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| strawberryplanters.net |
This week, I hosted an eatpinklove party as I am heading on to Melbourne, Australia for a few months. Before coming to the U.S.A, I told my friends back home I wanted to make a raw strawberry cheesecake (mind you, I had NO idea what that meant!) and present it to David Lynch. I naively thought I would meet him and we would become best pals. Soooo typical of a newby to L.A! For the party, I decided to try my hand at my first ever raw strawberry cheesecake, in the hope that David would get this strange feeling that he had to go for a drive and end up at my house! He didn't, but the cheesecake was AMAZING and everyone loved it! It is Cafe Gratitude's cheesecake recipe form their book that you can buy on-line here.
I've tweeked the recipe so to have a chocolate flavoured base and I marinated slices of strawberries in a splash of Cointreau and agave for a few hours, to pour over the top. It was YUM!!! You can also replace the strawberries with whatever fruit takes your fancy!
What you need;
Crust
2 cups almonds, soaked overnight
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh dates
1/4 cup raw chocolate powder or nibs
Filling
3 cups cashews, soaked for 4 hours
2 cups of chopped strawberries
1 cup lemon juice
3/4 agave or honey
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs lecithin
3/4 raw unsecented coconut butter or oil
In a food processor, add the almonds, vanilla and salt and pulse until crumbed. Be careful not to over process. Add the chopped fresh dates a small amount at a time and pulse until the mixture sticks together. Place into a bowl and stir in the chocolate powder or nibs with a wooden spoon. Press into a lined 9 1/2-inch spring tin with the back of a metal spoon, spreading the base evenly.
To make the filling, use a high speed blender and start by adding the lemon juice and strawberries. Blend until strawberries are broken down. Add the agave and vanilla and half the cashews. Blend for a few minutes then add the rest of the cashews. Blend until very smooth.
I used coconut oil, which at room temperature, is solid. To melt the oil, place in a hot water bath as shown above. Once liquid, add to the cashew filling in the blender along with the lecithin. Blend until really, really smooth and creamy. This is very important! What the texture is when you stop blending will be the texture of the cheesecake, so make sure you are patient!
Pour the yumminess into the prepared springtin, spreading it evenly. Place in the refridgerator for a few hours.
Once set, be careful not to release the cheesecake too quickly when unlocking it from the tin. Slowly slide it onto a serving dish. This is what your cheesecake will look like, undecorated.
And this is what it looks like decorated! You can do whatever you like with the topping. Blend it into a strawberry sauce that you pour on individual servings or do as I did and decorate the whole cheesecake. Whatever you do, have fun with it!
Buon Appetito!
