There’s nothing quite like enjoying dessert out of a little, wee cup.
If you haven’t tried it, I highly suggest that you do.
In fact, I suggest that you do it with everything that you eat. Using a smaller dish for your meals (and snacks) will make all of your portions look larger. You’ll feel more satisfied just by looking at your portion and I can just about guarantee that you won’t get up for a second serving, or eat until you’re uncomfortably full.
I picked up this mindful portioning trick a couple of years ago and am consistently amazed at it’s practicality.
Moral of the story: small ramekins are my friends… and they should be yours, too.
Aside from this recipe being of the itsy-bitsy variety, it’s also rather Spring-like, wouldn’t you say?
I just can’t get flowers, green grass and Spring showers out of my head…
Which surprises me because this was the scene of our backyard yesterday morning:
It only got more serious as the day progressed.
Were you hit with a huge snowfall yesterday, too?
If so, why don’t we all just hustle to our kitchens, make a batch of cheesecake and dream away the Winter.
Who’s with me?
To print, email or text this recipe, click here.
- ⅓ cup raw cashew halves
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons unpasteurized honey
- ¾ teaspoons coconut flour
- 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- Add cashews, lemon juice, vinegar and honey to the bowl of your food processor or blender. Blend until smooth, about 2 minutes. Drop in coconut flour, ¼ teaspoon at a time while still blending for another minute. Divide mixture amongst two tea light candle holders or small parfait cups. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, place blueberries and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5-7 minutes until liquid has reduced by half.
- Stir in chia seeds, remove from heat and allow blueberry mixture to cool.
- Spoon blueberry compote over the cheese layer and refrigerate until chilled, about 4 hours.
Feel free to replace honey with any type of sweetener – stevia, agave, coconut nectar if you’re a vegan that doesn’t do honey or you’re sensitive to it…
THE CHILL TIME ALLOWS THE VINEGAR AND FLAVORS TO DEVELOP PROPERLY. Highly suggest letting this sit for 4 hours as suggested.
Vegan and honey is a sticky situation (heh). When I was vegan I did the honey thing. You may not… and that’s okay.
Feel free to replace the honey in this recipe with whatever other sweetener you have handy. Chris – you can use stevia 
Whoop, whoop!
If you look closely at the picture below and to the left, you’ll see my smashingly awesome work ensemble of yesterday… pajama bottoms and an old painting t-shirt. Classy, right?
I loved how creamy the cream cheese layer turned out to be. I could have just licked every inch of the inside of my blender…
but my face didn’t fit.
awkward.
And, because you guys liked the chia fruit spread so much, I figured I’d make a batch of my own and use it as a topping instead of a regular compote. It was so incredibly easy… I know you can do it. Adding the chia into the cooked fruit helped to soak up all the juices from the fruit, making the blueberry mixture so easy to drop and shape onto the top of this vegan cheesecake. It definitely won’t be the last time that I use chia with cooked fruit, that’s for sure!
Once everything has cooled, just layer your ingredients, let them chill in the fridge for a couple of hours…
And you’ve got yourself a perfect dessert for later. Yum yumity yum.
And after I was done making these little gems, I decided to use the snow day as an excuse to spend the afternoon snuggled in my office editing the photos for my grain-free, vegan cookbook…
It was one yummy scene, I’ll tell ya. Let’s just say that I’m happy I went into the project with a dessert-filled belly!
Okay, over and out! Have a lovely day
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{ 81 comments… read them below or add one }
YUM!! These look sooo good. I love miniature things, too! Need to get to Canadian Tire and stock up!! And, I literally just used PC frozen bluebs on my oatmeal 5 minutes ago
Canadian Tire… brilliant. Why have I never thought to buy dishes there? I LOVE finding various shapes and sizes of mason jars at Canadian Tire. Love my mason jars something fierce!
I love blue berries, not a fan of dried fruit though
Love your photography, it is amazing as always!
No dried fruit in these! There’s a cup of this cheesecake with your name on it in the fridge… you should have it for dessert tonight
Leanne, Looks Yummy! I’m going to try it today. Could you use arrowroot instead of the coconut flour? I don’t have any of that.
Hey Heidi – sure thing, arrowroot would work just fine! You may need a bit extra, maybe 2 teaspoons? Start off with 1 teaspoon and work your way up. I just added it to help the cake firm up as most often these cashew based recipes will have coconut oil to firm, but I wanted to keep it oil-free. Hope that helps!
Aw these are so cute Leanne, as is your honey stick! I’ve never tried making vegan cream cheese but I’m very intrigued. We’ve been getting nothing but snow here for the last week… I’m so ready for spring!
honey stick = crate and barrel. Gosh, I love that place. Blah snow.
