Blackberry Swirl Cheesecake Tart

The Nitty Gritty of Recipe Development

Sometimes I have a story I really want to tell you. Sometimes, I have a recipe that goes with that story.

And other times, like today, there is no story. Unless you count the story of how I made this tart.

Perhaps in reading about my thought process and a couple of hiccups along the way, you will be inspired to tell your own story. Write it in dessert. It’s tastier that way.

Here’s the thing: if you know how to bake and you know how your ingredients function, then you can figure out how to make them do what you want them to.

Here’s how I applied my knowledge to make sure this cheesecake tart turned out pretty Awesome, if I do say so myself!

It Started with Blackberries

I was pondering  what to do with the couple of handfuls of blackberries that I had picked. I didn’t have a ton, so I needed to stretch them a bit. I had two ideas.

• The first was to cook most of them down into a syrup, line a small mold with soft bread and then let the syrup soak in. Then, I was going to whip some cream and fold in some chopped blackberries and use that as a filling for the small mold. (a summer pudding)
• Idea number two was to take the chocolate cheesecake pie and turn it into a summery tart.

I decided to go with the tart which has 3 basic components aside from the crust.

1. cheesecake filling
2. ganache
3. sweetened sour cream topping

To make it summery, I decided to make a blackberry gel layer in place of the ganache.

You Do What You Have To Do

This was a pretty experimental tart, friends.

I knew the cheesecake part would be fine, and I was confident about the sour cream topping, but the berries?

I didn’t have enough to make a thick layer, which is really what I wanted. And I didn’t have enough to cook them down so they’d thicken up nicely either.

So, I cooked them for  awhile, strained them, smashing down on the solids, and found that I had about 1/2 cup of puree. Barely enough for a thin layer, and it was really thin, too.

How to Thicken The Blackberry Puree

The only starch thickeners I own, flour, corn starch and potato starch, would thicken it up okay, but I knew the puree would get chalky upon cooling, and I wanted it to have a brilliant purple color, so I ended up blooming a scant 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin in a tablespoon of water and dissolving that into the puree.

My thought was that if I could chill it in an ice bath, it would be thick enough to pour and spread on top of the cheesecake layer.

And then I realized that spreading it onto a hot pie was only going to melt it again. Fine.

Consistency Issues with the Filling Layers

I decided to just do the best I could at covering the berry layer with the sour cream layer, but the sour cream had other ideas.

Since it was thicker, it shoved the puree out of its way so I ended up with puree all around the edges of the tart and the sour cream in the middle.

At this point, I grumbled and grabbed a fork and marbled everything together, being careful not to get too gung ho with the marbling so I wouldn’t ruin the cheesecake layer underneath.

And just so you know, I had just enough too much puree and sour cream to send some oozing over the edges of the tart pan and all over the baking sheet. Fine.

I shoved the newly marbled tart back into the oven for ten minutes so the sour cream would set up, and then I kept my fingers crossed the the gelatin would do its thing once the tart chilled.

Blackberry Swirl Cheesecake Tart Success!

Happily, the gelatin did do what it was supposed to do. When chilled it provided me with a lovely gel that was very close in texture to the sour cream. Nice.

How to Modify This Recipe

This tart is really, really tasty.

If you don’t have access to blackberries, go with strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, or a mixture of your favorites.

And if you don’t have the Italian shortbread cookies that I used for the crust, use Graham crackers or vanilla wafers. Or the kind of shortbread that you have.

If you’re a fan of cheesecake but think it’s a bit heavy for summer, this really fits the bill. All the flavor without all the commitment of eating a 2″ thick slab. Plus fruit!

I know it seems like there are a lot of steps, and I guess there are, but it’s not a hard tart to make.

This would be a wonderful “ta da” dessert to serve at a summer party. Or just because. Please, do give it a try, and let me know how you made your version.

