Raw Orange Chocolate “Cheesecake”
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”.
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.
Susan wrote on April 20, 2010
Soaking time, no, honey most definitely. When ever you change an ingredient, you change the chemistry of the whole recipe and how the other ingredients react to each other.
Gloria wrote on April 20, 2010
Yes, I did use coconut butter. I also used honey and not agave. The cake has been in the fridge now for over 24 hours, and while it is a little more solid, it does not resemble your lovely cake in the photo above. Could the soaking time of the cashews make any difference? I think I soaked them for more than 3 and a half hours.
Gloria wrote on April 18, 2010
Hello!
I just tried this yummy recipe. While it tasted great, it didn’t come out as shown in the photograph. I left the cake in the fridge for over 4 hours. When I took it out of the springform pan it was soft and spilled over the bottom of the pan. Can you tell me what might have gone wrong?
Sincerely,
Gloria
Susan wrote on April 18, 2010
Gloria, I am not sure. I have made this many, many times. Never have had a problem with it. Maybe you needed to leave it in longer? Did you use coconut butter?
Belle wrote on April 11, 2010
Hey! I just made this (doubled the recipe for a 10 inch springform pan) and it was a HUGE hit. We had no oranges so I used tangerines and threw in a lemon, and I also added a touch of cinnamon to the crust. Instead of putting the crust on top like in the picture, I made chocolate sauce out of raw cacao butter, raw cocoa powder and agave and swirled it into the top of the cheesecake with a toothpick. I also added several spoonfuls of soy lecithin to the filling to make things smoother. Gorgeous! thank you.
Susan wrote on April 11, 2010
Actually, if you blend it properly, this cheesecake is very smooth. Sounds like you had fun with the recipe!
Susan wrote on March 30, 2010
You will have plenty of crust and the cheese cake will be much thinner. You can always increase the ingredients.
Lisa wrote on March 30, 2010
I only have a 9″ spring form pan. Should I adjust the amount of ingredients to make up the difference? If not will it come up short on crust, and cheese filling just not as thick? Please advise!
Helene wrote on March 23, 2010
Susan: Can I ask you HOW you made the top of the cheesecake so smoothe. Did you wet a spatula and go over it or what??? AND noticed the top of the cheesecake flips upward just a tad, and how did you get the crest on the bottom of the crust? I think I know the answers but would love to hear how to do those tricks exaclty?
Susan wrote on March 23, 2010
I didn’t to anything other than pour the filling into crust that I had patted into the spring form pan.