Summer is berry season and our area of Northern California is covered in wild blackberries, some people even consider them invasive. They might be invasive but they are so juicy and delicious! It wouldn’t be summer unless your hands are stained purple at some point from picking bucket loads.
With a large harvest from a neighbors vacant 40 acres and their huge wild blackberry bushes, and some of my homemade chèvre {goat cheese}…this combo made for one spectacular cheesecake! Mildly sweet from the berries with a hint of tang from the cheese, and of course that classic creamy texture. This recipe was adapted from Driscoll’s berries to better fit our palate.
Blackberry Chèvre Cheesecake
Crust
- 3 cups of graham cracker crumbs {1 standard size box of graham crackers}
- 9 tbsp of salted butter, melted
Filling + Topping
1 cup of blackberries, extra to garnish
1 cup + 1 tsp sugar
8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
16 ounces of plain chèvre {any grocery store should carry this}, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
3 large eggs
Directions
Crust
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees {F}, have your 9” spring-form pan ready.
Pulse gram crackers in a food processor until a semi-fine crumb forms. Once crumb has formed, drizzle melted butter while pulsing to mix and evenly distribute.
Press crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the spring-form pan.
Bake crust about 13-15 minutes, or until firm.
Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees {F} and cool crust completely while making your filling.
Filling + Topping
Directions
1. Purée 1 cup of blackberries in a blender or food processor. Strain and discard seeds.
2. Stir in 2 tbsp of sugar, set aside.
3. Mix cream cheese and chèvre with an electric mixer until combined and completely smooth.
4. Mix in remaining sugar.
5. Add vanilla and mix again.
6. Add eggs, one at a time on low speed.
7. Mix in sour cream.
8. Pour batter into cooled crust.
9. Drizzle blackberry purée evenly over the top of the batter then using a toothpick, swirl the purée into any pattern you like throughout the batter.
10. Bake 50-60 minutes until edges are just set and center is slightly jiggly.
11. Turn oven off, prop door open and allow cheesecake to cool inside oven for 1 hour.
12. Chill cheesecake at least 4-6 hours in the fridge, or overnight.
13. Garnish with whole blackberries and a sprig of mint for some green. And then…devour!
Other great ways to use up a summer berry harvest: low sugar/no pectin jam; swirl berry purée into homemade ice cream; blackberry curd; blackberry-sage infused water; or freeze berry pies to pull out for an easy dessert any time of the year.
Nicole Wilkey transitioned from a corporate job to small-scale farmer in 2015. Since then she has run California based Flicker Farm to accommodate meat pigs, mini Juliana pigs, pasture based poultry and sells goats milk soap and lotion on Etsy. Connect with Nicole on Instagram and Facebook
All MOTHER EARTH NEWS community bloggers have agreed to follow our Blogging Guidelines, and they are responsible for the accuracy of their posts. To learn more about the author of this post, click on their byline link at the top of the page.
