Raw Cherry Cheesecake

‘Crust’
1 cup almonds – 100g
1 cup pecans – 100g
1 cup (packed) pitted dates – 150g
Soaked in 1 cup orange juice (reserve juice for topping)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp raw carob powder
¼ tsp salt

‘Filling’
200g cherries
3 tbsp Tiana coconut oil melted *bain marie
200g raw cashews (soaked for 2 hours)
50g pine nuts
½ cup lemon juice
½ tsp Vanilla bean seeds or powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp honey/agave
4 medjool dates
Pinch of salt

‘Topping’
300g pitted cherries keep half whole and process other half with the rest of the ingredients
Orange juice from soaked dates
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp Tiana coconut oil melted *bain marie

Drain the juice from the dates, reserving the juice for later. Drain the water from the nuts, discard the water and the rinse the nuts.

Place all the ingredients for the crust in the food processor and process until the nuts are ground down and the mixture starts to stick and form a ball. In a spring form 9 inch (22cm) dish spread the crust and press it down into the bottom until you have a smooth base. Put the base in the fridge.

In a blender blend the cherries and the dates once it is as smooth as possible then sieve the mixture to remove any cherry or date skins and put the mixture back into the blender with the rest of the filling ingredients blend until you have a smooth light purple/pink mixture. Pour over the crust and bang the dish down on the counter a couple of times so the mixture is flat and smooth on top and put back into the fridge.

Finally wash the blender and put half of the cherries, the remaining topping ingredient, including the juice from the soaked dates, and blend until the cherries have liquefied and you have a syrupy mixture. Hand mix in the remaining halved cherries and pour over the top of the cream filling. Chill in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

*Bain marie - Put the coconut oil in a small bowl, place that bowk into a larger bowl full of hot water and allow the coconut oil to melt slowly until it becomes a liquid.

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