Kiwifruit conundrum cheesecake

My conundrum was this: too many kiwifruits. How many is too many? WELL, that would be two. I buy fruit with good intentions, but I have trouble liking it. Especially these green, cold, sour babies. When I saw Jim Harrison describe them as something like "bunions on a snail," I forgave myself for not being all that crazy about kiwifruit. So how to use them up? My solution: use them to garnish mini cheesecakes.



I've blogged about mini cheesecakes before. This time I tried a new trick from my mini cheesecake mentor, ValleyWriter, which is to use some type of Nilla Wafers (I used Mi-Del Lemon Snaps) for the bottom crust. The cookie exactly fits in the bottom of each section of the pan. 12 cookies and 20 seconds later, your crust is done. (Part of her advice was "make sure you buy the cookies that come IN THE BAG." I passed by several types of boxed Nilla Wafers before settling on the bag of Lemon Snaps, which were indeed perfect.)



Last time I made mini cheesecakes I overfilled the sections and the cheesecakes got an unattractive popover look. They puffed up over the rim of the pan and started to crack and fall apart. Wary this time, I left about 5 mm at the top, which I think was underfilling (they shrank with baking). Whatever. (That is my baking motto.)


Topped with thin discs of kiwi fruit.


All done. Later, I glazed some with melted apricot preserve. This makes it shiny (and helps the kiwifruit stick to the cheesecake). Result: My kiwifruits are now transformed into protein-rich and calcium-laden desserts for the week.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

These look great! I bet the combination of lemon & kiwi is wonderful - I'll have to give these a try. (BTW - glad the cookie tip worked out for you. IMO, it makes life so much easier!)

"Prof. Kitty" said...

It's a brilliant tip VW! I found the kiwi more a pop of color than a prominent flavor in the end. But I guess both kiwi and lemon are mainly "sour" notes so it did go well together!