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These Blackberry Cheesecake Hazelnut Oat Bars have a thick layer of blackberry cheesecake sandwiched between gluten-free crumbly oaty hazelnut shortbread.
It’s hard not to go overboard on blackberries living in this part of North London. We live a stone’s throw from Parkland Walk, a nature reserve following the old railway line which ran many years ago between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace. The hedgerows along Parkland Walk team bountifully with thousands of plump juicy blackberries every year and we certainly take full advantage.
By week three of blackberry picking the hedgerows are still churning out fruit but we have had our fill. The jam has been made, the Blackberry Gin is steeping and our freezers are fit to bursting whilst I decide how to best use up all our bounty.
Like most years I have really gone all in on blackberries this August and have made all my most trusted blackberry recipes, plus I’ve been thrilled with a few new ones that I’ve developed. If you like blackberries as much as I do then get ready as I’m going to bang on about blackberries for the next few posts whilst I purge all the recipes onto the blog. If you don’t like blackberries then pretend I'm talking about raspberries, the berries can be almost interchangeable.
I am such a big lover of blackberries for many reasons. For starters, they are free. Raspberries go for a small fortune in Tesco but blackberries which are just as flavourful, but perhaps not always as sweet, are sitting pretty on hedgerows at the sides of roads, in our back gardens and, as North London can attest, right here in the big city.
Blackberries do need a little more love than berries from the supermarket and you might want to be careful about popping them straight from the bush before checking them over. Fruit flies love blackberries just as much as we do and to ensure you have a worm-free berry then check the tip of the blackberry where the stalk has come away. It needs to be solid white, not broken and the fruit should feel firm and not juicy. Also be sure to soak your blackberries when you get home in a sinkful of water. Let them rest for half an hour where any residing bugs should sink to the bottom of the water, leaving you to fish out your clean and healthy berries.
Blackberries can also be a little tart, another reason you might choose not to eat them direct from the bush. But once you add sugar then the blackberries sing with flavour. They make a wonderful jam, pair beautifully with apple for crumbles and pies and as I will show in the next few posts can be used in a plethora of different ways. So let’s begin.
These Blackberry Hazelnut Cheesecake Oat Bars were developed for the cake stall and use homemade Wild Blackberry Lime Jam which I wrote about last year. You can really use any jam but of course the bars live and die by the quality of the jam used so if you can use homemade then you’ve basically nailed it.
Using jam also means that it’s a very quick and easy bake. The jam is beaten into cream cheese and then spread between two layers of oaty shortbread, sprinkled with hazelnuts. The oaty shortbread is quick to pull together by throwing everything into the food mixer and processing for a couple of minutes. Half of the mixture is pressed into the cake tin, the blackberry cheesecake is spread on top, then the rest of the hazelnut oat shortbread is crumbled on top.
Blackberry Cheesecake Hazelnut Oat Bars are a great recipe to kick off our blackberry season. Don't go anywhere there are plenty more blackberries to come.
Blackberry Cheesecake Hazelnut Oat Bars {gluten-free}
Ingredients
- 350 g cream cheese
- 150 g blackberry jam
- 1 egg
- 240 g unsalted butter - room temperature
- 100 g sweet white rice flour
- 75 g gluten-free oat flour
- 40 g tapioca flour
- 160 g gluten-free oats
- 100 g hazelnuts - roughly chopped
- 185 g soft light brown sugar - sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 170°C and line and grease an 8 inch square cake tin.
- In a medium sized bowl stir the cream cheese, jam and egg together until well combined then set aside.
- Place the rest of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs.
- Tip half the mixture into the cake tin and press in tightly.
- Spread the cheesecake over the top of the tin, then tip over the rest of the oat mixture, pressing down lightly.
- Place in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove from the tin carefully and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack before cutting into squares.
Amelia says
Looks amazing! Is it 100g of ground hazelnuts or do you use them whole??
Georgina says
Thank you Amelia. The hazelnuts are roughly chopped - I've amended the recipe!