Raw Lemon & Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes

I have absolutely saved the best for last team! This is a recipe I created from scratch and it’s my all time fave. These perfect little cheesecakes are delicious – you will never want to eat regular cheesecake again!  It is perfect for a summer treat and made with wholesome ingredients. They are gluten free, vegan and refined sugar free.   Just remember to soak your cashews the day before, but otherwise a very easy recipe.

Male these for your family for Christmas and they love you for it!

Ingredients

Base:

1 cup cashews

1 cup almonds

½ cup coconut

½ cup soaked dates

1 TBS maple

Lemon Filling:

2 cups of cashews, soaked overnight

400 grams coconut cream

½ cup pure maple syrup

½ cup cacao butter, melted

Juice of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Pinch of salt

Method:

For the base, soak your dates in boiling water for 10 mins. 

Combine the nuts and coconut in a blender and blend until fine.
Drain the dates and add to the blender along with the maple syrup and blend until combined.  The mixture should hold together well and be sticky.

Spoon one table spoon at a time into silicon cupcake trays, press down with the back of the spoon and then pop in the fridge while you make the fillings.

Make the filling:
To make the filling, add all of your lemon filling incredients into the blender and blend until smooth and glossy, approx 3-5 minutes.

Pour into molds to about half way, leaving room for the raspberry layer on top. Return to fridge.

To make the raspberry layer, add 1 cup fresh or freeze dried raspberries to your lemon filling and blend for a minute, or until completely blended.  Pour into your molds, filling to the top. Sprinkle freeze dried raspberry on top. 

Set in the freezer up to 4 hours, or overnight. 

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Raw Chocolate Tart

And we have a winner. When I think about yummy Christmas food, I think of chocolate. Am I right? I have always loved baking for my family at Christmas time and usually something with chocolate is in the mix. When coming up with my menu for this baking series, I knew there needed to be something in there for chocolate lovers everywhere.

This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, vegan & refined sugar free. Oh, and also surprisingly easy.
Remember to soak your cashews at least 4hrs in advance of making! The longer you soak them, the creamier the mixture will be.

Serve with fresh strawberries or raspberries.

Ingredients:

Base
2 cups natural cashews
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup pitted dates
3 TBS cacao
2 TBS pure maple

Chocolate Filling
2 cups (250g) raw cashews (soaked for minimum 4 hrs)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ cup coconut oil, melted
50g cacao butter, melted
1 teaspoon maca powder (optional)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
100ml (about 7 tablespoons) nut milk of choice
¾ cup raw cacao powder

Method:

The cashews for the filling need to be soaked for a minimum of 4 hours (recommend longer).

To make the base, place all of the dry ingredients (nuts and cacao) into your blender and blitz until crumbly. Add your drained, soaked dates and maple and blitz again until the mixture is combined. Mixture will be sticky. Pop your base into a tart tin and press into the base and up the sides. Place in the fridge while you make the filling.

To make the filling, place all ingredients back in your blender and mix until smooth, this will take anywhere from 3-7 minutes depending on your blender. Pour the filling over your base and place in the freezer to set.

Serve with strawberries or raspberries along with some plain coconut yogurt.

Can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Raw Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cheesecake

I've been wanting to attempt a raw / vegan cheesecake for ages. Whenever I have them out somewhere I always think they taste incredible, but for some reason they intimidated me.
Lets break it down though. Really, all we have here is a base (all in the blender), filling and a simple ganache on top, not dissimilar to all the other slices I make.  

With friends coming over tonight it was the perfect excuse. The hardest part was actually deciding on flavour - next time I will go for blueberry, but for my first try I decided on Peanut Butter using my fave PB from Pics. I spotted this recipe on Julia & Libby's website a while back, all I did was make a few adjustments with the topping, opting for a chocolate ganache layer on top.   I also made some peanut butter and cacao bliss balls to go on top, which I will post the recipe for tomorrow. 

It gets all the ticks from me - it's refined sugar free, choc full of protein with all of those nuts, it's vegan (completely dairy free) and gluten free. 

