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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This recipe is absolutely amazing!!! Better than any ‘real’ cheesecake I have ever had! I haven’t stopped raving about it since I made it the other week. Thank you for all of your yummy recipes!
Can I sub the coconut cream for something else?
more coconut
They turned out great with more coconut instead of the cream. I also used macadamia nuts instead of walnuts for the crust which turned out great too, just an FYI for anyone else 🙂 Thanks!
These were GREAT! I ate a slice the next morning after firming up in the fridge with a pile of raspberries. Yum.
I used deglet dates, and they did not blend as smoothly has mejdool dates had for me in the past. But thats okay. I left out lemon because I didnt have it, and I should not have. It really makes the difference in making it more like a cheesecake.
I only wish the crust was drier. I had this problem before where the crust was like dense butter, and I felt like I was eating polygrip. I did add a bit more dried coconut, but I need way way more.
I also wish the filling was twice more.
These look amazing, they sound amazing … right up to the point i see all that coconut. I can’t stand coconut … the taste, texture, or the smell. Sigh … Is there a viable alternative to the coconut products? Oil/milk/shredded ?
You’ve just made my husband’s and my life complete. We love cheesecake and since going paleo its either you get the good stuff or go without. I’m so going to try this!
I think I would LOVE these! I have been eating less dairy and am always interested to see what you can sub in for dairy.
Just made this for the first time. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the topping to caramalize as the ingredient kept flying to the sides of the blender bowl. Consequently the topping will be chunky and not smooth caramel texture.
Made these today and OMG they are awesome! I had issues with getting my filling and caramel topping to work in my food processer (both ended up pushed out to the sides)… finished the filling in my blender and the caramel topping with my immersion blender – both solutions worked beautifully!
Great recipe – even for those of us who aren’t following a paleo diet, but just looking for something different! YUM!
This is “punch you in the face” good! Ridiculous even. I made it for my husbands birthday today and I think he was shocked at how good it was. I will be spreading the love (bragging) to all my non-paleo friends how good this recipe is. Looking forward to tomorrow so I can have another piece.
could I use anything else besides walnuts? I am allergic to them !
yes, you could use a different nut such as almonds