Being born and raised in Malaysia, I will always have a soft spot for tropical fruits. Even though it is a tad early to talk about summer time now, I have been really lucky with the sunny weather in Melbourne, which made me reminisce of summer in Orange.
Personally, I am up for a tropical themed cheesecake at any occasion and season. But summer time is when I crave for a lighter and refreshing dessert. I love how the tang from passion-fruit and pineapple mellows the richness of the cheesecake which makes an ideal dessert to cool off a warm backyard barbecue meal. Furthermore, just look at the colors they bring to the cheesecake, coupled with a drizzling of maple syrup, it feels like this cheesecake has been sun-kissed ha!
It took me a while to discover how to use almond meal to make a crust. Seriously, it is so delicious and totally fits with my fuss free theme. I love the added nuttiness almond meal crust brings. In fact it is so delicious that I think I can eat the crust on its own! I also love the convenience of not having to process biscuits, which makes the cheesecake gluten free, which also means that more people can enjoy this sweet, tart and summery dessert!
Ingredients
- 2½ cups almond meal
- 125g unsalted butter, melted & cooled
- 3 Tbsps brown sugar
- 500g Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 85g passionfruit pulp (½ of 170g canned passionfruit pulp)
- 150g pinapple, diced
- ¼ cup maple syrup plus extra for final drizzling
- 85g passionfruit pulp (remaining ½ of 170g canned passionfruit pulp)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C for convection oven or 160C for fan force oven. Line the bottom of a 20cm spring form pan with baking paper and grease the side of the pan with melted butter. Set aside.
- Add almond meal, butter and brown sugar. Mix until well combined.
- Press the almond meal crumbs over base and the side of the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 160C for convection oven or 140C for fan force oven.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream Philadelphia Cream Cheese and caster with a handheld/stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until well combined.
- Add vanilla extract and passionfruit pulp. Continue beating until all the ingredients are well combined.
- Transfer the cream cheese batter onto the cooled almond meal crust.
- Place the spring form pan on a flat cookie pan to avoid leakage. Bake the cheesecake on the bottom rack (this is to prevent the surface from cracking) for an hour, or until the surface of the cheesecake appears to be light golden brown.
- Transfer the cheesecake onto a plate to cool completely.
- Refrigerate the cheesecakes for at least 3 hours, until it is fully set.
- In a non-stick pan, add ¼ cup of maple syrup and cook over medium heat until it starts to bubble.
- Add pineapple and cook to reduce the maple syrup to a toffee like consistency. Transfer the caremelised pineapple onto a plate to cool.
- Meanwhile, add the remaining passionfruit onto the same pan and cook until jam consistency is achieved.
- Add the cooled caramelised pineapple onto the cheesecake, followed by the passionfruit. Drizzle with more maple syrup if preferred and serve immediately.
Notes
Please make allowance for at least 3 hours of refrigeration time before serving.
I have created this recipe as part of the Do Your Thing with PHILADELPHIA campaign and I am excited to share that this cheesecake will be featured on this month’s issue of Gourmet Traveller which I can’t wait to get my hands on! So now, you all can see how I made this cheesecake behind the scenes. 😉
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Your beautiful cheesecake looks so tempting. I love the caramelised pineapples on it.
Awww thanks for your lovely words, Veronica! x Emily
These cheesecake is seriously incredible..loving your photography of it especially. Pinned!
Yummmm!! Definitely on the to do list!!
just wondering, how does this cheesecake set with no gelatine?
Because it has eggs and cream cheese and its baked! Not all cheesecakes have gelatin in them and some are baked, some are not.
This recipe was a huge success! Thanks for sharing xx
Thanks for the wonderful feedback Marie! I really appreciate you took the time to try and write me the feedback. Happy to hear you like recipe. 🙂 x Emily
It was my pleasure Emily! Another dinner party tomorrow night….guess what’s for dessert? 🙂
Hi Emily, lovely use of passionfruit! How about adding it to the Food on Friday: Passionfruit & Tamarillo collection over at Carole’s Chatter? Cheers
This is amazing!
The nut base is a great alternative to using wheat product.
and hubby says it the best thing I”ve ever made.
This will be one of my “go to” recipes.
Thank you!.
Hi Suzanne,
You have made my Sunday morning even better to learn that you and your husband liked the cheesecake. The almond meal crust really add the extra oomph to the cheesecake and I like to eat crust just on its own too!Thank you for trying the recipe and taking the time to write me the feedback.It is very much appreciated! x Emily
Hi Suzanne, your recipe for passion fruit cheescake (Gluten free of course as I am coeliac) looks fantastic. Could you please let me know a UK substitute for your almond meal?
I live in the UK.
Kind regards
Yvonne
should the base be soft when it comes out of the oven, its golden but still a bit soft at the bottom. maybe it just needs to cool down to harden?
I’ve been looking for a delicious GF cheesecake recipe since I’ve been diagnosed with ceoliac and I think I may of found it. I will give this a try over the wkend. It sounds quite easy and looks scrumptious. Thank you for sharing.
Decades ago I made plenty of refrigerated cheesecakes with biscuit base. This was my first attempt at baked, and almond meal base (husband now coeliac). It was fabulous. So much so, I won’t even share the leftovers with the grandkids 🙂 Next time I might add sultanas to the mix as well. Maybe soaked in a bit of brandy for an hour or two. (And the grandkids are filling up on the cassata ice-cream so they are not missing out 🙂 )