Right now I’m sharing the results of my pleased experiment making Guava Cheesecake Bars. Fruit and cheesecakes are previous buddies; every little thing from blueberries, raspberries and strawberries to bananas, oranges, lemons, mangoes and kiwi have been included into cheesecakes. In baking, guavas are normally included within the type of jams, jellies or pastes. So I assumed, “ Why not use contemporary guava?”. 

Guava and chilli – naughty however good

Driving on vacation, I noticed cartloads of ripe guavas being bought all alongside the freeway and simply had to purchase a few kilos. These had been the white selection, not the pink ones. Though for this recipe of Guava Cheesecake Bars, pink ones will do completely as properly. They simply must be very ripe. I don’t advocate utilizing overripe fruit that has turned squishy. I used to be excited to discover cooking with them and making one thing that I’ve by no means tried earlier than. The odor of ripe guavas has a robust streak of vanilla. So the concept of mixing the sweet-tart, custardy guava pulp with tangy cream cheese appeared like one that might work. 

Right here, in India we love sprinkling a little bit salt and chilli powder on sliced guavas and many people have fond recollections of having fun with chilli-spiked guavas from road distributors outdoors our faculties. I needed to someway incorporate these flavours as a result of I didn’t need my Guava Cheesecake Bars to have a monotonous sweetness. They wanted that additional one thing to perk them up. Including a little bit chilli powder to the guavas did the trick. The kiss of warmth made these cheesecake bars a little bit naughty but good.

How one can put together the guavas for the cheesecake

Guavas have seeds, exhausting, gritty ones that like to get caught in molars. So, the core of the guavas, which accommodates the seeds, have to be eliminated earlier than dicing them for cooking. The core is the softest a part of a ripe guava and might merely be scooped out with a spoon. The remainder of the fruit is minimize into small cubes in order that they don’t utterly disintegrate whereas cooking. 

The minimize guavas are cooked with a little bit lemon juice, salt, sugar, chilli powder and cornflour for a couple of minutes. They need to flip smooth however retain their form considerably and quit the additional water. The cooked guavas will resemble a mix of cooked fruit with a thick syrupy coating sauce. This combination have to be dolloped over the cheesecake batter and baked. 

A more healthy almond flour crust

The bottom of those Guava Cheesecake Bars is a comparatively skinny one,  made with almond and all-purpose flours, butter and cornflour. As an alternative of including melted butter to the flour combination, on this recipe, we rub chilly butter into the blended flours like we might to make pie crust. It’s because if melted butter is added to almond flour, it is going to mix with the oils within the almonds to make a smooth, pasty combination. Utilizing chilly butter yields a pleasant crumbly combination which will be patted down into the baking pan and baked to supply a crisp base. You possibly can select to go along with an all flour crust. In that case, add melted butter to the all-purpose flour, combine until mixed, press into the pan and bake. 

When the cheesecake bars are achieved, they may have a slight wobble. Don’t fear about this, they may proceed to prepare dinner and set as they cool. Resist the temptation to dig in. Cool the bars within the pan, take away and funky on a wire rack. Then chill them within the fridge for 3-4 hours earlier than slicing to serve.

Guava Cheesecake Bars

Calmly candy, tart and creamy cheesecake bars topped with chunks of chilli guava

Servings 16 bars

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook dinner Time 55 minutes minutes

Complete Time 1 hour hr 25 minutes minutes

Components  

For the cheesecake batter

• 220 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 40 g pure yoghurt, hung and drained or Greek yoghurt
• 50 g sugar
• 1 egg
• ¾ tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

For the guava filling

• 2 giant guavas, washed, deseeded and minimize into small cubes
• 1 tbsp butter
• ¼ tsp purple chilli powder (cayenne)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Pinch of salt

For the crust

• 100 g almond flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 40 g chilly butter, minimize into cubes
• 1½ tbsp cornflour
• Pinch of salt

Directions 

• Preheat the oven to 180℃. Line an 8’x 8″ sq. baking tin with parchment (be sure to depart parchment hanging over the edges to assist raise the bars out) and grease with butter.

• Soften the butter in a large pan and add the guavas, salt, lemon juice and chilli powder. The guavas will give out water. Cook dinner for five minutes on medium warmth until they’re achieved however nonetheless maintain their form. Combine the cornflour in 1 tsp water and pour it into the cooked guavas. Let it thicken the combination and take it off the warmth.

• To make the crust combination, whisk the almond flour, salt, cornflour (cornstarch) and sugar collectively in a bowl. Utilizing your fingertips, rub the butter into the almond flour until they resemble breadcrumbs.

• Press this combination evenly into the ready tin and bake for quarter-hour until calmly golden and crisp.

• Whereas the crust is baking, make the cheesecake batter. Whisk the cream cheese and yoghurt in a bowl until mixed. Combine within the sugar and cornflour adopted by the egg and vanilla until you will have a easy batter.

• Pour the cheesecake batter on to the just-baked, heat crust, and even out the floor. Dollop the guava filling to cowl the floor of the cheesecake. Bake for 40 minutes until the filling is usually set. It would nonetheless have a little bit wobble within the centre. Change off the oven, open the door and let the cheesecake cool inside for 20 minutes.

• Take away the tin from the oven and set on a wire rack to chill utterly. As soon as totally cooled, cowl and chill the cheesecake for 3-4 hours within the fridge. Then, raise it out utilizing the overhanging parchment and minimize into 2″x 2″squares. Retailer in an hermetic field for as much as every week within the fridge.