This week when I was doing the groceries with my mum I saw a huge bin of limes for $2 a kilo and I thought to myself that was an absolute bargain. I have a great weakness for sales. I'm that foolish person who reads the word 'sale' and let's the consumer mindset pull me in and bam! I must buy. It is not an option.
So while mum was off with the trolley buying whatever food items we actually needed, I filled a big bag with limes and off I went. This all worked fairly well until we got to the checkout and mum was like 'Rebecca, why do we have so many limes? I didn't put these here...' And, being all on the spot and stressing out because the limes were on sale and I therefore simply had to have them, I blurted out 'cheesecakes! I'm going to make some cheesecakes with them mum!' Thankfully mum accepted this fairly poor excuse with only a slight raise of her eyebrows and I got the limes, which I might just add again, were an absolute bargain.
So the outcome of these events were that I basically had to make cheesecakes otherwise mum was never going to let me buy limes on sale again and that would be a literal tragedy. Obviously it is a great hardship to have to make then eat cheesecake, so I was really, really upset by this task....
I first made vegan cheesecakes a few months ago and since I've had a few more goes, which have all worked for me, but I kept thinking there was something missing. And you'll never guess, but it was the limes! Yay for sales!!!! Honourable mention must also go to secret ingredient apple which always leaves people baffled because these delicious little pieces of lemon and lime heaven taste nothing like apple which is kinda fun because when people ask how you made a cheesecake without any cheese, thereby making it vegan, and you say cashew nuts, they are pretty much always completely shocked. Adding in that the secret ingredient is in actual fact a humble little apple is like the icing on the surprise cake.
Ingredients;
The Base
2 cups pecan nuts
1 cup macadamia nuts
10 medjool dates (pitted)
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil (melted to be in it's liquid form)
1. In a high speed blender, combine all of the ingredients until you have a crumbly mixture that holds when you roll it into a ball. (If it doesn't hold, add a few more dates)
2. Take a square cake tin and line using baking paper/parchment. Tip the nut mixture from the blender into the lined tin and spread evenly, taking particular care to ensure the base mixture is level all over the tin. Press down with the back of a spoon and place in the freezer to set for a minimum of 30 minutes.
The Filling (i.e. Lemon/Lime heaven)
1 cup cashew nuts (soaked in water for minimum 3 hours, then drained)
1/2 cup coconut milk (the clear liquid part, separated away from the white, solid creamy mixture)
2 tbsp coconut cream (that solid white creamy stuff you separated away from the milk part)
Rind of 1 lime
2 limes, juiced
Rind of 1 lemon
1 lemon, juiced
1 peeled and cored apple (any variety works)
2 tbsp pure maple sweetener (agave syrup/rice malt syrup also work)
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil (melted to be in it's liquid form)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1. Take all of the ingredients above and mix in a high speed blender for approx. 4 minutes, or until the mixture is completely creamy and smooth with no hard nutty lumps. I had to scrape my blender down a few times to ensure the cashews were 100% blended.
2. Remove the cake tin with the set base from the freezer. Pour the filling mixture into the tin, before returning to the freezer. Make sure the tin is flat in the freezer otherwise you'll end up with a lopsided cheesecake. Freeze overnight.
3. When serving, remove from the freezer and allow to stand for approx. 10 minutes, to slightly defrost. Cut into pieces and serve with a dusting of lemon and lime rind and some fresh mint leaves.
(these will keep in the freezer for a few months I think but to be honest I don't actually know for sure because they've never lasted so long for me to test this theory...)
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