My friend Jack recently sold his house, and once again, is hosting a dinner party Saturday night. Despite my enjoyment of regular cooking, I seen to be the only one who enjoys and is (I think) good at desserts. With the weather as ridiculously hot as it is, I was going to go with a cool, fruit dessert. I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping, despite the air conditioned grocery store. I looked in my fridge and found watermelon and cream cheese. Looking in my pantry revealed graham cracker crumbs and chocolate. I had an idea, watermelon cheesecake.
Disclaimer: I made up this recipe as I went along, so I have no measurements. I will try my best to estimate.
Start with the standard graham cracker crumb crust. Melt butter and mix it with the crumb, press into the bottom of a greased pie pan.
Cut up a fourth of a large watermelon. Take out the seeds, put into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Put through sifter, cheese cloth, etc. Put the juice in a pan, add a couple pinches of salt, and ¼ cup sugar, put on high heat and reduce until it becomes a syrup. Don’t worry if the liquid looks like its separating.
In a food processor or a mixer, put in 8oz of cream cheese, 2 eggs, pinch of salt. I added tequila rose (a strawberry cream liquor) and some melted strawberry jam, but some strawberry milk, or an extract would work as well. Add the watermelon syrup, but reserve about ¼ cup. Mix all ingredients and put in the pie crust.
Bake the pie at 350 for 1 hour or until center is solid. I put a bowl of water in the bottom to prevent cracking. After the cake has cooled, coat the top with the remaining syrup for a bright red finish. I added chocolate chips as ‘seeds’ for a fun look.
As of this writing, I have not presented it at the party, but it looks great and the ‘batter’ tasted wonderful. I will let you know how it goes.
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