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!