Avocado, Lime and Coconut Cheesecake

 

This avocado cheesecake is creamy, tangy with lime, and beautifully garnished with fresh berries. It's cinch to make, and only the lime syrup needs to be cooked. I've used a Shepard avocado for this delicious  dessert cheesecake. They bring a creaminess which blends with the cream cheese beautifully.  They fill the Avocado gap at the start of the year  between when the Haas avocados aren't available but which reappear in May. The Shepard is perfect for cooking with, as once ripe, they won't oxidise when cut and will keep beautifully in the refrigerator for up to a week without going brown, unlike the Haas variety which browns and goes mushy very quickly, and needs to be mixed with lime or lemon juice pretty much straight away.  Have I already said that nowhere else in the world except Queensland and perhaps northern New South Wales, produces this unique Avocado, the Shepard? Avocados are so versatile, and are a brilliant ingredient in desserts.

 We might not be able to feed the Whole Planet with avocados all of the time, I wish we could, but here in Queensland, Northern Australia, we are revelling in them.The beautiful avocado is a little maligned at times by well meaning Climate Change scientists who maintain growing avocados is detrimental to the environment because of their high dependence on water and the number of road miles they need to travel to reach their destination for commercial sale. This might be correct in the Northern Hemisphere and remote regions of our country, however in Queensland, the Shepard avocadoes are in season at present, and avocado trees can be seen growing very well along the East Coast and up on the Atherton Tablelands, as a valuable, profitable and nutritious crop. Heck, a lot of Queenslanders even have an avocado tree or two growing in their large backyard. If we as consumers are clever about it, we can buy avocados from a supplier such as a local IGA or fruit market, which buys direct from the farmer, meaning the avocado isn't undergoing lots of road miles to reach the point of sale. 

Shepard avocados which have been sitting in my frig ripe, for 3 days now. The skin in this photo looks a lot darker than it actually is

Let's make a cheesecake:

Serves 16 at a pinch with thin slices, let's play safe and make it 12 slices

Preparation time 30 minutes (+cooling & 6 1/2 hours chilling time)

Actual cooking time 5 minutes

Ingredients:

200 g digestive biscuits

1/2 cup (40 g) desiccated coconut

100 g butter, melted

750 g cream cheese, softened

320 g can Sweetened Coconut Condensed Milk ( I used a Coles supermarket brand)

1 large ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and chopped

2 limes, rind finely grated  and juiced

1/4 cup (60 ml) orange juice or tequila

1/4 cup (60 ml) boiling water

3 teaspoons gelatine powder

Lime Syrup

1/4 cup (60 ml) lime juice

2 tablespoons orange juice or tequila

1/4 cup (55 g) caster sugar

Method:

Grease a 20 cm (base measurement) springform tin, lightly grease and line with baking paper.

Prepare the Base:

To prepare the base of the cheesecake, feed the biscuits and coconut into the food processor and process gradually until fine crumbs form.

Soften  the butter, add to the biscuit mixture and process until well combined. Spoon the mix for the base into the prepared springform tin. It now needs to be spread evenly over the tin. Use the flat-bottom of a glass to spread the biscuit bas smoothly. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until base is firm.

Prepare the Cream Cheese and Avocado filling:

Place the cream cheese and the condensed milk into your now clean food processor.  Process until well mixed.

Now add the sliced avocado, grated lime rind, lime juice and orange juice or tequila (I used orange juice this time) and process until smooth.

Place the boiling water into a heatproof bowl, and sprinkle over the gelatine stirring gradually as you sprinkle. Continue stirring until the gelatine dissolves completely. Add the dissolved gelatine to the avocado mixture into the food processor, and process again until smooth.Pour the avocado mixture onto the base.

Chill for 6 hours in the refrigerator until set.

Lime Syrup:

Combine the lime juice, orange juice or tequila and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Continue stirring the syrup for 1-2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high. Lightly boil and continue to stir for another 2-3 minutes or until the syrup thickens. Leave to cool.

To serve, place the cheesecake on a serving plate, add some beautiful fresh berries, and drizzle with the syrup and enjoy, I know you will.

I found this recipe in a  Coles supermarket recipe book, which I thought looked like a winner, however no advertising for Coles intended.

Backstory:

Shepard avocados, my favourite, are in season at the moment, are inexpensive, hooray, so let's  celebrate them and enjoy.  I'm thinking smashed Avo on toast, smoothies, added to your baked beans for a boost, Guacamole, avocado brownies, and this Avocado Cheesecake is a triumph. Shepards are ideal for dicing and slicing in salads, on sandwiches or even in a ceviche, delish. There are just so many opportunities to use them. My  French "daughter in law" likes to just eat them "au naturel" with a vinaigrette dressing, c'est delicieux.  For lunch we really enjoy chicken, egg, and avocado salad with a little balsamic vinegar. What's your favourite way to eat avocado?

Avocados need the right sub-tropical environment in which to grow, and deep,well drained soil. They can be found growing from Southern Queensland right up the East Coast to the Atherton Tablelands west of Cairns in Far North Queensland. The elevated Atherton Tablelands is a lush fertile region inland from Cairns, known as the food bowl, and one of it's most popular crops is avocados. Howe Farming Group is based on the Tablelands, and supplies the Coles supermarket, with over 4 million avocados annually, including Haas and Shepard. Their are other independent avocado growers up there as well, all supplying various farmer's markets and IGA's or selling direct at the farmgate. The air on the Tablelands is clearer, the temperatures milder, they get the required rainfall, and the volcanic soils are perfect for a variety of crops. Perfect. It's also actually a beautiful place to live and holiday at. Avocados are grown commercially as a lucrative crop along the coastal strip near Bundaberg as well, which has some of the best soils.

I live in Queensland, the Sunshine and Shepard Avocado state. Here are a few more facts about the Misunderstood Shepard Avocado: 

• Avocados are a large berry not a vegetable, containing a single large seed known as the pit or stone
• Avocados are the Good Mood Berry, so we can be in a good mood from January to April from eating only 1/2 an avocado a day, that's good news isn't it? However any avocados that you buy wherever you  live will give you the good mood vibe.
• They contain a nutritious combination of vitamins and minerals to help your brain and nervous system perform at their best. I've already eaten half an avocado today, can't you tell?
• There maybe no need for vitamins pills, check out this rundown of vitamins and minerals in only half an Avo:
• (345 mg) potassium
• (19.5 mg) magnesium, the super mineral
• (60 mg) folate
• (5.5 mg) sodium
• (6.0 mg) Vitamin C
• Vitamin B6
• This isn't the complete list, but it is still impressive
• You can eat too much avocado though, so everything in moderation
• If it's soft around the top of the avocado, it's ready to eat
• Shepard avocados stay green, even when they are ripe unlike the Haas, the skin of which turns black

There's no added sugar in this recipe except for the syrup, but I didn't miss it. Also, any avocados can be used for this recipe, I'm just feeling like a passionate foodie about the Shepard at present.

Hope your week is going well,

Warm wishes,

Pauline

This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thanks.