No bake avocado lime cheesecake

Move over key lime pie here comes the great contender

These days, I cannot get enough avocado, and I consider them to be somewhat of a cooks treasure. Avocado makes a great dairy substitute, whether its in sauces, for baking, pasta,or meat dishes. You can use it as a replacement for heavy cream, sour cream, or cheese and you can make the consistency more even by blending it with the rest of your ingredients. Avocados in their pure, just-scooped form are a culinary gem. Forget hipster style avocado toast, there is much more to the avocado than meets the eye. Avocado is a fruit, and fruits make very good desserts. Chef Sheilla’s recipe for no-bake avocado lime cheesecake is the perfect place to begin. The avocado doesn’t necessarily add much in terms of flavour here, because the the lime mutes it. But don’t leave it out either, because what it lacks in flavour it more than makes up for in texture. The texture is melt in the mouth velvety and the lime brings levels of subtle citrus without being overtly citrusy.

With only 6 simple ingredients, this dessert turned out to be beyond heavenly. I tweaked the original recipe slightly; substituting honey for sugar  and over the years I have found that using nairn´s oatcakes as the base, gives cheesecake another dimension.My dear friend Barbara has just introduced me to nairn´s stem ginger oat biscuit, no looking back, they are now in my cheesecake base.

No bake avocado lime cheesecake
For the base: Serves 8
You will need:
a 20cm (8in) springform tin, base lined with baking parchment
15 large digestive biscuits or 200g packet nairn´s stem ginger oat biscuits 
85g / 3oz unsalted butter 

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Break up the digestive biscuits and place them into the bowl of a food processor.
Place the butter in a heavy-based pan and melt gently.
Process the biscuits in the food processor, until the mixture has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs.
Line the base of a 20cm / 9in-10in loose-based spring-form cake tin with a round of greaseproof paper. Brush the bottom of the tin with some of the melted butter and place the round of greaseproof paper in the base.
Add the remaining melted butter to the biscuit crumbs in the food processor and process again briefly.
Tip the crumbs into the bottom of the cake tin. Using the back of a spoon, gently push the crumbs from the centre outward, until smooth and level. This will form the base of the cheesecake.
Bake the cheesecake base in the oven for 10-15 minutes until it's lightly browned and just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least five minutes.

For the filling:

300 gms Cream Cheese
200 ml Whipping Cream for mixing with avocado
150 ml Whipping Cream
1 medium Avocado cut into big cub ines
2 Limes juiced and zested
2/3 to 3/4 cup honey
1 sachet ( 2 1/2 teaspoons) Gelatin Powder (5 leaves)
1 Lime for garnishing
Zest the lime first before extracting the juice. Set aside the lime zest and juice.
Combine 150 ml of whipping cream and gelatin powder in a small saucepan. Stir for 2 minutes or until granules of gelatin is dissolved. Bring it to boil over medium heat. Stir for few minutes until gelatin is completely melted. Strain through a fine sieve. Set aside.
Using a food processor combine avocado, cream cheese, sugar, 200 ml whipping cream, lime juice, and zest until everything is smooth and well-combined. Pour in the gelatine - cream mixture and continue processing until well combined, creamy and smooth in texture.
Pour the avocado lime cheesecake into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top.
Chill in the freezer for 2 hours to set.
Release the cake from the pan if using a springform pan. If using a mousse ring (which I used in this recipe), use a blow torch and run around the edge of the ring to loosen the mousse and remove the ring. Garnish with lime slices and zest on top.