Each summer, my enthusiasm for roadside stalls and seasonal produce is far greater than my capacity to consume and preserve it all. I can’t go past a roadside stall without a purchase or ignore a good deal at the market. And a very large box of fruit is always much better value than a small punnet. After weeks of the kitchen table being filled with a revolving display of boxes and bags filled with stone fruit and berries and their cycling through the jam pot and the preserving pan, I run out of steam. The thought of peeling or pitting yet another piece of fruit or filling another jar is too much, and the last of them get shoved into the freezer to deal with at some date in the future.
Over the following months, freezer space is gradually freed up as the various containers of fruit are transformed into jams and pies and added to cakes—a welcome taste of summer through the colder months. However, with the warmer weather on the horizon, there are always remnants of last year’s fruit relegated to the hidden depths of the freezer that require using. Mostly, it’s berries - a handful of raspberries, a few stems of red currants and a decent quantity of black currants and of jostaberries. The anticipation of new season fruit is incentive enough to commence the spring freezer clear-out and to incorporate the past their best berries in ways that their less-than-stellar condition won’t be noticed.
Thankfully, with a little heat to coax out the flavour, they can be revived in myriad ways. A couple of pots of mixed berry jam transform most of the frozen berries. By this time of year, last season’s jars are well and truly gone, so a couple of small jars are a reminder of the summer bounty. I like to make a berry compote by adding a few berries to a saucepan with a little sugar and a bay leaf and cooking them down until they are juicy and fragrant. I pop them in a container and keep them in the fridge for spooning over yoghurt or jazzing up a bowl of rice pudding.
One of my experiments has been to make what I think of as a breakfast cheesecake despite its lack of cheese. It is yet another of my attempts to incorporate dessert into the first meal of the day. Whilst this might look dessert-like, the ingredients are well suited to breakfast with nuts, seeds, dairy, fruit and only a little sugar. In a previous life as a café owner, we used to make all sorts of variations using this tart base. It is particularly versatile. We often used to fill the baked base with yoghurt and stewed or roasted seasonal fruit with a sprinkle of toasted nuts or seeds or baked buckwheat groats. It is both gluten and dairy-free, so depending, of course, on the filling, it is suitable for people with food sensitivities.
This cheesecake needn’t just be relegated to when you are cleaning the freezer of berries and if fresh ones are in season they will work equally as well as a lovely summer breakfast or light dessert. You can make this as one large tart or in individual serves. You will need to make this recipe the day before serving.
Berry Breakfast Cheesecake
Serves 6 - 8
For the base:
30 g sunflower seeds
80 g raw almonds
130 g buckwheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
60 ml maple syrup (you could also use a mild flavoured honey, rice malt syrup, or coconut syrup
50 g coconut oil, cold
20 ml cold water
For the filling:
300 g Greek yoghurt (or a dairy-free alternative)
4 eggs
100 g caster sugar
20 g cornflour
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
zest and juice 1 lemon
200 g fresh or frozen berries
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease a 23 cm loose-bottomed tart tin.
Put the sunflower seeds and almonds on a baking tray and roast them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they are lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Add the cooled seeds and nuts into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until they are finely chopped. Don’t over process them, you want some texture rather than a paste. Add the flour and salt and pulse a couple more times to mix. Add the maple syrup, coconut oil and water to the bowl and process until the mixture binds together.
Tip the base mixture into the tart tin and press evenly across the base of the tin and up the sides. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the base is slightly firm and a light golden colour. Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C.
To make the filling, wipe out the food processor and add the remaining ingredients except the berries. Pour the filling into the tart shell and spread the berries over the top. I like a fairly dense layer of berries. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until the centre still has a slight wobble. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in the oven for an hour or so.
Remove from the oven to cool completely and refrigerate overnight. You can serve this with extra berries or a berry compote if you prefer.
Next week: our local mountains + a hiking cake
Each week, I share the latest instalment of the book I am writing here on Substack, Home Baked: a Year of Seasonal Baking. A subscription will ensure you don’t miss any of the stories and recipes. A huge thank you to everyone who subscribes; I love having you here. If you would like to support my work further, a paid subscription will give you access to previous recipes, as well as printer-friendly recipe cards and bonus material. There is also an additional newsletter on Friday, which is a mixed bag and touches on all manner of food topics. I’d love for you to be a part of it.
Paid subscribers will find the recipe card by clicking below. I’ve also given you some suggestions for alternative fillings suitable for breakfast or dessert.
This read is very motivating, thank you!!!