You’ve been in my pantry again, making sure I have all the ingredients on hand… And you’ve extended your range to my freezer this time, too, I see. Okay, okay, I will cave in to your evil plan to force me to engage in dessert-making, but only because I have about a gallon of frozen, local, wild-picked, Georgia blueberries that I need to do SOMEthing with before the season rolls around again. Geesh.
We could switch houses and live completely content. I’m sure of it.
That’ll work for me – I’ll play with your Vitamix and you can play with my sons – Perfect!
Done and done!
this looks like the perfect after school treat for my girl on a friday afternoon! will grab some cashews today and make this up for tomorrow! YUM!
What a nice treat! I can’t wait to hear how she likes them. Be sure to stop in and let me know! Enjoy
so the hubby really enjoyed this treat – although even doubling it – the vitamix had a hard time blending everything – maybe I should have just stuck to the blender – the girl however did not enjoy the cream cheese part – I personally thought it was an amazing raw cream cheese treat!
Hi Anita – sorry it didn’t blend well… did you use cashew halves? Or whole cashews? I’ve had some people tell me that that made the difference. I’m glad most of you still enjoyed it!
Hi! So glad I found your site! You Inspire and make me Smile
Hi Karen
Your comment made ME smile! Hope you’re having a great night…
This looks wonderful – think I might try making this as a “take to work” treat in a mini container of course! Just wondered if you need to soak the cashews overnight first? By the way loving that I am not the only person who cooks in her pyjamas! Xx
Hey Alison – you could soak the cashews if you wanted to (making them easier on your digestion) but it’s not required for this recipe. I used cashew halves so that they were easier to break down in the blender. Great call on bringing this to the office as a mid-day treat!
Yay! Something I can eat! Since it makes two and there are three of us … say… I might as well just keep both of them for only me, right?
Thank you, Leanne! And I’m eager to find out more about The Cookbook, too!
haha I like your style, Cat. I’ll be sharing more details on the book next week!
These look so good. Thanks for the special inclusion of alternative sweetener in the post
One other question, is it possible to use pureed summer squash instead of cashews? Or maybe hemp seeds, or coconut? What do you think?
Thanks!
Can you have beans? If so, I’d run with that instead of the squashes… or, full fat coconut milk?
No beans
How would you do the coconut milk?
What about Greek coconut milk yogurt. How would I use it? It is very, very thick
I would just replace the cashews with coconut milk (full fat) and add more coconut flour
This looks amazing! I still haven’t tried using cashews to make “cream cheese” , but I’ve been seeing so many bloggers doing it, I’ll give it a try soon.
It’s a must try, that’s for sure. So creamy and delicious. I can’t wait to hear how you like it when you give it a whirl!
Oh wow, this looks incredible! LOVING the creaminess, the ingredient list is amazing… must make this VERY soon, maybe for my birthday next week
Ohhh happy (early) birthday, Christa!
Love thiis! We have nut allergies – anything else that would work seed wise? I’m desperate to try all these recipes but can’t do nuts
Hey Alexandra – I’m playing around with a couple of nut-free versions of this recipe… can your family do coconut? beans?
Hooray! Yes coconut and beans work beautifully! I’m always so darn jealous when I see recipes for crusts with almonds/cashews – perhaps I need to learn to be more confident with seeds
I’m testing a cream cheese recipe with beans this week and next so stay tuned for it! In the meantime, you could use shredded coconut or full fat coconut milk to get the same results, I bet!
I made it and it’s delicious! I used almond flour instead of the coconut flour.
Nice! Thanks for stopping in and reporting back. Glad you liked it!
Hi looks so lovely. what is coconut flour? Is it milled coconut flakes? Or what could I replace it with? Thanks a bunch xxx
Hey Caghrey – coconut flour is ground coconut… but different than just grinding coconut. A couple of people today have told me that they replaced the coconut flour with arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, almond flour… so there are lots of different options!
These are so clever! And I bet you could use that compote on anything – and with other berries, too! So excited for your cookbook!!
Oh totally… you could make a batch and just eat it out of the pan when you’re testing the recipe…. *guilty*
Would you say the cheese cake base, the “cheese” is thick enough to make a cheesecake?
Hey Shel – this cream cheese… no. But I made a cream cheese that I used for cheesecake bars that I know would work PERFECTLY for a cheesecake. Here’s the recipe: http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2012/12/how-to-make-soy-free-vegan-cream-cheese/
These look delightful! I love the blueberry compote the most, only because chia seeds are my favourite food ever
Favorite food ever. Wow, that’s a bold statement… and I love it!
Bold statement, but a true one! Chia seeds go with everything in my house
Amen to that!
Yum! I’m surprised that, being 90% dairy free, I have yet to make a vegan cheesecake dessert. I need to remedy that very soon.
Also, I cannot wait for your cookbook!
