passionfruit cheesecake slice

Let’s stretch this gorgeous summery weather out for as long as possible. Defiantly bare legs and sundresses — okay, maybe with a scarf around the neck in the morning — before we descend into the full-body armour of winter woollies. And creamy, zingy cheesecake, rich with lemon and tropical passionfruit. What says summer better?

The wonderful thing about this slice — quite besides its whipped clouds of creamy perfection, quite besides this is my first ever cheesecake — is that this petite treat uses only half a block of cream cheese. So you have to make the slice again, quickly, to use the cream cheese before it spoils. I don’t see any problem with that.

I hope you are still enjoying cheesecake weather where you are!

Passionfruit cheesecake slice
Torn from a magazine years ago; no magazine title on the page. The base will be quite hard the first day or two, even if you cook it for the minimum time. But after that, its starts to soften from the topping, and becomes delectably sort of chewy from the coconut. You will need to allow an hour or so for the base to cool before topping it, then it needs chilling time before it can be served. Patience!

• Preheat your oven to 180 and line a brownie tin with paper.
• Melt 125 gms butter. Combine 1 cup SR flour, 1 cup desiccated coconut and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl, then slowly add the melted butter, combining it with a fork. It may appear crumbly.
• Pour into the brownie tin and again using a fork, spread around the base, firming it up once it is evenly distributed, then finally pressing down with your hand.
• Pop into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until very lightly golden. Allow to cool (leave it in the tin).
• Now make the cheesecake topping: cream together 125 gms soft cream cheese with a 395 gms tin of sweetened condensed milk and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Once finished, do lick the beaters.
• Now fold thru ¼ cup of passionfruit pulp*. 
• Pour over the base and swirl about (yes, you are playing with your food. But it’s so dreamy!). Chill for a few hours until firm, then remove it from the brownie tin (holding the paper lining) and store in a container in the fridge.

* You can omit the passionfruit and use other fruit as I did the second time I made this (to use the other half of the cream cheese block), such as berries. You may want to scatter these on top of the filling once it is on the base.