Borough Market are running a competition for food bloggers to create a post about an ingredient that you love at Borough Market. I absolutely love Borough Market so this sounded perfect. It is great place to spend a few spare hours taking in the sights and the smells of the food, drink and fantastic atmosphere. Yesterday I took myself off to Borough Market to see what ingredient inspired me. It was difficult, there was just too much to choose from. So much fruit that would be perfect for baking with, vegetables of every kind and arrays of spices. I was particularly in awe of the range of tomatoes that were there, some of them were amazing shapes and sizes. And there were a few strange vegetables that I had never seen before too, I think one of them was called long, thin aubergines. And of course I can’t fail to mention the fantastic lunches there, I had the biggest and best Halloumi wrap ever. But I couldn’t wander around all day and in the end I opted for some lovely shiny, juicy blackcurrants from Chegworth Valley. I chose these because they are delicious and summery but I don’t seem to be able to buy them any where else, the shops are full of strawberries and raspberries, but never blackcurrants. In summer I love baking with summer ingredients and these blackcurrants just scream of summery desserts. The punnets of blackcurrants also smelt divine. I’ve heard it said that 70% of taste is smell and smelling these blackcurrants it did taste like you were drinking the juice. So I chose these to go home and create something with them. I came up with a Blackcurrant Cheesecake with a Brownie Base, inspired by the mountains of delicious looking brownies that I saw as I wandered around Borough Market.

To make this cheesecake you will need:

For the brownie base:

90g dark chocolate
75 g unsalted butter
70g caster sugar
1 egg
80 g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a pan. Take off the heat and stir in the sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Fold in the four and baking powder. Pour the mixture into a lined cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 20 minutes until it is firm to touch.

For the cheesecake:

600g cream cheese
150ml soured cream
180g caster sugar
3 eggs (discard the white of the third egg)
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp plain flour
50 g blackcurrants (stalks removed)

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until it is all combined. Finally fold in the blackcurrants and pour the mixture into the tin on top of the cooked brownies. Bake at 180C for about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan before chilling in the fridge.

To make the blackcurrant topping:

150g blackcurrants
2tbsp blackcurrant jam
2 tbsp caster sugar

Heat all the ingredients in a pan until the blackcurrants just start to break down and there is a nice syrup. Pour the blackcurrants over the cheesecake and serve.

Some pictures from Borough Market:

If you find yourself near London Bridge I recommend you take a visit to Borough Market, you won’t be disappointed and the variety there is incredible. I also recommend these delicious blackcurrants, they burst in your mouth and explode with flavour!

Enjoy!

Lottie xx

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As this fits into the We Should Cocoa theme of Blackcurrants and Chocolate I have entered this into the challenge this month. It is hosted by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot.

Tags: blackcurrants, Borough Market, brownie, cake, cheese, cheesecake, chocolate