Original recipe of the week: Raw Chocolatey Jaffa Cheesecake

It’s that time of year again, Easter or, as we like to think of it, chocolate time! We thought we would give you an alternative recipe this year as raw food is the fad of the moment and chocolate cheese cake is the best thing since sliced bread. You don’t even need to tell your guests that this is a raw food recipe as it’s so rich and yummy they won’t even second guess.

Raw Chocolaty Jaffa Cheesecake

Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 5-10 mins
Chill time: 4-6 hours

What you will need:

For the crust

150g cup hazelnut meal
50g  + 2 tbsp raw cocoa powder or raw cocoa nibs
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch sea salt

For the filling

500g raw Brazil nuts, soaked and rinsed
80g + 2 tbsp pistachio butter (peanut butter works too)
60g melted coconut oil
60g cocoa powder or raw cocoa nibs
3 tbsp maple syrup
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
300g orange and ginger conserve

What you need to do:

1. In a food processor, blitz all the ingredients for the crust until it starts to come together. Pour out and press into a lined cake tin – preferable loose-bottomed – and set aside.
2. Clean the food processor and add in the Brazil nuts, maple syrup, water and salt. Mix until totally smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as you go to capture all of the bits.
3. Add the cocoa powder (if using cocoa nibs add also 5 tbsp of maple syrup), pistachio butter and coconut oil to the mixture and blitz them all together, scraping down again, until it’s smoothly mixed.
4. Now you can spoon the entire jar of orange and ginger conserve on the base and smooth out. When complete follow with the filling mix.  Decorate however you like it and place the cheesecake in the freezer until solid all the way through (at least 2 hours for a single portion cheesecake, 4 for a large cheesecake).

Bethany Stone