Summer is on its way in my part of the world, and the warmer weather has me craving chilled treats. One of the beautiful, fresh, sunny days we have had recently inspired me to make my first cheesecake of the season.

Mmmm… cheesecake season.

Come time for dessert, I tend to err on the side of chocolate flavour wise. Not that I don’t love fruit-based sweet things. It’s just that I ran the math: chocolaty + creamy = supremely delicious. Fact. And also my instinctual cocoa-brain draws me towards all chocolate everything!

But I live with a superlover of lemony cheesecakes, and reckoned it was about time that I made one with him in mind! That’s how this recipe came about.

Everyone’s favourite creamy-vegan X-factor – soaked cashews – are blended with a handful of simple ingredients to form the smooth, zesty lemon filling. The base is a breeze, a delicious combination of pecan and almonds, sweetened with dates. The vibrant boysenberry sauce pulls it all together. If extra-fanciness is required, arrange fresh berries on top, and drizzle each slice with pure maple syrup before serving.

This baby will keep very well, covered and refrigerated, for around 5 days, and actually gets even tastier as time goes by. If your household is anything like mine, it will be loooong gone before 5 days is up!

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

 

Rustic Boysenberry Lemon Cheesecake

 

Ingredients:

Base

2/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/3 cup almond meal (packed)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a couple of pinches of salt
1/2 cup dates, halved

Filling

1 1/2 cup cashews, soaked for 24 hours
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of two large lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (around 5 Meyer lemons)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp coconut oil

Sauce

1 x 400g can boysenberries in light syrup
3 tbsp raw sugar

 

What to do:

Sauce

Add boysenberries and raw sugar to a small saucepan. Bring to simmer, reduce heat to low and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened, around 40 mins. Set aside to cool.

Base

Add pecans, almonds, almond meal, vanilla extract and sea salt to your food processor. Blend until mixture begins to clump together. Add dates, continue blending until well combined. Press evenly into a pie dish. Put it in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Add coconut oil to small saucepan, melt on very low heat; immediately set aside to cool.

Add lemon juice, zest, vanilla extract and cashews to blender. Blend until very smooth, then blend again! You want the filling to be completely free of any graininess. Add coconut oil and blend until well combined.

Finishing Up

Pour filling over top of pre-chilled base, spreading gently with the back of a spoon to help an ensure even thickness. Don’t worry if the mixture is not as thick as you might have been expecting.

Place in freezer for 2 hours, until filling is set hard.

Pour boysenberry sauce evenly over top of filling. Viola! Cheesecake mission complete!

Place it back in the freezer and remove 25-ish minutes before serving.

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Feature image via Pinterest