Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Raw Cheesecake Success!

 Our little sister turned 17 on the weekend and as a surprise we made her a raw cheesecake. It involved quite the production because we doubled the recipe to make a large cake (it was around 14 inches in diameter, but you can tweak the recipe to fit any pan).

Crust:

2 cups almonds
1/2 cup raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
10 dates

Process in a food processor until finely crumbled. Press into pan.

Cheese:

6 cups soaked cashews
1 1/2 cups coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 1/2 cups agave nectar or honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Process in a food processor until very smooth. Pour over crust.

Place in freezer overnight or for several hours.



This was sort of an eclectic recipe. We got the crust recipe from http://www.rawmazing.com/ and the filling we got from http://maebird.blogspot.com/. We added a chocolate sauce/shell type thing by mixing coconut oil with agave and cacao powder and drizzled it on top. I would take it slightly easy on the lemon though, we found ours a bit too lemony, maybe leave out a 1/4 cup or keep tasting it to make sure it has the right balance. But the lemon is definitely necessary because it gives the cake a sort of tang, that would normal have come from the cheese. It's unbelievable how dense and rich this cake is, it is literally the exact same consistency as regular cheesecake.

-Jennifer

9 comments:

  1. oh my gosh! I NEED to make vegan cheesecake! tonight while out to dinner with my family, we had a vegan lemon raspberry cheezecake made with tofu but it wasn't my thing.. i'll definetly try this soon! :)

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  2. YES Do it! lol Yeah some vegan cheesecake recipes have soy products in them which are actually not that good for you. You could totally make a raspberry coulis to put on top by cooking raspberries with a bit of agave and then straining out the seeds. Let us know how it turns out! :)

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  3. In the freezer now...
    Cannot wait to try it!
    Thanks for posting :)

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  4. these are also delicious made with fresh strawberries pureed through the centre mmmmm
    i made one the other day with 2 layers - vanilla and coconut, and fresh strawberry
    drooooooool

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  5. OOO, I like the coulis idea!!!

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  6. Any particular reason you used Agave Nectar instead of sweetening with Stevia?

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  7. @ anonymous: Yes because agave adds volume as well as keeps it from becoming totally rock solid so it has that cheesecake-y texture

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  8. 3 Studies SHOW Why Coconut Oil Kills Fat.

    The meaning of this is that you actually burn fat by consuming coconut fat (in addition to coconut milk, coconut cream and coconut oil).

    These 3 studies from major medical magazines are sure to turn the traditional nutrition world around!

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