The Cheesecake Toastie

I can’t remember who first suggested a cheesecake toastie, but it was one of those great, illuminating moments when you hear a word properly for the first time. CHEESE cake. Of course. How could we have missed this for so long? So Barny made a batch of veg soup to at least vaguely resemble a wholesome meal and we sat down to cheesecake for lunch.

Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake Toastie

– Fresh sliced strawberries, with just a dash of sugar

– Cream cheese beaten with icing sugar. Lots of icing sugar.

 Stewed Strawberry Cheesecake Toastie

– Fresh sliced strawberries stewed for 10 minutes in a pan over the lowest heat

– More of that sweet, sweet cream cheese and icing sugar mixture.

Taste.

Fresh strawberries, right in season, are pretty much the best things in the universe, I think we can all agree on that. These were not right in season. Considering this I was still utterly delighted with the outcome. Sweet, smooth, strawberries; just the right amount of crunch from the toast. It’s not surprising really, given that it is a pocket-sized heart attack, but it was only just short of perfect. 9/10

Stewed strawberries have better texture in the toastie, as you can bite straight through them more easily, but these were unsweetened. Barny preferred this one, I felt that seeing as we were going for broke we might as well have sweetened strawberries in there too. 8/10

Don’t cut it in half. It doesn’t end well.

Appeal

There really isn’t anything that doesn’t work in here. The dessert toasties have always had a limited appeal, because of the (apparent) fundamental paradox of sweet food inside bread. I think that most sweet toastie connoisseurs would give this one a shot though. 7/10

Suitability as a signature.

Seasonality would stop this one. I really want to get the cheesecake toastie on the menu having tried it, but that won’t be until May at the earliest. 4/10

Difficulty Rating

Although there are only two components, this does involve minor preparation before you can make it and an above average amount of washing up due to the involvement sugary cream cheese with every single object in your kitchen. Especially when Barny is cooking.  Rated so-so.