Thursday, June 21, 2012

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Orange Toffee Crust

I've had my hands full over the last few months.  I completed Mary's Real Food Cookbook and celebrated 1 year in our new location at our Chiropractic office.  If that wasn't enough, my hubby and I adopted a sweet 5 week old rescue kitten.  Needless to say it's has been an interesting period of adjustment for our 2 fourteen year old cats (and the humans).

My friend Bridiget sent me this recipe but I have yet to try it.  Most of what I make/cook/bake lately has been quick and easy.  I figure this is a great recipe for summer since it is raw...That's right...No Baking!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Orange Toffee Crust
from Raw Food Recipes

Ingredients
Nut-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
1 pie pumpkin, refuse removed, cut into slices & soaked in water for 3+ hours
1 carrot
5 cups of coconut + 4 tbsp coconut oil, blitzed into coconut butter
1.5 cups of coconut kefir or coconut milk.
3 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp ginger
1 cup lucuma powder
splash of vanilla (optional)
3/4 agave
Juice of half a lemon (optional, but gives it a more cheesecake-like flavour)
Fresh cranberries for decoration.

Orange Toffee Crust
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1/2 an orange
2 cups almonds
1 cup dates
1/4 cup unsweetened dried coconut flakes


Methods/steps
Nut-Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
1) Start by blitzing your coconut and coconut oil in the food processor to make a smooth, liquidy coconut butter.
2) Add coconut kefir or coconut milk. Blend. You now have a kind of coconut cream cheese.
3) Run your soaked pumpkin and carrot through the juicer. Add both the liquid and the pulp to the cream cheese” in the food processor. Blend.
4) Add your spices and lucuma powder. Blend.
5) Add agave and vanilla. Blend. Adjust agave quantity to suit your pallet.
6) Add lemon if desired. Blend.
7) This has now formed a delicious, though pretty wet filling. Have no fear! This sets in the fridge and becomes very firm, though it does take a long time to solidify. I recommend preparing this the night before, but otherwise leave yourself at least 6 hours for it to set. Place in the freezer if you’re short on time.

Orange Toffee Crust
1) Blitz your almonds in the food processor until you’ve made almond flour.
2) Add the dates. Blend.
3) Zest your oranges and add the zest.
4) For the orange juice, if you’re going to dehydrate your crust you can use quite a lot of the juice. However, if you don’t have a dehydrator or don’t have time, I would only use 1 or 2 tablespoons of juice or skip the juice altogether.
5) Sprinkle coconut flakes at the bottom of a spring form pan. This will help prevent your crust from sticking.
6) Press your filling in to the spring form pan. If you have extra dough for the crust, you can press it in to some other forms for later desserts or roll in to balls and have as tasty “Larabara” type cookies for later.
7) Dehydrate (if you can) for 2 to 4 hours, depending on how much juice you’ve used. Ideally, the top of the crust should be completely dry when you pull it out.

Assembly:
Pour your filling on top of the crust in your spring form pan and refrigerate for as long as you can. Decorate with fresh cranberries if you like, serve and enjoy!



9 comments:

  1. Just hopping over from Friday Shout Out to meet you and follow:) I would love to invite you to share any of your favorite posts at Freedom Fridays Blog Hop. Hoping to see you there and so very nice meeting you!

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  2. I'd be happy to join you and thanx for following!

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  3. Nothing like a new little one in the house to get us all going:) Of course what a breath of fresh air a kitten brings into the mix. What an interesting recipe, I just love trying somethings new and I love the science of this one. Thank you so much for sharing at Freedom Fridays. Have a marvelous week.

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  4. Thanx Evelyn! Have a great weekend!

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  5. That looks delicious and so good for you. Pumkin is very healthy! Thanks for sharing and please come again! Have a wonderful weekend!

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  6. Anew kitty! How fun! Love the sounds of this recipe. Pumpkin is one of my favorites and cheesecake, too. Nice combination.
    Blessings,
    Susie

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. It's been an exciting few weeks! Thanks everyone for stopping by. I shared this recipe at Show Off Friday http://what-about.co/june-22-2012-show-friday-blog-hop/
    And Eye Heart Friday Shout-Out http://www.eyeheart.ca/2012/06/friday-shout-out_21.html

    Stop by and check out the exciting links and add your own!

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-Mary