Hi there beautiful! Today I’m sharing a pink creamy dream perfect for Valentine’s – vegan gluten-free strawberry cheesecake bites. This is a baked soft cheesecake with a silky cashew layer and melt-in-your-mouth crust with almond butter. As always, there’s a secret ingredient hiding in the top layer. This ingredient is definitely not a stranger in the Berry kitchen 😉
You guessed it, right?! Yes, it’s beets again! I’m constantly mesmerized by the amazing fuschia color beets give to my food. I’m a huge lover of all things natural and organic – food of course at the top of my list. While I do indulge in rainbow colored – not necessarily all natural – fairytale sprinkles at times or other vegan store bought treats, I definitely LOVE naturally colored sweet treats the most. Remember these cheesecake beauties? They were shared on Feedfeed and I’m guessing it’s because of the beautiful beetrooty colors (and of course the pretty berries from the forest 😉 )
It’s not only beets I love, I’m also a huge fan of cheesecakes. And I’m happy to share I’m not the only one loving baked vegan glutenfree cheesecake – my Blueberry cheesecake bars were a total hit at the first Vegan fair in Helsinki over a week ago. I got so much positive feedback from lovely visitors, it was almost overwhelming. And it was super exciting to see so many people interested in vegan baking.
My vegan baking enthusiasm is going strong, and I have lots more sweet treats coming up this year. I haven’t forgotten about savory nor snacks or brekkies either, so stay tuned for more recipes from the forest. But first – let’s enjoy this cute pink cheesecake 😉
- Crust
- Dry ingredients
- ⅓ cups gluten-free oat flour
- ¼ cups white rice flour
- ¼ cups almond flour
- ¼ cups coconut sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp Ceylon cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- Wet ingredients
- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 1-2 tbsp cold water (depending on how thick the almond butter is)
- Cashew cream cheese filling
- 1 cup cashews
- ¼ cups unsweetened plant-based yogurt (I used oat yogurt)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ cups chopped strawberries (fresh or frozen)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- ¼ tsp vanilla bean powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- + 1 tbsp almond flour
- On top: 1 tsp beet juice (from grated beetroot) + few drops of lemon juice + two pinches of coconut sugar
- Toppings: freeze dried strawberries or sliced fresh strawberries
- Preparations: Soak 1 cup of cashews a minimum of 1 hour in warm water (about 2 cups) + ½ tsp sea salt.
- Crust: Preheat oven to 390F / 200 C.
- Combine dry ingredients together. Add melted coconut oil and almond butter to the dry ingredients. You might need your hands to mix the batter properly. It should look like wet coarse sand. Add cold water 1 tbsp at a time and mix with a spoon until the batter is firm.
- Line a small baking pan (I used a rectangle shaped: 22 x 16 cm ~9 x 6 inches) with parchment paper. Flatten the batter in the pan with your fingers until it is even. Bake in 390F / 200C for 10 minutes.
- While the crust is in the oven, prepare the cashew cream cheese filling: drain and rinse soaked cashews. Drain extra liquid off strawberries if using frozen ones. Add all filling ingredients except almond flour to a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until the cashew cream is completely smooth. Add 1 tbsp almond flour and mix with a spoon.
- Pour cashew cream on top of baked crust.
- Grate about a ½ tbsp of beetroot to extract 1 tsp of beet juice (or use other fresh beet juice). Mix beet juice with a drop of lemon juice and coconut sugar. Taste - it should taste less beetrooty and more sweet lemony. Add more sugar / lemon juice if needed.
- Swirl the beet juice on top of cashew cream with a spoon or spatula.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the cashew cream cheese layer feels firm.
- Let the cheesecake cool down in the baking pan. Cut into small bites after cooling OR keep about an hour in the fridge and cut into bites after chilling the cake. It's easier to cut the cake when it has chilled properly.
- Right before serving add freeze dried strawberries or a sliced fresh strawberry on top of each bite.
- Enjoy this creamy berry delight!
When it's strawberry season I'll add fresh strawberries on top of the bites but for now I'll stick to freeze dried version.
ps. I love baked cheesecakes the most, but I’ve seen some amazing raw vegan cheesecakes lately. Check out my blogger friends’ creations: Jess Choosingchia made stunning dragonfruit cheesecakes and Ela Elavegan made these cute Strawberry cheesecakes 🙂
Wow Tiina, your Strawberry Cheesecake Bites look absolutely amazing! I love to color my food with beets and the best thing is that you only need to use a tiny bit of the beet juice for such a beautiful color. I bet these cheesecake bites tasted amazing. Thanks so much for mentioning my Strawberry Coconut Cheesecake Bars. 🙂
Thank you so much Ela!! I really adore your cheesecakes, they are just sooo cute. And yes, beetroot is amazing for coloring food. Works so well in both savory and sweet 😉 Wishing you a beautiful day <3
Oh these are very Valentine’s dreamy indeed <3 Hehe "beetrooty" I love that word and it could not be any more apropos here! There is like two phases of mesmerizing beet-swirlyness with these bars–pre-baking and post. The color changes so much from that bright fuchsia to a deep shiny elegant ruby wow!! Who knew one little root veggie could have so many shades of pink in it? Actually you did probably, if anyone did it was you 🙂
Thank you dear!! I really love “beetrooty” too, it always makes me smile. I tend to add beets in some food every week, it’s simply the best natural coloring agent and also tastes so amazing 🙂 Hmmm and it’s especially perfect on Valentine’s Day 😉 Have a lovely Sunday! <3
These look so delicious Tiina! Love how pink they are! 🙂
Thank you for mentioning my recipe too!
Thanks so much Jess! You are the cheesecake queen and was very inspired by your beautiful creations 🙂