Uh yes, you need to remedy! Dairy-free and no cheesecake? I couldn’t dream of a world without it. Hope you’re having a fabulous evening, Rachel
You make vegan eating so much more posh and delicious!!!! Looks absolutely amazing
Aw thanks, Asuma. It means so much to me that you feel that way!
Mmmmmm…these look perfect!
I like to pick up my mini dishes from antique or second hand stores…the dishes were smaller back in the day!
Antique shops are great. I could get lost in them for days and days… glad I’m not the only one madly in love with small dishes!
These look so delicious! I love the mini size too. I’ve wanted to try making a vegan cheesecake for so long, but I’ve been putting it off because I almost never make desserts for a crowd. With just two of us, this recipe will be perfect. I think I have all of the ingredients, so this just might be tonight’s dessert!
If you made them, I hope the two of you enjoyed every last morsel!
These look AMAZING! I have to go to Bulk Barn soon to stock up on some stuff, and then these will definitely get made!
Oh man, bulk barn is the BEST… isn’t it?
So amazing! Just wish there was one within walking distance of me.
Leanne,
I will have you know, in my house, genius has only EVER been created while wearing clothes that have been slept in.
I LOVE that you use tea light candle holders as FOOD dishes. Where on Earth did you ever get the idea to do that? A-dorable.
haha I like your style, Liz! Genius… perfect. There was a time (many, many years ago) where I didn’t have any dishes at all… and I used what I had… candle holders included!
Perfect dairy free desert. This one ticks all the boxes for me. Delicious.
Thanks Melissa!
Thanks for this recipe! I made it last night but cheated — I made a double batch and called it breakfast. YUM!
FYI, this recipe is not vegan. Honey is an animal product and not considered vegan. You can veganize the recipe by using agave instead.
Hey Jessica – thanks for the tip! I mentioned that in the recipe, too. But always great to reiterate in the comments just in case people missing it in the content of the recipe and post!
Hi Leanne! I made this yesterday and it was a fantastic dessert to come home to after eating at a restaurant that didn’t serve gluten and diary free desserts. I have one question: the raw apple cider vinegar was the most prominent flavour, which I didn’t enjoy. I’m wondering if it’s possible to include less of this ingredient or substitute it for something else? Thanks for sharing such wonderful treats!
I thought the same thing, so I used a bit less ACV and added a splash of vanilla! Tasted great!
Thanks Tasha! Will try that next time
Hey Lisa! I’m so happy that you had a little treat to come home to. I found that the vinegar flavor melded really well after a couple of hours of sitting. You could replace some of the vinegar with water, too!
These are so cute, I really like the addition of chia seeds to the base! It’s so nutritious, it’s good enough to be a meal!
Sounds and looks like the perfect soulfood for cold or bad days. I really like your pictures and the love you put in them.
Is there any good nut to substitute for cashews? I have a cashew allergy but this looks amazing. I would love to make it.
Hi Alaine – you’d be better off going with the bean route, if you’re not sensitive to beans. I just posted a bean pudding recipe on Cara’s cravings today, here’s the link: http://www.carascravings.com/2013/03/blood-orange-and-blood-orange-dairy-free-cream-parfaits-done-with-dairy-toolkit-guest-post-by-healthful-pursuit.html
Great, thank you for your help! I will try that recipe out this weekend. I appreciate the feedback!
How is honey vegan? :/
Hey Amanda – I mentioned the honey piece throughout my post and said that some vegans eat it, others don’t. But I did give recommendations to what you can use if you’re a non honey eater! I hope that helps
OH, what did I do wrong? Mine tastes like vinegar and is not really appealing at all. And it’s much more yellow than the picture. Might just be a light difference, but it does not taste nice. I didn’t add a topping as I was afraid I’ve just ruined the whole thing and can drown my sorrows in blueberries. Any advise would be helpful please!
Hi Amy – it could have been the quality of apple cider vinegar. Did you use cashew halves or whole cashews? I’m so sorry that you don’t like it. What you can do: just double the recipe and leave out the vinegar and lemon juice. It’ll dull down the taste for you.
I made these today as an early wedding anniversary treat and they were fantastic! Turned out perfectly the first time and I was impressed by how creamy the “cream cheese” was. I will definitely be making these again!
I made these for Mothers Day and ended up multiplying the recipe by 6 to give decent size portions. It was so thick I had to add water to each parfait glass after my family was served. The apple cider vinegar was too strong and made my mouth burn. I don’t know how this recipe could turn out so bad when many reviews, and the photos look so good. I followed it exactly – other than needing to add extra water.
Hi Heidi – oh my goodness, I’m so sorry that you had a bad experience with this recipe. Did you use the raw apple cider vinegar that I listed in the recipe? Cashew halves, too? Do you have a high powdered blender?