Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bites
Humpday calls for treats. Well at least it does in my house haha! I had been wanting to recreate creamy, and smooth raw vegan peanut cheesecake bites like the ones I had sampled at a raw cooking class I did agggeeesssssssss ago but didn't want it to be too heavy or sweet or too dense. Sometimes when I have a raw cake, I feel like I'm chewing into a piece of lead - so thick and heavy! Anyone else agree? I didn't have too much support from Isaac - the eternal raw vegan dessert skeptic. Always claiming it tastes like coconut oil (which he doesn't love) even when the recipe doesn't have coconut oil in it!
The only way to convince him to be my taste-tester was to laden the cheesecake bites with peanut butter because..well, peanut butter! I wish I had the camera with me when I was shoving the spatula from the vitamix into Isaac's face to lick the cheesecake mix. His face was priceless! Imagine you've just sucked a lemon and that's kinda along the lines of his facial expression BEFORE he even got close to the spatula!
After he VERY cautiously taste-tested the cheesecake, his face completely changed to one of surprise - "oh wow that's actually really good!" Oh gee, thanks Isaac, like I was going to offer you something that tasted foul!
Needless to say after a couple of taste-tests it was hard to keep him from dipping back into the vitamix for more! And that is how I know when I've stumbled onto a winner!
Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bites
Ingredients
Base 1/2 cup dates, soaked in hot water and drained
1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts
Cheesecake
3/4 cup raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for 30 mins and drained
2 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs coconut oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup full fat coconut cream
1/4 tsp salt
12 raspberries
Method
Place 'Base' ingredients into a food processor or Vitamix and pulse until combined
Holding in a ball, tear off roughly 6 equal portions and press them into a silicone cupcake tray to create the base of the cheesecake bite
Place into the freezer
Rinse out your processor/Vitamix and add all the ingredients except for the raspberries for the cheesecake
Blend on high for 1 minute if using a Vitamix (or similar) and until the mixture is completely smooth if using a processor
Take out your bases from the freezer, place 2 raspberries into each of the 6 cupcake holes
Pour the cheesecake mixture into each cupcake hole equally
Freeze for 2-3 hours
Pop out of silicone moulds and enjoy!
