“Oreo” Cheesecake

Have you tried the vegan, high fructose corn syrup-free chocolate, Oreo-like cookies from Trader Joe’s? If you have, you know they’re highly addictive and should carry a warning label. I had to have Jim hide them in a cabinet I couldn’t reach so that I would binge on them before I used them for this recipe.

I don’t know what it is about then, but they look just like Oreos, yet somehow taste a MILLION times better. I was completely obsessed and literally found myself craving them in the middle of the night. But I restrained myself enough to keep most of the package in tact and left enough cookies to make this awesome cheesecake for Easter.

Holidays have turned into somewhat of challenge for me and I push myself to come up with recipes that even my picky eater brothers and dad will try. Unfortunately, they don;t even like non-vegan cheesecake, so they weren’t willing to go out on a limb and try mine. Jim and Arikka were thrilled that I had so much leftovers to share-and I have to admit I was kind of glad to have this (mostly) all to myself.

I’ve made a raw version of this cheesecake and it tastes pretty similar. I’d recently read about subbing some of the cashews for Greek almond milk yogurt and did this since cashews are so expensive  Although I HATE this yogurt alone (I literally spit it out when I tried to eat it on it’s own) it tastes great mixed in with all the other ingredients. It’s still costly, but it is well worth!

FOR THE CRUST

About 2 sleeves (I think 25 cookies?) of Jo Joe’s cookies

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp pure honey

1/2 tsp sea salt

FILLING

2 cups raw cashews, soaked for 4 hours

2 6 oz.containers Greek style almond milk yogurt

1/2 cup pure honey

1 cup coconut oil, melted

Juice of 4 lemons

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp pure vanilla

1/2 tsp sea salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Pulse cookies, honey and sea salt together in food processor until crumbled
• Slowly pour in olive oil and pulse until well incorporated
• Reserving about 1/3 cup for topping, push the cookie crust into a greased 8 X 8 baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes
• Pulse all filling ingredients together in the food processor until thin and creamy
• Pour over crust evenly
• Sprinkle reserved topping over filling and let set in the freezer for at least an hour before serving