Cheesecake was never something I enjoyed until very recently. At first, when I was younger, I just didn’t like cheesecake. Then I was allergic to dairy for ten years. Then I started the GAPS Diet and didn’t eat sugar for years! Because of that, it never occurred to me to try to make a recipe similar to a cheesecake until my cousin, who’s very good at making cheesecake, made cheesecake with a gluten free crust and I tried some. I realized how delicious it is and how simple it is to create as a real food dessert.
As I’ve been exploring the world of desserts, I’m realizing more and more how desserts were a way to eat a lot of animal fat and traditional recipes were very nutrient dense foods. One of the main problems of desserts is the processed sugars. Sugar can be a problem if you often eat too much of it at a sitting, especially if it is not accompanied by generous amounts of animal fat. Sugar is further a problem when processed and refined because refined sugar removes the important nutrients such as magnesium, B vitamins, and other trace nutrients that assist your body in breaking down the sugar naturally. Not only does processed sugar spike our blood sugar, we don’t have the magnesium molecules needed to safely break down the sugar and utilize it in our bodies. We can correct all of that. We can go back to using high concentrations of animal fats in our desserts and use sugars that are natural and whole. In this way, most people can enjoy desserts for special occasions once a certain amount of healing has been done in their bodies.
From Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, Measurements Adjusted for Round Pan
**The USDA warns against consuming raw dairy and egg products. Healthy animals have healthy raw milk and eggs. Source your food well. We’re not liable if you get sick.
Ingredients for Real Food Raw Cheesecake
1 1/2 cup dry Truly Raw Almonds (from Azure Farms) to make 2 cups Almond Flour
¼ cup Yogurt
Filtered Water
½ cup dates, if you do whole dates with pits, it’s about 6
1 - 2 tsp butter
Generous ½ cup of Raw Milk
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon of Gelatin
14 - 16 ounces cream cheese
¼ cup Honey
½ tsp Vanilla
Salt
Directions for Real Food Raw Cheesecake
Properly prepare your nuts. If you are just fermenting your almonds or almond flour, you need to start 24 hours before. If you are wanting to soak and then sprout your almonds, you need to start 2-3 days before. They can be prepared ahead of time and will keep for weeks to months if dehydrated.
Take cream cheese out of the fridge a few hours before you are ready to prepare your cheesecake.
When your nuts are properly prepared, rinse them thoroughly with filtered water. I left the brown skins on my almonds because I wanted the contrasting color to the pale cheesecake. You can definitely remove them if you’d like. Then grind your prepared nuts as finely as you can. You can use a food processor, hand food processor, blender, or VitaMix. They do not have to be dry to grind them.
You may have a little extra almond flour at this stage. Measure your almonds to get two cups.
Blend your nuts and dates together. I used an immersion blender but anything that will really pulverize them together is sufficient.
Generously butter a 9 inch round glass baking dish. Press the date almond paste into the pie crust pan to form the crust. Set aside.
Add raw milk to a small saucepot. Separate egg yolks and whites. Add egg yolks to the pot with the raw milk. Mix together to break apart yolks.
Turn the stove onto the medium low heat. Add gelatin to the milk and egg mixture. Mix together. Heat until the gelatin is just dissolved. DO NOT COOK. Gelatin is dissolved when you are able to only hold your finger in the liquid less than 3 seconds. Quickly remove from the heat.
To a large bowl, add the softened cream cheese, honey, and vanilla. Beat with an immersion blender or mixer until smooth and combined.
Add in the slightly cooled milk mixture to the cream cheese mixture. Blend until completely smooth.
Place the mixture of cream cheese into the fridge.
In a separate bowl with the egg whites, add a pinch of salt. Beat until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan with a crust.
Cool for several hours until hard.
Real Food Raw Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup dry Truly Raw Almonds (from Azure Farms) to make 2 cups Almond Flour
- ¼ cup Yogurt
- Filtered Water
- ½ cup dates, if you do whole dates with pits, it’s about 6
- 2 tsp butter
- Generous ½ cup of Raw Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon of Gelatin
- 16 ounces cream cheese
- ¼ cup Honey
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- Salt
Instructions
- Properly prepare your nuts. If you are just fermenting your almonds or almond flour, you need to start 24 hours before. If you are wanting to soak and then sprout your almonds, you need to start 2-3 days before. They can be prepared ahead of time and will keep for weeks to months if dehydrated.
- When your nuts are properly prepared, rinse them thoroughly with filtered water. I left the brown skins on my almonds because I wanted the contrasting color to the pale cheesecake. You can definitely remove them if you’d like. Then grind your prepared nuts as finely as you can. You can use a food processor, hand food processor, blender, or VitaMix. They do not have to be dry to grind them.
- You may have a little extra almond flour at this stage. Measure your almonds to get two cups.
- Take cream cheese out of the fridge a few hours before you are ready to prepare your cheesecake.
- Blend your nuts and dates together. I used an immersion blender but anything that will really pulverize them together is sufficient.
- Generously butter a 9 inch round glass baking dish. Press the date almond paste into the pie crust pan to form the crust. Set aside.
- Add raw milk to a small saucepot. Separate egg yolks and whites. Add egg yolks to the pot with the raw milk. Mix together to break apart yolks.
- Turn the stove onto the medium low heat. Add gelatin to the milk and egg mixture. Mix together. Heat until the gelatin is just dissolved. DO NOT COOK. Gelatin is dissolved when you are able to only hold your finger in the liquid less than 3 seconds. Quickly remove from the heat.
- To a large bowl, add the softened cream cheese, honey, and vanilla. Beat with an immersion blender or mixer until smooth and combined.
- Add in the slightly cooled milk mixture to the cream cheese mixture. Blend until completely smooth.
- Place the mixture of cream cheese into the fridge.
- In a separate bowl with the egg whites, add a pinch of salt. Beat until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan with a crust.
- Cool for several hours until hard.