On my first trip there, a member of my party decided to end our meal with a little cheesecake tasting. After he took his first bite, his eyes lit up. Ok, I decided to try give it a try.
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Wow. All I could say was wow! It tasted wonderful! Definitely the best raw cheesecake I've ever tasted. Until I could return, I decided I would try and recreate it.
Unfortunately, the first try wasn't extremely successful [hopefully I'll try again soon and get a recipe to post]. It tasted fine, but not something that I would eagerly eat more than a bite. So I decided to turn the unsuccessful attempt into another experiment.
Since raw cheesecake tends to involve a higher fat content (due to cashews and coconut oil), I decided it would make a good cookie base. A little of this, a little of that, and bam! Some awesome gluten free and vegan cookies! They taste sort of like a sugar cookie but with more depth of flavor.
Cheesecake Cookies
Makes about 8 3'' cookies.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: ~12-16 minutes
Ingredients:
Wet
1/4 C. Raw Cheesecake*
2 Tbs. Applesauce
1 Tbs. Non-dairy Milk
Dry
1/2 C. Oats ground into flour (gluten free if you'd like)
1/4 C. Garbanzo Bean Flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
*Tiny* pinch of salt
Optional: about 1/3 c. Erythritol (or any other dry sweetener to roll the dough in)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cookie dough sheet with parchment.
2. Mix the wet ingredients thoroughly.
3. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly.
4. Add dry to the wet and mix until combined. Do not over mix. The dough will seem a little wet.
5. Put the Erythritol in a small dish. Using a tablespoon, scoop some dough and plop it on the erythritol. Shake the dish until the cookie dough ball is completely coated in sugar. It should form a complete smooth round shape.
6. Place on the cookie sheet and repeat step 5 with the rest of the dough.
7. Baking time will vary depending on the size of your cookies. Anywhere from 12-16 minutes will produce a soft yet chewy cookie. More importantly, the cookie will still look quite doughy when its done baking. Look for a light brown around the very edge of the cookie for indication when it is done baking.
*As mentioned above, I used a homemade raw cheesecake. The cheesecake was lightly sweetened and had a strong vanilla flavor. Therefore the cookies required no extra sweetener or vanilla. If you prefer an extra sweet cookie, feel free to experiment with adding different sweeteners. If you don't have any raw cheesecake lying around, you can try mixing 1 Tbs. of Coconut oil, 2 Tbs. of soaked and blended cashews or 2 Tbs. of Cashew Butter, 1 Tbs. of mashed banana, and vanilla. I haven't tested this method yet.
Enjoy!