The sweetest Christmas: Swedish cheesecake with berries

This breaks the mould: it is not as sweet as most cheesecakes and is lighter, too. Also, as it’s served slightly warm there is no overnight ripening. The blackberries nod to the Swedish love of cloudberries, a golden blackberry.

SERVES 6

unsalted butter, for greasing

300g cottage cheese

4 cardamom pods, seeds ground in a pestle and mortar

2 medium eggs, plus 1 medium egg yolk

80g golden caster sugar, plus a little extra for blackberries

30g plain flour

50g ground almonds

300ml double cream

400g blackberries

• Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/gas 4 and grease a 20cm springform cake tin that is at least 5cm deep.
• Whiz the cottage cheese and cardamom in a food processor until smooth, then add all the remaining ingredients, except the berries, and whiz again.
• Place the prepared tin on a baking sheet, fill with the mixture and bake for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, put the blackberries in a medium saucepan, cover and gently heat for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through until they give out their juices and turn a paler mauve, but without turning mushy. Transfer to a bowl and sweeten to taste with a little more caster sugar.
• Run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake and leave to cool for about an hour, dishing it up while it is still faintly warm, with the blackberry sauce spooned over.
• Any leftovers will be delicious for several days thereafter, eaten chilled, in which case loosely cover it.