Prick or Treat

Happy Halloween! I couldn’t resist the title. Looking for some sweet treats for Hallowmas? Would you like to honor and feed your ancestors with some wild treats? Here are a few ideas. The first is a delicious prickly pear cheesecake, that really held its beautiful fuchsia coloring during cooking. Second is a prickly pear fruit sorbet, containing no added sugar or egg whites. You simply freeze prickly pear juice, stirring occasionally during the freezing process, for a really simple and yummy dessert or palate cleanser. Fun to save the prickly pear fruit shell and fill it with sorbet…bummer the picture turned out crummy.

Prickly Pear Cheesecake

Crust
1 1/2 c almond crunchies (*see below), or graham cracker crumbs
6 T butter
1/4 c sugar

Cheesecake
1 # cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/4 c unbleached white flour
2 t lemon juice
1 t lemon rind
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c heavy cream
1 c prickly pear juice, cooked down/reduced to 1/4 c

*To make ‘almond crunchies’ I soaked almonds in water for 12 hours, drained and pureed with cinnamon and vanilla. This was then spread onto dehydrator sheets and thoroughly dried. Butter your pie pan and press in crust mixture. Take one cup of pure prickly pear juice and reduce over low heat to 1/4 cup. Preheat oven to 300°. Put cream cheese, sugar, and egg yolks into mixing bowl and cream them together. Beat egg whites and fold into creamed mixture. Add remaining ingredients, pour into pie pan, and bake at 300° for roughly 40 minutes. Rotate 1/2 way during the baking process.

Prickly Pear Sorbet

Take freshly processed prickly pear juice and pour into bowl or pan. Only fill to about 2” deep. Stir roughly once per hour until you have a smooth and slushy consistency.