Vegan baked cheesecake inside a tender, juicy, naturally sweet baked apple, drizzled with healthy caramel sauce… This one dessert checks off about 3 of my top ten favorite sweet treats. I’ve had this recipe and photos squirreled away in my files for over a month now. Other recipes captured my attention and here I find myself at the tail end of November and it’s still hiding out on the back burner of my hard drive. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to post it, as it seems almost too late for an apple dessert, but by golly it is just too darn good to wait until next year.

These are super simple to make, with 6 main ingredients and a few optional ingredients to take it to the next level of baked apple cheesecake heaven. I had no idea such a dessert even existed until I found this recipe online and decided it must be veganized. I’ve always loved baked apples in the fall, stuffed with nuts, raisins, and cinnamon, but cheesecake??? Now we’re talking.

The cheezecake is my first attempt at a vegan baked cheesecake, something that is hard to come by when searching for recipes. Raw vegan cheezecakes are everywhere, and you can find recipes for those even if you aren’t looking. I finally found a couple of the baked variety, but they were quite complicated, and I wanted this to be a simple and easy dessert that didn’t take two days to make. Cashews are the base for the cheezecake, while dates sweeten, and coconut flour thickens and helps it set up like a conventional baked cheesecake. You can leave the coconut flour out, and you will have the most delicious warm cream-cheezy filling oozing out of your baked apple. The choice is yours! I liked it both ways.

This recipe makes about 4-5 small baked apples. These would make a yummy warm dessert for the weekend, or a get together with friends and family.

Apples seem to be on sale everywhere right now. Take advantage of those sales and celebrate the end of apple season with these baked apple cheezecakes!

Baked Cheezecake Stuffed Apples – vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free

Ingredients:

• 4 small apples, carefully hollowed (see photos following recipe)
• 1/2 cup cashews, soaked 2-4 hours
• 1/3 cup filtered water
• 1 – 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 3 pitted Medjool dates, soaked 10 minutes in hot water if not soft
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp coconut flour – soft set, or 2 Tbsp coconut flour for a firmer set cheesecake, leave it out for a oozy cream cheeze filling
• optional: chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins, coconut sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place hollowed apples (see below for photos) on a parchment lined baking sheet.
2. Add cashews, water, lemon juice, dates, vanilla, and salt to a high speed blender and blend until smooth. A regular blender might work too, be sure to soak your cashews and blend from low to high. You may have to add another tablespoon or two of water, as needed, or stop and use a spatula to scrape down the sides. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired.
3. Add desired amount of coconut flour to the blender and blend again on low to mix the flour in thoroughly.
4. Before adding cheesecake to the apples, add any optional ingredients, a few raisins, sprinkle of coconut sugar, nutmeg, or cinnamon, or a teaspoon or two of chopped nuts to the hollowed apples. Then add the cheesecake, filling the hollow evenly with the top of the apple.
5. Bake for 45 minutes or up to one hour, until apples are tender and juicy. Top with chopped nuts and my healthy caramel (I thinned it out with a little apple juice or you could use almond milk or water to thin it out into a sauce.)