So lets do this!  Honestly, it was easy and it's SO SO decadent and delicious, perfect for a special occasion or slicing and popping in the freezer to eat piece by piece!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust

• 1.5 cup almonds

• ½ cup raw peanuts

• 8 medjool dates, pitted and soaked for half an hour in warm water.

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted

• 1 tablespoon cacao powder

• Pinch of salt

Filling

• 2 cups of cashews, soaked overnight

• 400 grams coconut cream

• ½ cup maple syrup

• ½ cup peanut butter, melted

• 1/2 cup cacao butter, melted

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• Pinch of salt

Chocolate Ganache

• 3/4 cup coconut milk

• 1 block dark Ghana whittakers chocolate chopped into chunks

Instructions

1. Line spring form tin with baking paper. Place all crust ingredients into food processor and pulse until grainy-mixed texture. Press crust down into cake pan evenly and place into the freezer.

2. Place all cheesecake ingredients into food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Spread evenly on top of base using a knife or spatula. Place in the freezer for 3 or more hours.

3. Once the cake is set, make your ganache. Place your coconut milk in a pot and heat on low until it starts to steam - don't let boil.  Once hot, take off the heat and mix in your chocolate which will melt slowly. Fold until the ganache goes glossy

4. Pour your ganache over top of the frozen cheesecake. I used a squezzy bottle but you can do this however you like. 

5. Cake is best stored in the freezer.

 

Boosted Berry Coconut Yogurt

You all know I'm a mad, crazy smoothie fan. To me, it's the number one way to get a whole lot of amazing ingredients all in one meal that tastes half decent.  But I understand we don't always feel like smoothies all year round, or every day.  Unless your me, of course.   I have recently started thinking outside of the box when it comes to boosting meals.  Add spinach to things that maybe you wouldn't normally (what could go wrong?), the amazing overnight oats recipe featuring chia seeds, fruit and LSA mix, or just packing in loads of grated veges into meatballs, patties, egg slices etc. You get the message.  

My latest trick is boosting my coconut yogurt, or just plain unsweetened if that's what you like.  I love my nutra bullet and have a tendency to blend everything in sight, so today I got busy experimenting with upping the nutrition in one of my fave things - coconut yogurt. 

The recipe below is really yummy and turns it from being a snack into a meal, I turned it into a bowl so I could add a bunch of toppings, but you could use it as the topping on your oats, granola or dessert - it's that good. 

Think of things that are good for you and experiment with blending them in to the yogurt. I popped in some chia seeds, a banana, some blueberries and topped with a nutty cacao blend and some more blueberries + chia seeds.  I also included some of The Wholesome Co immune health tub blend, which has a berry flavour and was so perfect for this and I know it has so many incredible ingredients to help boost my immunity at this time of year. 

These health tubs are basically natural blends of different ground ingredients designed to help different areas -  she has designed a hormone balancing one, glowing skin, breastfeeding, pregnancy and immunity.  I love this idea because it is just using natural foods to help boost your system and they are so easy to add to your diet via smoothies, baking or as a topping.  I am trying to do this more and more and am on a journey of learning about what different foods can do for you - it's a big wide world!  Of course, you can create these blends yourself or buy specific items to help you with whatever you need, I just like the convenience of getting directly from The Wholesome Co AND ranging from $29.99 and $39.99 I am not sure you could buy all the ingredients for that!

Here's my recipe for my boosted coconut yogurt, feel free to omit the immunity blend, or if you'd like to try, use 'balanceproject' as a code for 15% off.  This is not a sponsored blog by the way, I just love this stuff!

Boosted Berry Coconut Yogurt
1/2 cup coconut yogurt (I used Raglan Strawberry & Acai flavour)
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup ice
1 TBS chia seeds
1 heaped TBS immune health blend (see above)
a few TBS almond milk to add moisture for blending

Pop everything in the bullet and give it a whiz!   Add to your fave granola, or top with your fave granola - whichever you prefer.