Mini vegan cheesecakes

Spot the bear!


There she is!!!

Finally, I made my first vegan cheesecakes in Japan and since I don’t have a food processor here, I used my $20 blender (slowly/cautiously) and guess what? It worked…wonders!

crust:
1 cup of raisins (cos dates are expensive as shizz)
2 cups of raw walnuts

“cheese”:
1 1/2 cups of raw cashews (soaked for 4 hours)
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

topping:
Whatever your little (sorry, BIG) heart desires – I used homemade blueberry syrup

First, blitz crust ingredients together in a food processor or, if you’re feeling lucky, a shitty blender until mixture starts coming together.

Using your fingers, carefully smoosh crust mixture evenly into a greased silicon 6 slot muffin tray.

Wash your food processor then process all of the filling ingredients together for about 5ish minutes or until mixture becomes nice and creamy, then distribute evenly on top of crust mixture.

That’s it! Cooking time finished! Now all you have to do is pop em into a freezer.

For best results, freeze overnight or for those of you that just can’t wait, 4-5 hours should do the trick.

To finish, top with fresh fruit or something equally instagramable/delicious.

Allow 10-12 minutes of thawing time or eat frozen if you just can’t wait!

Frequently Asked Questions

Hopefully the following frequently asked questions will answer any queries you may have. If not, please feel free to flick me an email.

Where do you buy your ingredients?
For almond meal, coconut oil, dairy-free yoghurt, chia seeds etc etc:
New World Supermarkets
Piko Wholefoods (248 Stanmore Rd, Richmond)
Liberty Market (493 Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch Central)

For fruits, vegetables and free-range eggs:
Saturday Farmers Market Riccarton House
Riccarton Rotary Sunday Market

How exactly do I use coconut oil?
You can use coconut oil in a variety of ways but for 99% of my recipes when I have stated coconut oil in the ingredients, I mean melted coconut oil (do not fear – I have started specifying this on each recipe). You can melt coconut oil in the microwave or in a small pan over the stove.

What is raw cacao powder? And how is it different to cocoa powder? 
Raw cacao is made by cold-pressing unroasted cocoa beans. The process keeps the living enzymes in the cocoa and removes the fat (cacao butter). Cocoa looks the same but it’s not. Cocoa powder is raw cacao that’s been roasted at high temperatures. In other words, raw cacao powder is the healthy/nutritious/good for you version.