My mum is an awesome gardener and grows lots of organic fruit (and veg) each year. Last week we were lucky enough to be sent home with a big bounty of her homegrown blackcurrants, and quite shamefully, we left it in the fridge a bit too long to use fresh in a summer pudding. So we turned it into this; a no bake, gelatine-free cheesecake - eton mess - jam jar - nutty - freaky - smash type thing. And not surprisingly for the amount of sugar in it, the kids loved it!
I'm a big fan of layered, colourful food - these jam jar puddings are really fun to make and photograph. When you style food in bowls it's often necessary to shoot overhead or at quite a high angle to get over the edge of the bowl and the detail can get lost in shadows created by the sides of the bowl. Serving this dessert in tall clear glasses allows you to photograph them front on and shows off the amazing colours of the blackcurrants and pistachios perfectly!
I hope you like the recipe. There aren't many pics sorry as it really was something Tom just threw together for us all to eat on Sunday and I said it was too pretty not to photograph!
We also had to freeze a few so there will be another blackcurrant recipe coming soon as well - with more pics.
Blackcurrant and pistachio cheesecake jam jar recipe
Ingredients - serves 4
200g fresh blackcurrants
30 g sugar
50ml crème de cassis (Optional)
10 Digestive biscuits
25g butter, melted
300g cream cheese
100g Natural yoghurt
4 tablespoons icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp crushed meringue
4 Tbsp green pistachios, finely chopped or pulsed in a food processor
Instructions
- Simmer the blackcurrants, sugar and crème de cassis for 5 minutes and allow to chill
- Place the digestive biscuits in a freezer bag and smash them to a rough crumb with a rolling pin, mix together in a small bowl with the melted butter
- Make the cheesecake mixture by blending the cream cheese, yoghurt and vanilla with the icing sugar, place into a large piping bag
- Fill four jam jars with alternating layers of biscuit crumb, piped cheesecake, berries, crushed meringue and chopped pistachio until the jars are full. Refigerate for 30 minutes before serving
Enjoy! This recipe was styled by food stylist Tom Cockerill and photographed by Sophie Purser, on our 'Haze' and 'Bridestone' photography backgrounds.
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