an abundance of summer berries + berry cheesecake slice

Home Baked: A Year of Seasonal Baking - Summer

Welcome to Home Baked: A Year of Seasonal Baking, a cookbook in weekly instalments. We’re coming to the end of summer with just a couple of weeks left, although, to be honest, it’s already feeling quite autumnal. Despite this, there is still plenty of late summer fruit around, which I’ll be making the most of over the coming weeks. I hope you’ll join me.

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I used to look at recipes for various berry jams and wonder how on earth anyone could afford to make them when they relied on the tiny, costly punnets available in the shops. Of course, there are frozen options, but these are limited to the mainstream berries - raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, and invariably they are grown halfway around the world. Making redcurrant jam or jelly was never an option, let alone boysenberries or loganberries or any of the other berry hybrids that grow so abundantly in Tasmania.

My fortnightly market stall at Hobart’s Farmgate market, is next to the Westerway Berry Farm stall, and in true market fashion, bartering goods is alive and well. A roast vegetable tart for some jam raspberries, a cake for some almost too-ripe blackcurrants - yes, please! The volume of berries grown by the Westerway Farm astounds me. It is a large operation and supplies berries in commercial quantities. With 25 hectares of fruit, the farm runs three raspberry harvesters and one blackcurrant harvester throughout summer. These mechanically harvested berries are destined for jam, gin, cordials, ice creams and more. When you hear about 100,000 kg of berries being juiced and 720 kg going to make jam, my few kilos here and there seem paltry. Although, even these quantities are probably not that large in the scheme of commercial production. In contrast, the fruit destined for punnets is all harvested by hand in order to maintain the quality of the fruit. Throughout the berry season, Westerway’s is open to the public for pick-your-own, a fun way to spend a couple of hours wandering through the trellises, although the cost and time savings for any great quantity are minimal.

Closer to home is the Wolfes Barry Farm, a much smaller operation but still with quantities suitable for jamming or cooking. Their farm is almost like a hidden secret. You drive along the foothills of kunanyi/Mount Wellington, where it is damp and mossy, and turn down a steep, winding dirt road that opens out to a sunny valley. Wolfes’ are my go-to for gooseberries and sour cherries. I often arrive there to see Mr Wolfe Senior operating the mechanical cherry pitter, pitted cherries, the preference for those buying large amounts. He’s always happy to chat, update you on the season and let you know what’s nearly ripe and what’s almost finished. He recently told me about the resurgence of interest in gooseberries, so much so that he’s unable to keep up with the demand. He’s pondering planting more, but really, I think he would like to slow down a little.

We have a patch of raspberry canes in the garden. They have been neglected this year, overrun with weeds and looking a bit sad. Any fruit not eaten by the birds is difficult to pick, hindered by the thistles, which, unlike the raspberries, are growing unchecked. In hindsight, I wonder if we should have bothered. To grow enough raspberries for jam requires quite a few more canes, and with so many berries available locally for a reasonable cost, it makes sense to concentrate our growing on things less readily available. A decision for another day.

A slice always strikes me as being an easy, fool-proof bake. It’s the best of both worlds, with the pieces bordering the edge having an extra bit of crunch and chew and the centre pieces deliciously soft. They are, I think, underappreciated. Some can be dressed up for a dessert, and others are robust enough, that a piece can be packed in a bag for a quick pick-me-up, and they excel as a lunchbox treat. This berry cheesecake slice falls more into the dress-up-for-dessert category, although if you fancy a piece for afternoon tea, I won’t tell. You can choose a single type of berry, or as I have done, use up the bits and pieces that I had in the fridge - a mix of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and red currants. This is lovely served as is but even better with whipped cream and extra berries.

Chocolate Berry Cheesecake Slice

Makes 12-16 slices, depending on their generosity

• 250 g digestive biscuits

• 80 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

• 20 g cocoa power

• 125 g salted butter, melted

• 450 g cream cheese

• 80 g sour cream

• 110 g caster sugar

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 2 eggs

• 40 g plain flour

• 225 g mixed fresh berries

Grease and line a 20 x 30 cm slice tin. Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Put the biscuits, dark chocolate and cocoa in the bowl of a food processor. Whizz until the biscuits resemble fine breadcrumbs. Pour in the melted butter and whizz again until everything is just combined.

Tip the crumbs into the prepared pan and press the biscuit mixture firmly over the base. Use a small straight-sided glass to roll over the top to create a smooth surface. Refrigerate while you make the topping.

Clean the bowl of the food processor and add the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, lemon juice and eggs. Whizz it all together until it is smooth, and then pour over the base. Sprinkle the berries over the top.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until the top has set but still has a slight wobble in the centre. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into slices and serving.

Refrigerated, this slice will last for a few days.

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Next time: the end of summer + breakfast crumble

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