Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
Growing up, our next door neighbors, Karen and John were like second parents to us. We had them over for holidays, spent tons of time at their house, and Karen would always make us her famous “cheesecake cookies”. The memory of eating those insanely good treats inspired the making of these.
Had a special occasion when making these and wanted to treat a client to something special while still keeping it aligned with their health intentions.
These bars were so fun to make, and even more fun to test taste . In this entire recipe, there’s only 1 tablespoon of honey! Which you can absolutely sub out for maple syrup if preferred.
Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
Author: Consciously Coastal
prep time: 1hr | Servings: 12
Ingredients:
For the crust:
- 1 ½ cup pecans
- ½ cup coconut oil
For the cheesecake:
- 1 ½ cup raw cashews
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk (make sure it’s creamy and will mixed- if it has separated, stir together)
- 1 tbs honey or maple
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ tsp pink salt .
For the strawberry topping:
- 1 ½ cup strawberries
- 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions:
- In a food processor or high speed blender, blend pecans until they are broken up.
- Pour in coconut oil and blend till combined. Pour into a baking dish that’s been lined with parchment paper.
- Place in the freezer and allow to set.
- Meanwhile, in a small pot, bring your cashews to a boil in water, and cook for about 30 minutes.
- While the cashews are cooking, making your strawberry topping: cut the tops off of all your strawberries and in a high speed blender, blend till puréed, making sure to add in the vanilla. Pour into a small bowl and set in the fridge to keep cold and firm.
- Once your cashews are ready, drain them of their water and pour into an ice bath to cool down. Once cold, drain the cashews again and pour them into your blender, adding in all the other ingredients for the filling, blend until completely smooth and to taste. Adjust flavors to your liking.
- Take crust out of the fridge and pour the cheesecake mixture on top, covering with plastic wrap and placing back in the fridge for 1-2 hours (you can also leave it in the fridge overnight) or in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. If you choose to put it in the freezer make sure to check on it every 20 minutes or so. You want your bars to have a cheesecake texture- not necessarily be frozen.
- Once set, gently pull the parchment paper out of the baking dish and cut into desired squares.