Coconut-Lime Cheesecake (Recipe and full instructions for crust and filling)
We fell in love with raw cheese cakes when we were visiting raw food cafes in California. This is one of our favourite recipes which we tasted first in Berkeley’s Café Gratitude. The raw Cheesecake will keep for at least four days. Store covered in the fridge or 2-4 weeks in the freezer.
(Makes one 10-inch/26cm cheesecake)
COCONUT-ALMOND CRUST
1 ½ cups dry almonds
½ cup coconut flakes
3 ounces/90g date paste (weight)
¼ tsp liquid vanilla (up to one tsp if needed)
1/8 teaspoon salt
Optional ½-1 tsp water
Process all ingredients. See cheesecake crust directions.
COCONUT-LIME FILLING
3 cups soaked cashews (at least 2-4 or 8 hours or overnight), medium packed, lightly pressed down)
1 ½ cups coconut milk
1 cup lime juice
¾ cup agave syrup
2 teaspoons liquid vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lecithin
¾ - 1 cup extra-virgin coconut oil
Blend ingredients until smooth and creamy. Follow cheesecake filling directions!
Making the Cheesecake Crust The basic ingredients you need for the cheesecake crust are:
Nuts (usually almonds) - Salt - Date paste - Liquid vanilla - Any additional ingredients the recipe calls for (such as cacao powder)
Cheesecake Crust Directions
Add to food processor the nuts, salt, vanilla, half the amount of date paste, and any other ingredients the recipe may call for.
Process all ingredients until the crust starts to rise on the sides of the processor bowl. Stop the machine and mix with a spatula or spoon.
Repeat a few times until nuts are well broken down. Add remaining date paste and continue processing until mixture is consistent. The final result of the crust should be a mixture that can hold together with a gentle pressure and an be broken apart with a clean break.
Assemble the cheesecake pan with the bottom up (opposite the way it would normally be used with lip facing down). This makes it much easier to serve. Lightly grease the entire inside of the pan with coconut oil.
Distribute crust evenly on the bottom of pan and lightly compact by hand. Set aside until ready to be filled.
Useful Tips
If the nuts are too chunky, first try sharpening the “S” blade of your processor. You can also lightly process the nuts and salt by themselves before adding other ingredients. Adding all the date paste at once will not allow the nuts to break down properly.
When processing crust into pan, be careful not to use too much pressure, as this will result in the crust sticking to the pan and making the serving process challenging. On the other hand, if you are not pressing firmly enough the crust will be crumbly and messy. If crust is not sticking together and breaking apart cleanly, you need to add a small splash (1/2 –1 teaspoon) of liquid vanilla and process a bit longer.
Making the Cheesecake Fillings
The basic ingredients needed for cheesecake fillings are:
Soaked cashews - Nut milk, coconut milk, juices, or fresh fruits - Agave syrup - Salt - Liquid vanilla - Lecithin
Coconut oil - Any additional ingredient the recipe calls for (such as cacao powder, espresso, etc.)
Cheesecake Filling Directions
Add to blender all ingredients except the coconut oil and lecithin.
Blend well until smooth and creamy (3 minutes).
Stop blending and add the lecithin and melted coconut oil.
Resume blending until oil and lecithin are well incorporated.
Pour filling into springform pan with prepared crust.
Place in freezer to set 1-2 hours or until middle of cheesecake is firm to the touch.
Remove springform ring by inserting a non-serrated paring knife along the inside edge of pan. Open springform, remove cheesecake, and decorate to your liking.
Useful Tips
The ingredients subject to the most variability are the nut milks and coconut milk.
The most important thing is to blend all ingredients really well. If your blender has less than 8 cups full capacity or if your blender is struggling, blend half the recipe at a time.
If the filling doesn’t taste rich and flavourful, add another small pinch of salt and blend a little longer. Due to human error, measurements can sometimes be inaccurate. When making cheesecake fillings, be aware of what the total cup volume is in the blender before adding the coconut oil. If the total volume is 6 cups or more, always add 1 cup coconut oil for those recipes that call for ¾ cup.
Cashew measurement is intended to be medium-packed, meaning you should lightly press down on cashews when measuring.
Soaking Nuts - Soaking Cashews
Soak cashews in cold filtered water for 8 hours (less time is needed if the cashews are broken up into little bits). Soaking them overnight in the fridge is a perfectly fine and easy method for cashews and most other nuts. Once soaked, drain off the water and rinse once or twice. Soaked cashews will keep in the fridge for up to a week, but they require a daily rinsing. Also, make sure they are thoroughly soaked by biting into one and seeing if it has any white in the middle (like pasta). If it does, it needs more soak time. Recipes will specify if a nut is to be soaked; otherwise the nuts being used are always dry.
Making Date Paste
The fastest and best way to make date paste is to finely mince pitted dates. Date paste is available but hard to find. Using paste is really only essential in preparing crusts and in cakes. Regular pitted dates blend up just fine in the blender. Dates are a major variable in these recipes. They range between being really dry and really moist. When selecting dates choose ones that are not overly dry or overly ripe and squishy. Ten ounces (weight) of date paste is about 1 ½ cups. We use widely available Medjool dates in all our recipes.
Melting Oils
All the fat ingredients we use (coconut oil and cacao butter) need to be in their melted oil form when used in the recipes. Simply put the hardened butter in a bowl and place within a lager bowl that has hot water in it. Never melt in a saucepan over an open flame.
Up until recently, the terms coconut “oil” and coconut “butter” were used interchangeably; oil was simply the melted form and butter the hardened form.