Something Fruity!

Yes. It's fruit time in Tennessee - well, at least for me and my fellow friends in my apartment.  My dear friend, Alicia, and I have been talking about making some sort of fruit pizza (in order to start the process of me obtaining baking skills), but it slowly turned into a cheesecake rendition of this classic dessert, and even a rendition of a classic cheesecake.  We walked around Kroger Marketplace, finding fresh fruits that would beautifully top this devine decadence.

We started with a store bought (yes, I know) sugar cookie dough put into a small baking pan, and then made some cheesecake filling with 1/3 fat cream cheese and fat free cream cheese, along with sugar, vanilla, eggs, and lime zest.  We baked those two together, and topped them with a sour cream, lime yogurt, sugar, and lime zest topping and then baking a few minutes longer.  Then we topped it with yummy fruits - raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, red plums, fresh cherries, and kiwi.  It was a sweet, tart, and tangy dessert, with a cheesecakey-sugary-chewy-cakey-yummy bottom :) ('Cause you know how we like our bottoms around here, huh?!)

Fruity Lime Cheesecake Pizza
Ingredients
1 sugar cookie dough package
Lots and lots of fresh fruit!!!
Filling
1 1/2 packages of 1/3 fat, fat free, or combo cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lime zest
2 eggs
Topping
1 small cup Weight Watchers Key Lime yogurt (or equivalent size)
1 small (8 oz) cup fat free sour cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp lime zest
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
In a small baking pan (I think mine is like... a 6x12 or something... some really random size), flatten out the raw cookie dough.
Mix all of the filling ingredients in a bowl until smooth.  Pour over top of the cookie dough. Bake for about 30-40 minutes (until the cheesecake is ALMOST cooked all the way through).  Remove and leave oven on.
While the cheesecake is cooking, mix all of the topping ingredients together.  Refrigerate until the cheesecake is finished.
Once the cheesecake is finished, top it with the topping. You want a thin layer, so you may not need it all.  Bake it for about 8 more minutes (Until the topping is no longer runny).
Let the cheesecake cool for about 40+ minutes, until it is cool on the top.  Then add your fresh fruit!!

Chill for at least another hour before you cut the cheesecake.

Um. Hello? Doesn't this look devine?!

It was so much fun to try this - we were all skeptical just because of my infamous baking skills. And of course I didn't follow a recipe (and yes, my cheesecake did fall, but I easily hid that with lots and lots of fruit!).  But regardless, the mixture was fantastic - the lime was tangy, the sugar..well...sugary sweet, and the fruit was a mixture of sweet and barely-ripe-tartness.  Team this with a little mint water (because it will make you thirsty!) and you're in for a good treat.  We even laughed a little at my roommate/friend's boyfriend, Phil, for gobbling up the rest of her (yes, her, because he didn't want his own) piece without even taking a breath - that usually means it's good, right?!

Ciao e bella cucina!
Katherine