... with a long preface, the best creamy texture ever and a sort-of-fruity Mexican twist.
It was a fun week in many ways, because Dad, for some reason, was all for breaking the rules and letting us have as many chocolates as we wanted. Probably because he didn't know the rules were one chocolate a day. Also, we ate fajitas. Every day, for breakfast and lunch. Years later, when questioned, he claimed that we liked them fine, so why make anything else? This, by the way, is a good example of my Dad's Attitude Towards Life. Find some great jeans? Buy another pair or two, why not? Who's going to care all your jeans are the same, they're GREAT JEANS! Same goes for shoes! And wine! And desk chairs! There's always storage.
Anyways, long story short, this experience left upon us kids the impression that, great as Daddy was at rationing chocolate and giving lunch money and inventing algorithms or whatever they paid him to do, he just wasn't much of a cook.
Whenever the subject comes up, he reminds us that he did live alone in Canada for several years before even meeting Mom, and totally cooked for himself to survive, and good food, too. And remember that time four years ago that he cooked us some shrimp? Also, HE CAN BAKE CHEESECAKE. And everyone always said it was great cheesecake, so there.
For years we scoffed at this claim, and said sure sure, but we've never seen you bake cheesecake, and why don't you bake a cheesecake, and then we'd all say nah, let's go out and get sushi, and we'd go out and get sushi and then maybe ice cream and buy a few new office chairs.
And then, not too long ago, I was looking at cheesecake recipes and thought, hey, wouldn't it be cool if I baked a mango cheesecake? A yummy, exotic, Mexican kind of cheesecake? And at some point Dad said well you know what my specialty cheesecake was? AVOCADO! And we were all AVOCADO? YES AVOCADO!
And then all of a sudden, Dad was making avocado cheesecake for our September family party, and we stared in wonder and peeled avocados with him.
It turns out, also all of a sudden, that everyone has heard of my Dad's mythical avocado cheesecake. A cousin even reported that some high mathematician at her University once said, upon discovering that she was related to my Dad, "The only thing I like about your uncle is his avocado cheesecake". And you can quote that on his biography.
(My Dad is really isn't such a terrible person. He does occasionally suffer from bad temper, especially when it comes to Important Mathematical Stuff and Spending Too Much Money, but he makes up for it in buying chocolate and other nice things. It's his way of showing he cares. That and hair ruffling, but the dog is the only one who takes real pleasure in that. We prefer conversation and fine dining.)
The Cheesecake was a hit. Aunts and uncles told stories about parties they'd host when they were young starring The Cheesecake, the cousins retold the ancient legends they'd been told about it, and we, not to be outdone, told our fajita story.
It's the Titanic!
A couple of weeks later, my apparently inspired aunt sent my cousin over to bake up a coffee version of this cheesecake to serve up the next day at her husband's - my uncle's - birthday. The photos in this post are actually of that cake (which by the way turned out a gorgeous color) due to technical trouble on behalf of the avocado cheesecake (aka, it got eaten).
Now let's talk about the recipe. It's adapted from The Joy of Cheesecake's chimpanzee cheesecake. Apparently, my parents tried several recipes from the Joy but eventually decided that the chimpanzee was the best, and just stick to that and flavor it according to what they wanted, most of the time. The creaminess is to die for, it has a lovely texture. I strongly encourage you to try the avocado version. While subtle, the rich velvet flavor and texture of the avocado do shine through. Plus, it's green!
So, here is the basic recipe:
Avocado Cheesecake
1 pound cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed avocado, just flesh (obviously; simply skin and pit and mash into your measuring cup, remember to look for avocados whose skin yields slightly to a firm touch)
Extra sugar
Beat together cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Beat in avocado and sour cream. At this point, taste the batter and add sugar according to taste. The original recipe is for a banana cheesecake, so you have to add quite a bit to make up for the avocado's non-sweetness. It's really up to you how sweet you want it, though I recommend a bit of generosity with the sugar.
Pour mixture into prepared crust and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Cool in the oven, with the door propped open, until the cake is at room temperature. Chill.
Variations: Other types of fruit, adjust sugar accordingly. For coffee cheesecake, simply disolve as much coffee as you want in a small volume of water and add instead of fruit. If you're feeling fancy, save a bit of coffee, then just before popping your cake in the oven, pour in a spiral shape and use a knife to draw lines from the center to the crust, forming a web-like pattern. We were feeling fancy, but we forgot.
By the way, Photobucket is being freaking slooooow today. Why?
