Dairy-free, vegan and gluten-free cheesecake.
It’s beautiful right!? Say hello to the Black Sesame Cheesecake. I know what you might be thinking, cheesecake isn’t dairy-free and what is black sesame? Read on why you this fits all lifestyles from vegan to gluten-free!
Halloween is in the air and it’s one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up, having sweet treats, parties, and dancing most of the night away! This year our little family is going as a pack of unicorns — Luna was our guiding light and inspiration for that. We got her the cutest unicorn outfit and Jesse and I got onesies, yes onesies that are unicorns which will be hilarious, pictures to come on Instagram I promise. We have Halloween night on the actual eve with the family and this is what I’m making so I walk away from Halloween night with my sweet tooth satisfied and have a lot of fun while making it.
How do you make dairy-free cheesecake? You use coconut and cashews! If you remember my Lavender Cheesecake that didn’t make it to the NS Cookbook, I’m adapting that recipe with an added challenge to make it simpler for this black sesame version. Black sesame is tahini only made with black sesame seeds instead of brown/white seeds.
(nutrition) stripped and how this will make you glow from the inside:
- Healthy fat: nuts, seeds, coconut butter, oh my! All of these healthy fats contain minerals, plant-rich protein and a little bit of fiber. More than anything they’re responsible for making this dairy-free cheesecake, a “cheesecake” texture! When blended and chilled, it firms up similarly to traditional cheesecake
- Calcium: did you know tahini (i.e. blended sesame seeds) is a great source of calcium? Just 2 tablespoons of tahini contain 12% DV of calcium along with phosphorus, iron, manganese, zinc, and copper. Hello, bone health!
- Optimizer Option: this is supposed to be a dessert, so I’m not focusing heavily on making it macronutrient balanced like other NS recipes, but for those of you who want to attempt boosting the protein outside of plant-rich options like the cashew filling and the nuts in the crust, you can try adding a neutral protein powder like collagen or adding a vanilla protein powder to the filling – just be aware you’ll have to add liquid to balance it out.
I recommend making this 2 days before your Halloween festivities since there are a couple steps that require overnight refrigeration including soaking raw cashews in water overnight for the filling and making the crust at the same time. After you fully assemble the cheesecake, it’s best to chill it overnight or at least for 6 hours to get the best results before serving. Just a friendly heads up so you can plan! Also, you can make this in a round baking dish or a square one and cut into sqaures like I did, to make it easy to share!
If you try this recipe, I wanna hear about it, so let’s chat! Leave a comment it, rate it (this helps me improve future recipes), and don’t forget to tag a picture #nutritionstripped to show how you live and try these recipes on Instagram! I can’t wait to see you make this for the holiday!
Black Sesame Cheesecake
Recipe Type: dessert
Serves: 10 servings
A dairy-free cheesecake made with cashews, black sesame for a subtly sweet and nutty flavor and hazelnut crust.
Ingredients
- [b]For the filling: [/b]
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water until soft
- ½ cup melted coconut butter
- 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- heaping 1/2 cup black tahini
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt, adjust to taste
- 1/2 cup filtered water
- juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons juice)
- [b]For the crust: [/b]
- 2 cups dates, pitted (about 20 large dates)
- 1 cup walnuts, lightly roasted
- ½ cup pecans
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
Instructions
- Soak cashews in water overnight, discard the water, this is for the filling.
- For the crust which can be made the evening before (i.e. the same night you soak the cashews): In a medium-high dry skillet, place the walnuts and pecans in the pan and gently toss back and forth with a wood spoon or spatula until lightly browned and fragrant- be careful not to overcook these, nuts/seeds burn very quickly. Make coarse flour by grinding the nuts into a food processor or nut/seed grinder.
- Transfer to a food processor, and blend the nuts with the pitted dates. Continually scrape the sides of the bowl until the mixture started to come together. Add in the melted coconut oil this mixture will be sticky. Using coconut oil, grease a springform pie pan and evenly press the crust into the bottom, working your way from the center out. Spread evenly and applying pressure with your fingertips.
- Once the crust has been evenly spread across the bottom, you have the choice to create a small side edge by pressing the crust mixture onto the side, if you prefer to leave the crust just on the bottom, skip this step. Place the crust in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- For the filling: in a high-speed blender, combine soaked raw cashews with all the filling ingredients until smooth. Adjust to taste with the maple syrup and sea salt. Pour the cheesecake filling into the hardened pie crust pan and spread evenly. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours- overnight or the freezer for 3-4 hours until hard.
- When you’re ready to serve, remove the cheesecake from the pie form/tin, slice using a warmed knife (running it under hot water for a minute). The cheesecake should be cool. I recommended leaving out at room temperature for about 20 minutes before eating just enough time for the cheesecake to thaw and for the center to stay cool.
Notes
If you’re tight on time, add boiling water to the raw cashews to soften. Do this in a bowl and discard the water after the cashews are soft.
Things I used to make this with ease: Springform cheesecake pan, where I used a silicon tray, black tahini or black sesame paste, and coconut butter. I used pink coconut butter, which you can find here.
Things you should have stocked in your pantry before making this: maple syrup, vanilla extract, sea salt, dates, walnuts and coconut oil.
