I adore raspberries. I find myself sneaking them into most sweet dishes: from cereals to cakes and desserts.

I love the tang of the fruit and the burst of flavour added to the dish.

It was therefore the first flavour that I reached for when sampling the new range of Spreadable Fruit by Barkers of Geraldine.

These are 99% fruit with no refined sugar added. Sweetened only with pear juice concentrate, it’s a great alternative to fruit purees. In fact, that’s even better than making my own!

I decided to make an easy baked cheesecake brownie, to keep things simple. The brownie batter was done in one bowl while the cheesecake batter was mixed with my trusty Kitchenaid stand mixer.

Just be careful when swirling the fruit – you don’t want to over do it, so that you can keep the pretty red/ white colours.

Who wants a slice?

Brownies

• 170g unsalted butter, melted (I used Westgold)
• 300g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
• 120g (2) eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (I used Equagold)
• 3g (1/2 tsp) salt
• 70g (3/4 cup) dutch cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)
• 70g (1/2 cup) plain flour
• 5-6 tbsp Barker’s Raspberry Spreadable Fruit

Cheesecake

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 40g mascarpone cheese (I used Tatua)
• 60g (1) egg
• 60g caster sugar
• 2g (1/4 tsp) salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Line a 20cm square baking tin with 2 strips of baking paper. (This makes it easier to lift the brownie out of the tin).
3. In a large ceramic bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
4. Mix in sugar, eggs, vanilla paste and salt.
5. Once fully combined, fold in cocoa powder and flour. Mix till all combined.
6. Pour the brownie batter into the baking tin, spreading evenly, careful to push batter all the way to the edges.
7. Combine all cheesecake ingredients in a stand mixer.
8. Whisk for 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed.
9. Pour cheesecake batter over brownie batter, spreading evenly.
10. Drop spoonfuls of the raspberry spreadable fruit on top of the cheesecake in rows of 3s and 2s and swirl using a palette knife.
11. Bake for 1 hour, check in the last 10 minutes (so it doesn’t go past the golden point). Test brownie with palette knife – it should be almost clean.
12. Leave to cool in tin before placing in fridge to cool and firm up for 1-2 hours.
13. Cut into 16 squares, wiping down the knife after each cut for a cleaner look.
14. Serve with a nice cup of tea!

*I received a jar of the Spreadable Fruit when I attended the NZ Foodwriters annual May Market. Post not sponsored.