Raw Orange Chocolate “Cheesecake”

Susan | December 10, 2009

What do you do when a blizzard cancels your raw food cooking class and you have cashews soaking for prep? Make a great raw recipe for cheesecake! I love the combination of orange and chocolate. A bag of beautiful, fragrant oranges was sitting on the counter. Time to have some fun. The texture came out beautiful, and the taste is divine. Another recipe that would be perfect for holiday entertaining. I used a little orange essential oil in this to really kick up the orange flavor. You might want to note that essential oils are not considered raw and you want to be sure you are using food grade oils for recipes. This is a really simple, quick yet impressive “cheesecake”.

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Orange Chocolate Cheesecake

SERVES 12

Crust

1 cup almonds*
1/4 cup cacao powder
3 dates

Combine all ingredients in the food processor. Process until ground fine. Mixture should hold together when pressed. If it doesn’t, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until texture is achieved. Set aside 1/4 cup.
Press remaining mixture into bottom of 6″ spring form pan. Place in refrigerator.

*I always pre-soak all my almonds and dry them as soon as I get them.

Filling

3 oranges (make sure you have very good oranges)
2/3 cup agave (or liquid sweetener of your choice)
2 1/2 cups cashews (soaked at least 3 hours)
3/4 cup coconut butter
1/2 teaspoon sweet orange essential oil (optional as it is not raw but still very healthy)

Grate the zest off of all the oranges. You should have at least 3 tablespoons. Be careful to only get the orange part as the pith (the white) is bitter.
Squeeze the juice out of all the oranges. You should have about 2/3 cup.
Place cashews, agave, coconut butter, zest, essential oil, and agave and orange juice in the food processor and process until very smooth.
Pour over crust, sprinkle extra crust on top and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

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carrie wrote on December 11, 2009

If you live in china and you can get coconuts, I would try making a paste out of them. Take the flesh and blend with just enough of the water to make a paste. Refrigerate. Or, research how to make your own coconut butter… i’m sure there are documents on the web for this…

Also, Irish Moss, which is a sea vegetable, should be available to you. You can soak this in water for a few hours (maybe 2) and then rinse very, very, very well. Blend with other ingredients and it should help to set the cake.

Also, Soy Lecithin is also a thickening agent…

I hope this helps!!!

Susan wrote on December 11, 2009
Good call on the Irish moss. I have never used so forget about it. It could work. Although I know that coconut butter is made from 100% raw coconuts, I have tried to find out the process on the web. It would be fun to see what it is.

Gala wrote on December 11, 2009

Gorgeous deco…wow!

Genevieve wrote on December 11, 2009

Looks amazing! I have to try it!
By the way, I love your blog. Great recipes and beautiful pictures!
Thank you for the inspiration!

Pam wrote on December 11, 2009

Beautiful!

Enjoy!

heidileon wrote on December 11, 2009

hi there,
I have a few questions (maybe bit stupid but I’m not very familiar with vegan food, but still want to give it a try; sounds delicious!)
1. almonds are skinned?
2. no agave around here so I will substitute it with honey (sorry!)
3.coconut butter. mmm, same same. no were to find it here (I live in China) so; another suggestion? Or do you have a recipe to make my own coconut butter? (there are plenty of coconuts around here!)

ok, that’s all. thanks

ps. just wanted to let you know I have printed out your food list and have it on my fridge all the time; although we’re not vegans we love healthy food 🙂

Susan wrote on December 11, 2009
The almonds are not skinned, honey will work but I would taste as agave is sweeter and I have not figured out how to replace the coconut butter or coconut oil with anything. Does anyone else have any suggestions? It is what helps the cheesecake set up. Can you mail order?