Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

These bars are sweet & full of delicious fat from cashews and almonds and deliver all the joy of cheesecake!

Who knew that blitzing cashews in a food processor could yield such creamy awesomeness? Just throw the cashew in a food processor with the remaining filling ingredients, blend for a couple minutes, and boom.

Mission: Magical Vegan Cheesecake accomplished.

There’s three layers to these beauties: a chewy crust layer, followed by the creamy cheesecake layer, and finally the melted dark chocolate. You can then choose to take it one step further by topping them with shaved dark chocolate, sliced almonds or shredded coconut. I have a feeling that any of those toppings would be utterly delicious…

Melt in your mouth, uber-creamy and just sweet enough with a nice, tart tang.

Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

For the Filling:

2 heaping cups raw whole cashews
2 heaping tablespoons almond butter
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup water
3.5 oz Green & Black dark chocolate bar

Chocolate Crust
3 heaping cups sliced almonds, not whole!
3 tablespoons raw cacao or cocoa powder
4 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup

Chocolate crust: Add almonds and cacao to a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. Add the maple syrup and pulse again until mixture clumps together and holds it’s shape when pressed together between your fingers. Take an 8×8 square pan and line with plastic wrap or parchment paper hanging over the sides for easy removal later. Press the mixture evenly around with your fingers, not forgetting about the corners. You can add a little cacao powder to your fingers to help it not stick.

Filling
Add all filling ingredients to a high powered blender and blend until smooth and creamy, a couple of minutes.Pour over the prepared crust. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the dark chocolate bar. When completely melted and smooth, drop spoonfuls all over the cheesecake and pull with a knife to make swirls. Do not overdo it or you will lose the swirl effect.

If desired, add almonds, shaved chocolate or chocolate chips on top. Place in the freezer for several hours or overnight until firm. Let sit at room temperature about 10-15 minutes before trying to remove the cheesecake with the plastic wrap. You should be able to pull it out with the plastic wrap after it has sat out a bit. Then slice and serve. Cover with foil and return to the freezer to keep it firm.

*It might not taste exactly like dairy cheesecake, but it comes darn close to being the best substitute I ever had.