cheese batter ingredients. Place the egg whites into a very clean mixing bowl and add the salt
- With a hand mixer and clean beaters, beat the egg whites on high till it's white and very thick. You'll see peaks forming and you'll be able to cut into it with a knife. This can take a few minutes.
- Now beat or blend the cheese cake ingredients till smooth.
- Add the fluffy egg whites to the cheese mix. If you were blending the cheese mix, pour it into a bowl before adding the stiff egg whites.
- With a spatula, fold the egg whites into the cheese mix till well combined. If you have lumps, you can also gently break them up with a wire whip.
- Pour the cheese mix over the prepared crust. It will be runny if you use cottage cheese.
- Sprinkle the blackberries over the cheese mix. They'll sink right into your cottage cheese filling, but will lay on top if you've used any of the other cheeses. If you like, you can press the berries into the cheese topping just slightly.
- Take your crumbles and break them up. Spread over your cheesecake.
- Bake on the lower rack of your oven for about 45 minutes for a 9x13" pan. Check after about 30 minutes to see if it browns on top and cover it with some aluminum foil if it's getting darkish. It might take a little longer if you're using a 7x10" pan.Once the center is set up and you feel resistance when pressing on it, you can turn off the oven and leave it in there to cool down with the oven door slightly ajar.
- Cool completely before serving. I like to refrigerate mine for a few hours before I eat it.
- This will stay delicious in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. And it can also be frozen and kept for 3 months in the freezer, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap and aluminum foil.
Notes
Tips For Making The Best Blackberry Cheesecake
- Use ripe berries
- Use clean beaters and a clean bowl for beating the egg whites and be sure to beat them very stiff. Using warm and older eggs helps to get firm whites quickly.
- If you're using salted butter, then omit adding extra salt to the crust and the streusel.
- Use fresh milled flour for a truly awesome crust and topping!
Variations
- Make this with any berries, I'm thinking raspberries, blueberries, grapes, whatever is in season. And out of berry season, you can use frozen berries. Fresh red currants or even raisins would be great too, but I would dust them with flour and fold them into the filling just before pouring the batter into the pan.
- Add chopped walnuts, pecans, hemp seeds, rolled oats, or almond slivers to the streusel.
- Replace some of the flour in the crust and crumbles with ground hazelnuts or pecans.
- Make mini cheesecakes by lining muffin tins, pressing some crust into the bottom, then cheese filling and berries and crumbles on top. Fill only ⅔ full, or you'll end up with a mess, or line with tulip liners for better height.