Catchy title eh?
Ok, let’s get one thing straight, right now. I love sweets. Like I REALLY love them. Making desserts is pretty much my favorite thing to do. It’s hard coming up with paleo desserts. My desserts often fail. I still eat them. I waste nothing. Making desserts for people just makes me so happy. I stare at them to watch their reaction to see if they like it. If I don’t get the response I want, I hate them. And our friendship ends. Thankfully I still have a few friends left.
But this dessert is something unreal. LIKESERIOUSLYOMGUNREAL. Laura stared at me with “Holy Balls” eyes when she tried this dessert. She said it definitely was a 10 and couldn’t believe how much it tasted like cheesecake. I.Was.Pumped. I want to make a kitty pool out of this dessert and live in it. Then make out with it. I honestly may make it every week. Sh*t could get ugly. Not literally. This will make your bum much happier than real cheesecake.
Anywho. Guess what I did the other day!? Went to a sporting event!!! NBD. Yeah, you want to see me out of my comfort zone? Place me at a baseball with thousands of screaming drunk people. I’m awkward there. If you follow me on instagram @paleomg, you could probably tell I was out of my element since 3 or the 5 pictures included alcohol. I drank ALMOST a full glass of a Strongbow, 3 sips…wait wait…4 sips of a Blue Moon, and I ate a blackberry out of a purple margarita, I think it had some alcohol in it. I just got wild!! But here is the kicker, I ACTUALLY had fun. I was with Laura so that’s a given that I would at least smile throughout the game, but I truly enjoyed the full 4 minutes of the game that I watched.
I can’t talk anymore. I need to eat my cheesecake. I’m not even joking.
No Bake Caramel Cheesecake (minus cheese)
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1 cup almond butter
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2/3 cup walnuts
- 1 heaping tablespoon coconut butter or homemade coconut butter
- 1 heaping tablespoon raw honey
- pinch of salt
For the filling
- 1.5 cups roasted, unsalted cashews
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 2–3 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2–4 tablespoon canned coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the caramel
- 12–14 medjool dates, pitted and soaked in water for an hour
- 5–6 tablespoons canned coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- salt to top it all off with
Instructions
- Place dates in a bowl of water to soak.
- Let’s first make the crust!! Add walnuts to your food processor and blend until you get a meal, almost a walnut butter. Then add the rest of your crust ingredients and blend until well combined.
- Add crust mixture to an 8×8 glass baking dish lined with saran wrap, press down until evenly distributed. I sound so professional right now.
- Wipe out the inside of your food processor, no need to scrub, then add your cashews and blend until you begin to get a clumpy mess.
- Then add your coconut oil, lemon juice, vanilla extract and honey and puree until well combined.
- And lastly, add your coconut milk, 1 tablespoon at a time to break down the cashews completely. I used about 3 tablespoons for mine until the cashews became this soupy paste.
- Pour your filling onto the crust and use a knife or spoon to spread mixture throughout the entire pan, covering the crust, then place in the freezer for about 1-2 hours or until completely hard.
- Once your dates have soaked for about an hour, remove them from the water, and add them to a food processor and pulse until dates have broken down (less than a minute).
- Then add your coconut milk tablespoon by tablespoon to the dates while the food processor is still running. Then add your water as well.
- And add your vanilla extract and pinch of salt.
- Process until you get a caramel. Just let it run for a while. Pick your nose. Look at a trash magazine and BOOM. Caramel. May take 3-5 minutes, tops.
- Spread caramel over hardened cheesecake filling.
- Top with some course salt.
- Place it freezer for about 30 minutes until everything has set.
- Cut bars into the sizes you want. The saran wrap will help you pull them out without destroying their gorgeous looks. Just pull on the side of the saran wrap and it will pop right out.
- Eat. Eat and remember how wonderful it is to be paleo.
- PALEO IS AWESOME!
Notes
I am not saying how many it served. Sergio had once piece. Laura and I had the rest….oops. Whatever. Life is good.
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More Bar Ideas For Ya:
Chocolate “Peanut Butter” Cookie Bars
No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cream Bars
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You’re my hero. Omg so yummy looking…
For the crust can we use coconut flour instead of the flakes!?
this fixed my cheesecake craving right up! I have tried your “carmel” from a different recipe before and it was ok, but THIS time, I am totally in love. nice work!
damnit! I hate it when I notice errors AFTER posting. *caramel
I made this for some guests we had over last night. They were amazing!! I just realized now that I forgot to add the Almond butter to the crust but it still turned out perfectly. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
These are SO good! And just FYI….if you add cocoa powder to the filling….and then freeze….fudge takes on a WHOLE new meaning. I just died. In a good way of course.
Anything I could use besides cashews? My brother is allergic to them.
Cashews are all I’ve ever tried but macadamia nuts may work..
Juli – I’m in the middle of making these and the first two layers are fabulous! I’m over here twiddling my thumbs and watching the clock tick waiting for the damn thing to freeze – thank goodness most of it got into the freezer! I almost just sat down at the kitchen table and started spooning the first two layers into my mouth! I thought the first layer was awesome and then I made the second – holy creamy deliciousness!! I’ve been eating paleo since January and haven’t had something like this yet at all! this will be my future birthday cake come October : ) Thanks for your amazing recipe!!
I’m in the process of making this cheesecake and I’m so pumped about it! Juli, your recipes are freakin fabulous so thank you for always sharing!! I soaked the dates and I noticed the skin around them.. Do the skins need to be removed before putting them into the food processor? Hi, I’m new here.
nope, just the pits!
You did it again! These cheesecake bars are amazing! I couldn’t stop licking the bowl as I was making them and just couldn’t keep my hands off of them when they were done! Delicious! My only problem is that now I want some milk to wash them down lol
Thank you! I made a whole bunch of these for my birthday. At first, I left the coarse salt off, and thought it was too sweet. But then I tried one with salt and it really pulled it all together. Thanks, sooo good!