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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Wow, Juli! These look ah-may-zing! I can’t wait to try them… when I’m done with 21DSD.
I hope this is in the cookbook! I ordered mine in December and I can’t wait!
I had my (non-Paleo) family over for a (Paleo) dinner party last night, and I made these for dessert! When I say that these are STUPID good, I mean they are STUPID good! My parents were going crazy about how good they are! Although it’s a bit time consuming (and whoa! tons of nuts), these are completely worth it! Fortunately (or unfortunately), I have so much left over, I am going to have to show major discipline…all to easy to just pick at with a fork! This recipe is a major home run! I’d make these any time I had to bring a dessert somewhere!
A co-worker made these and brought them to work…..
These beat any treat, even non Paleo treats Ive had. Theyre absolutely amazing.
Very late to the party on finding your blog but just wanted to say that I made these yesterday and my fiance and I absolutely LOVE them!! It could be because I don’t eat paleo that they don’t really taste like cheesecake to me, HOWEVER, these are better than cheesecake and are incredible in their own right. I love that they are all healthy ingredients as well. Thanks for the recipe!!
Hi Julie, just wondering if substituting cashews for macadamia nuts would be possible? My boyfriend has a cashew allergy. Also, do you think it’d be good without the honey? Thank you!!
no, they wouldn’t be the same consistency. it would still taste good, but it wouldn’t hold up like cashews do
I’m a bad and messy cook so this took a couple of goes to get right (just dumb me buying the wrong stuff because I was in a hurry at the shop). But, last batch was awesome!! thankyou. H
I’m going to try these this week, but have a question. I’m allergic to all citrus, so I usually substitute vinegar in recipes, but wonder if it’s necessary for this? Would it work without any acidic ingredient?
it would still work fine without it!
Thanks! Can’t wait to try it 🙂
Great recipes! Loved all of them!
Ok, so I first saw this cheesecake recipe a couple of months ago and the picture! The picture made the magic. Looks like so much like how I like it!
I of course immediately decided to make it sometime. I was patiently (hahaha) waiting for a good occasion to come and also to loose enough weight before eating this as a treat. 🙂
So as Valentie’s Day was on the horizon I decided to make this – heart shaped! OMG! (x100 – for the accurate result double it for my husband) This is so much like the best cheese cake I have ever had! Actually, no, it’s not. It’s even better! And even the caramel topping is perfect! And this was my first cheesecake ever made. Which means your recipe really works! My husband and I loved it! It’s very stodgy though, we could hardly finish our slices (we rarely eat sweets since we are paleo). I guess we will have a cake for about a year kept in the freezer! Strictly a special occasion only 🙂
And now we wait a couple of days before we dare to step on the scale again… 🙂
This was probably the best thing I’ve ever made let alone being paleo. This May or may not last you very long, depending on how much self control you have. I was really shocked on my first bite on how something so healthyish could taste so good. I had one piece like a smaller square size for breakfast,went to work and wasn’t hungry till lunch. I will definitely make these again!! Thanks you so much!! 🙂 love your recipes