How to Make Vegetarian Passionfruit Cheesecake
Passionfruit Cheesecake. Vegetarian Friendly recipe.
Whoever First Looked at a Passion Fruit and Decided it was Good to eat is a Hero.
Vegetarian Passionfruit Cheesecake.
Passionfruit looks amazing, and also more than a little bit weird, all those tiny seeds floating in a sea of golden juice looks decadent, somehow, at least it does to me and this surprising little fruit makes a great tasting passionfruit cheesecake too. This recipe for vegetarian passion fruit cheesecake is quick and easy to make and it’s fancy enough to serve at a dinner party. It also looks as if you have spent hours making it, when in fact it only takes about ten minutes to prepare.
You can make one large passionfruit cheesecake or several individual ones. I think the individual cheesecakes look better and it saves you the time and effort or dishing up separate portions. If your house is anything like mine, it can also save the arguments over who has a bigger portion!
Passionfruit might look a bit strange on the outside, I know that the first time I saw one I thought it was rotten, it looked so dried up and shrivelled, but that’s how they are supposed to look. When he was young my son called them sneeze fruits, not passionfruit, for obvious reasons! Bless him. But don't let the look of them fool you, they are a wonderful, versatile fruit.
Cook Time
Ingredients for Vegetarian Passionfruit Cheesecake.
- 16 ginger biscuits or brandy snaps, crushed
- 2 large unwaxed lemons, juice and zest
- 60g caster sugar
- 50g unsalted butter
- 100ml creme fraich
- 300g soft cream cheese
- 6 passionfruit, seeds only
Only use Unwaxed Lemons.
Remember to only ever use unwaxed lemons in recipes if you are going to use the zest. The waxed type tastes awful and will ruin any dish you make with them.
Instructions for Making Vegetarian Passionfruit Cheesecake.
- Finely crush the ginger biscuits, I find that it’s best to do this inside of a plastic bag using a rolling pin to gently crush the biscuits or brandy snaps. This method really does avoid making a real mess.
- Melt the unsalted butter in a small heavy-based saucepan stirring occasionally, remove from the heat as soon as it has melted completely you don't want it to boil. Allow to cool for a minute and then add the crushed biscuits to the melted butter and stir really well.
- Allow this crumb mixture to cool a little before the next step. A couple of minutes should be enough.
- When cool, put this mixture into one large or several small dishes whichever you are using. Tall stemmed glasses look particularly fancy.
- Next mix the soft cream cheese, the crème Fraiche and the sugar together in a bowl.
- Mix well until the separate ingredients are all combined. This will take three minutes of firm stirring as the mixture wants to firm up as you are working on it.
- Remove the zest from the unwaxed lemons and juice them. It helps if you roll the lemons on a firm surface first as this will increase the amount of juice each lemon gives.
- Add the lemon juice and zest to the cream cheese mixture, stir quickly to avoid the mixture curdling at this point. Spoon this mixture onto the ginger biscuit base and leave to set in the fridge for a few hours, preferably overnight. You can serve this dessert straight away if you are in a hurry but it does work better if left to chill.
- When you are ready to serve the cheesecakes cut open the passion fruits and remove the seeds and flesh from the insides. Swirl this over the top of the cheesecakes.
Passionfruit is a native of South America and it contains high levels of beta-carotene, potassium and fibre, so not only does it look good, on the inside, but it does your insides good too. You can make this recipe a little more diet friendly by substituting low-fat cream and low-fat crème Fraiche. This is quite a rich dessert so you don’t really need a large portion and it’s nice to treat yourself sometimes. You can make this cheesecake using raspberries instead of passionfruit.
I hope that you enjoy making and eating this great tasting passionfruit cheesecake as much as I do.
© 2010 Galaxy Harvey
