Avocado cheesecake with fruit salsa is a real treat. Avocados make this cheesecake extra rich and creamy.
Yield: 16 servings
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
16 ounces of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 medium sized haas avocados
2 teaspoons of lime zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon rum
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Put almonds into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter, and pulse until just blended. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Set aside.
Before starting your cream cheese mixture, allow all ingredients to reach room temperature. Letting the cream cheese, eggs, and sour cream reach room temperature will help the cheesecake from cracking. In a mixer combine cream cheese and sugar, and blend until smooth. Add eggs one at a time until they are incorporated into the batter.
Place avocados into a food processor, and pulse until they are smooth, add lime zest, lime juice, rum, and sour cream, and pulse until you have a uniform mixture, add the avocado mixture into the cream cheese, and mix well. Pour into spring form pan. Bake for 45 minutes, check to see if the cheesecake is set, it should still have a small jiggle in the middle when you bump the pan.
Remove from oven, and cool completely on a rack. Chill overnight in the refrigerator.
Fruit Salsa
This is where you can be experimental. I like to use whatever is the freshest at the grocery store, because this way I am getting the best fruit.
1 orange - I used mandarin oranges
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
2 cups fresh watermelon
juice of 1/2 of a Meyer Lemon - you can use lime juice
1 teaspoon of citrus zest
1/2 avocado chopped
Combine avocado and citrus juice in a bowl, and mix well, this is done so the fruit won’t discolor. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it sit for about five minutes before using. Place fruit salsa into a sieve and drain juices before decorating cheesecake. Other fruit that would work well, mangoes, grapefruit, and pineapple.