Image via I Fucking Wish

 

This recipe is modified from Buddha Belly Bites’ epic Raw Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake.

I have been meaning to make a cashew-based vegan cheesecake for a while now and let me tell you, I can’t believe it took so long. These things are damn incredible. Beware, you might end up with an expensive cashew habit…

The cheesecakes are assembled in a muffin tray lined with parchment and look so, so cute. Pre-formed parchment liners are available in a bunch of places around town. I got mine from my local supermarket. If you can’t/don’t want to get hold of parchment liners, you can totally DIY with squares of baking paper.

Individual portions might seem fiddly and annoying to pull together, but it is all surprisingly easy. It was my Mum’s 50th birthday recently, she had a ladies’ high tea at home to celebrate and I brought my first ever batch of mini vegan cheesecakes along for everyone to try. They were a total hit!

Creamy, rich, decadent. Healthy as hell. You won’t believe how luscious they taste. Who needs dairy when you can cream cashews to perfection??

 

Berrylicious Vegan Mini-Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

Base
1 cup macadamia nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup medjool dates*
a little sea salt

Filling
3 cups cashews, soaked overnight
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup rice syrup*
3/4 cup coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping
2 cups frozen mixed berries
1/2 cup medjool dates
2 – 3 tbsp hot water

 

Method:

Line muffin tray with parchment liners.

Base – In a food processor, blend nuts until very finely chopped. Add dates and salt and blend again until well combined.

Spoon base mixture evenly into the bottom of each liner and press down firmly with a tall glass (or your fingers). Place muffin tray in freezer before moving on to the filling.

Filling – In a high speed blender, add all filling ingredients and process until super smooth. This might take a few minutes of blending – perservere until the filling is silky and then give it one last blast for luck.**

Once the filling is creamed to perfection, remove muffin tray from the freezer. Spoon filling evenly over base. Return to freezer.

Topping – Add topping ingredients to blender and process until smooth. Remove tray from freezer and spoon topping evenly over filling. If you have any left over, save it for a batch of pancakes (mmm).

Place muffin tray in freezer. Freeze cheesecakes for a few hours, then refrigerate until needed. They will keep well for a 2-3 days; in fact, my partner in crime reckons they are even tastier after sitting for a day or two. Enjoy!

Serves 12.

 

* Rice syrup and medjool dates can be found on the shelves of natural food stores; I got mine from Commonsense Organics.

** You might want to blend the filling in two batches; that’s what I’m gonna do next time, my blender is decent but almost bit off more than it could chew trying to process the whole thing at once!