Raw mint chip cheesecake
Since I went to Café Gratitude, I couldn’t not have bought their raw desserts book, Sweet Gratitude. The first recipe I tried was the Mint Chip Cheesecake.
I adjusted the recipe because I didn’t have a few ingredients but it turned out to be a rich minty chocolatey raw cake that the non-raw boyfriend enjoyed immensely.
Crust:
1 cup walnuts, soaked
¼ cup sunflower seeds, soaked
2 tbs chocolate powder
12 dates
1 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Dash of sea salt
I put the dates in the food processor with a touch of water to make date paste and then I added the nuts and other ingredients. I think it would be better to blend the nuts into a finer consistency and make the date paste separately, but I’m a girl without a lot of time so I just rolled as quickly as I could.
Cheesecake filling:
2 cups cashews, soaked
1 handful of peppermint leaves
1 tbs coconut oil
3 tbs maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbs chocolate powder
Juice of ¼ lemon
3 tsp of pure chlorophyll powder
½ cup of water or nut milk
In a blender, I processed all the ingredients except the chocolate powder. I pressed the crust into my tart mold and stuck it in the freezer while I worked on the cheesecake filling. I poured the peppermint filling into the crust, leaving behind a cup of filling to be mixed with the chocolate powder. After the chocolate filling was ready, I forcefully dumped it into the middle of the green filling, and then used a chopstick to swirl the chocolate into the mint.
This was my first attempt at swirling and it wasn’t very successful. I think I wasn’t forceful enough with the chocolate filling because, after I cut the cake, I saw that the it didn’t reach the bottom of the cake. But I’ve to say that the detailed instructions in Sweet Gratitude helped a lot. They also said practice makes perfect.
Your photo of the cake was powerful enough to MAKE me want to do the recipe. I LOVE mint cheesecake. So please please excuse me if the questions Im about to ask are really stupid. I have to ask cos Im not a total raw foodist yet so I dont have alot of ingredients. K, here goes:
1.can i use milo powder instead of chocolate powder?
2.does vanilla mean vanilla pod seeds or vanilla essence?
3.the dates that i am using have seeds, so do i still use 12 of these after i pit them?
4.if i dont have chlorophyl powder, can i omit it? Will it ruin the recipe?
thanks in advance!
j
Hi Janalin,
1. Sure, why not experiment with milo powder :p I wonder how it wld taste with mint, though. lemme know when you try it!
2. I used vanilla essence. But if I have vanilla pods, I will use just one.
3. Without the chlorophyll powder, the green part of the cheesecake will turn into a pallid green shade which doesn’t look as appetizing as a brighter green colour that commercial mint desserts have.
Oops forgot one answer: you should throw the date seeds away.
I literally just put my I Am Heavenly (Mudslide Pie) into the refrigerator seconds ago. I bought the I Am Grateful recipe book from Gratitude Cafe on my last visit to Berkeley. Now, looking at your pie, I’m about to hit up their website and get that book too. I LOVE their raw desserts so much. So yummy, so good for me, and so much fun to make. Thanks for sharing your creation with us.
Ooo I should try the mudslide pie…. I’m on a chocolate kick lately.
What a great blog!
Ive made a bunch of things from Sweet Gratitude, but not the choc mint cheesecake – Ive had my eye on it for a while though!
It’s so cool that you did a huge restaurant tour – i did a bit of one in the fall and also went to Pure/One Lucky Duck/Quintessence/Rockin Raw – I want to hit up Caravan of Dreams next time!
Take care!
Heathy
Thanks for answering all my questions. really appreciate it. Opppss, too late….I ate the date seeds too….NOT….just kidding. I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but now that I have all the answers….(to raw mint cheesecake…not life), I will definitely feedback to you how it went.
)))
I soaked some cashew nuts to try your raw tartar dip….and STUPID me forgot to put the bowl in the fridge overnight. In Singapore’s humidity you can imagine what happened…..the whole mixture turned rancid the next morning and I had to toss it cos the smell was making my tummy churned. Lesson learnt….the expensive way.
(((