Vegan Cherry Cheesecakes
When life give you cherries, make cheesecakes. We have two massive cherry trees in our backyard that yields thousands of cherries, its actually insane how many cherries we get. We had to buy a deep freeze this year just to hold all of theses tasty little fruits for later use (after giving them to all coworkers, neighbours and shelters in town). I have made chia jam, gluten-free cherry pies, collagen popsicles, kefir and fermented cherries and it was time for some sharable snacks that are delicious to all.
Vegan Cherry Cheesecakes
Ingredients:
Crust:
¾ cup walnut pieces
⅔ cup dates
pinch of sea salt
Filling:
1½ cups raw cashews - soaked at least 2 hours
¼ cup lemon juice
⅔ cup coconut cream (set full-fat coconut milk in the fridge 2 hours before use and use the thick cream on top)
3 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping:
1½ cups fresh cherries - pitted and chopped
1 tbsp xylitol
2 tsp arrowroot powder
2 tbsp coconut water (remaining in can after cream is scraped off)
Directions:
Place walnuts and dates in a food processor and blend until broken down into small pieces and dough-like (30-60 seconds)
Line muffin tins with liners and press crust into the bottom. I used ~1 tbsp for regular muffin cups and ½ tbsp for mini muffin cups. Place in the freezer while you blend the filling
Add all filling ingredients to a blender and blend about 20 seconds until smooth and creamy. Pour over crust making sure to leave space at the top for cherries and place in the freezer to set
Add topping ingredients to a small saucepan and simmer for ~15 minutes or until the cherries have softened and the sauce has thickened. Top the cups with ~1 tbsp of cherry topping and allow them to set in the freezer.
Enjoy 20 minutes after freezing or pull out to enjoy with friends later! (I found that removing the paper lining while very frozen allowed them to hold their shape better than trying to remove the paper lining when they have defrosted)
