This is my first Christmas inspired recipe for this Christmas season. It was something I created for Everyday Rewards with ingredients from Woolworths using their bank for Christmas feature where you can store up your points and get extra money off your shop when you need it most. It doesn’t need to be used at Christmas but that is generally the time that people shop big on groceries. You could also use it for birthday parties or various events with some planning ahead. I don’t host Christmas hardly ever but I usually am the one responsible for bringing along the Christmas desserts. Because I make so many for the various Christmas events/parties we are invited to and also for different clients, I do end up spending quite a lot on these desserts because they contain a lot of nuts and nuts are expensive. This was one of the desserts I made for Christmas this year. The great this about raw vegan desserts is that you can store them in the freezer for a very long time so you can be extra prepared and get the cooking out of the way well in advance. This isn’t an overly Christmas recipe but I think it looks festive and it tastes delicious! I have always loved the raspberry white chocolate combination and even though Christmas in summer in Australia is just not as good as a beautiful white Christmas somewhere else I do think our Australian Christmas desserts are so much better! we get to use all the beautiful summer fruits like berries, cherries, mangoes and stone fruit! The best!
This recipe uses a fair amount of cacao butter so that it can hold solid a bit longer at room temperature (especially if it’s hot). Raw desserts are definitely not easy to store at room temperature so they wouldn’t be good to display on a dessert buffet because they melt fairly easily. But when stored in the fridge and brought out before eating they have the best texture. The cacao butter helps it hold its shape a lot better. Sadly this is the one ingredient I couldn’t get from Woolworths, but you can find it at health shops or online.
The recipe is vegan, refined sugar-free and gluten-free.
| Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Vegan Cheesecakes | Print |
- BASE:
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 cup cacao powder
- 4 TBSP maple syrup
- FILLING:
- 1½ cups raw cashews (soaked for 15 mins in boiling water or soaked overnight)
- 1 400g can coconut cream
- ¾ cup cacao butter
- juice 1 lemon
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- TOPPINGS:
- punnet raspberries
- peanut butter
- In a bowl, mix together the base ingredients until they stick together between the fingers. Spoon mixture our and press down evenly onto the base of a large muffin tin. I used a silicone muffin tray.
- Place cashews in a bowl, boil a kettle of water and pour over cashews. Allow them to sit for at least 15 minutes before draining the water. Alternatively, you can cover cashews in cold water and leave them to soak 3-4 hours or overnight before draining.
- For the filling, melt down the cacao butter in a saucepan over low heat until liquid, place melted cacao butter and all other filling ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Pour out evenly on top of the bases in the muffin tray. Place some raspberries on top and allow them to sink a little bit.D Place in the freezer to set for about 3-4 hours. Once set, keep in the freezer until you want to eat them then transfer them to the fridge for 2-3 hours before eating to defrost. Drizzle with peanut butter. For best consistency for eating keep in the fridge and consume within a week.