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03/07/2024 05:03 pm GMT

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Blackberry Swirl Cheesecake Tart

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Jennifer Field

This blackberry swirl cheesecake tart has a rather dramatic swirl of blackberry puree and sweetened, lemon-spiked sour cream tops a thin layer of cheesecake. The whole thing is baked in a thin shortbread crust. If you are a fan of fruit topped cheesecake, you will love this. I promise.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Course Cheesecake Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Calories 399 kcal

Equipment

• OXO Good Grips 3.5QT Covered Saucepan
• Wilton 9″ Tart Pan with Removable Bottom

Ingredients

For the Crust

• 20 or so crisp/crunchy cookies (enough to get 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. I used an Italian shortbread made by Barilla)
• zest of 1/4 lemon
• pinch of salt
• 2 oz butter melted

For the Cheesecake

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese at room temperature
• 3/4-1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like things)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 3 drops lemon extract

For the Berry Puree (See Notes)

• ¾ cup fresh or frozen blackberries
• ¼ cup Moscato (I used Yellow Tail)
• pinch of salt
• a couple of scrapings of lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• enough sugar to make it as sweet as you want it
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• scant 1/2 teaspoon plain gelatin dissolved in 1 Tablespoon cold water

For the Sour Cream Topping

• 1 ½ cups sour cream
• enough sugar to make it as sweet as you like it
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt (or to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• a couple of scrapings of lemon zest
• 2 drops lemon extract

Instructions

 

For the Crust

• Put the cookies, zest and salt in your food processor and process until you have made lemon-scented cookie dust.
• Drizzle in the melted butter and pulse until you have sort of a damp sand situation on your hands. Make sure the crumbs hold together when you squeeze them.
• Set a 9" tart pan on a cookie sheet.
• Press the crumbs evenly in the bottom and up the sides of the pan. I didn’t have enough cookies to go all the way up, but things worked out fine anyway.
• Bake at 350F for about 8-10 minutes.
• Remove and set aside.

For the Cheesecake

• Since you have the food processor out, give it a quick wash and combine all the cheesecake ingredients in the processor.
• Pulse until you have a smooth batter. This won’t take long. Remember to scrape the bowl, just in case.
• Pour evenly into the bottom of the tart pan.
• Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes.

For the Berry Puree (See Notes)

• Place all ingredients except the gelatin/water mixture in a pan and bring to a boil.
• Taste for sweetness and balance, and continue to cook until the berries reduce slightly.
• Press the berries through a fine mesh strainer, pressing hard on the solids and being sure to scrape the back of the strainer to get all the thicker puree off and into your bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup of puree.
• While the puree is still hot, stir in the bloomed gelatin until it has completely dissolved.

For the Sour Cream Topping

• Whisk together all topping ingredients, tasting for sweetness and balance.
• Set aside so the sugar can dissolve. Whisk occasionally until the mixture is completely smooth.

To Finish

• Once the cheesecake is just barely jiggly in the center–and I mean barely–pull the oven rack out so you won’t hurt yourself.
• Have a fork ready.
• Pour on the berry puree as evenly as you can. It will be pretty thin, so just do the best you can. It will probably want to pool in the center.
• Try to evenly blob on the sour cream topping, making sure it spreads all the way to the edge of your pan.
• Gently marble the two mixtures together with your fork, taking care not to stab into the cheesecake layer.
• Bake another 10 minutes.
• Remove the tart from the oven and let cool to room temperature before refrigerating until well chilled.
• Don’t even think about slicing this guy for at least 6-8 hours.
• Then, slice away, or just dive in with your fork. I won’t tell.

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Notes

About the Fruit Puree:

I wrote the recipe the way I made it, but if you have a lot more berries than I did, you can make a standard fruit puree thickened by cooking it way down or fruit compote.

Bake the cheesecake tart by itself and then spread the thick puree on top of the chilled tart. Refrigerate until set. Then you can swirl on some of the sour cream mixture and not bother baking it to set. It will be nice and creamy and act more like a whipped cream topping rather than a layer of the tart.

If you start with a thicker puree, I recommend spreading on the sour cream mixture first, dotting it with the puree, and then carefully swirling the two together with a knife or fork rather than the way I did it.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 399kcalCarbohydrates: 38gProtein: 6gFat: 26gSaturated Fat: 14gPolyunsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 116mgSodium: 345mgFiber: 3gSugar: 30g

Keyword blackberry swirl cheesecake, cheesecake, cheesecake tart

Did you make this recipe?Please tell us what you loved!

And there you have it. A scrumptious experimental blackberry swirl cheesecake. And since I did all the experimentation, you don’t have to!

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day.

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