Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake with Pecan Caramel Sauce
Tonight we celebrated our dear friend David’s birthday. With the gathering of our friends, not only did we sing happy birthday, but, we shared wonderful dinner and topped it with belly satisfying raw dessert! Pumpkin is one of his favorite flavors so I knew I had to make this for him. Believe it or not but I bought this sugar pumpkin back in December. They have an amazing shelf life when stored properly. I just had to put one to the test and sure enough, 3 months later we were still able to use it to create this special treat! I hope you enjoy this Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake with Pecan Caramel Sauce as much as we did. You can make it as a pie or serve it in bar form.
Ingredients for crust:
Preparation for making the crust:
- In your food processor blend the nuts along with the salt till mealy.
- Add the dates one at a time, but quickly so you don’t over process the nuts. Again – Be careful not to over process.
- You want the batter to hold together when you pinch it.
- Press the crust mixture in the bottom of your pan. I used a 9×9 square Springform pan. These are my favorite types of pans. You could use any size, shape or style to fit the occasion! Set aside while you make the filling.
Ingredients for the Cheesecake batter:
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked for a min. of 2 hours to soften them)
- 2 cups almond milk
- 2 cups cubed raw pumpkin, sugar pumpkin is the best
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 cup maple syrup or raw agave nectar
- 3 Tbsp lecithin
- 1 cup cold pressed raw coconut oil, melted
Preparation in making the filling:
- In a high-speed blender add the almond milk, lemon juice, salt, pumpkin spice, cubed pumpkin and maple syrup until very smooth.
- Add in the cashews and blend until all graininess is gone. Rub a little batter between your fingers to make sure it is nice and creamy. You are after a smooth mouth feel! This is a good time to taste test. You may need to add additional spice or sweetness, it all depends on the quality of the pumpkin you used. We are dealing with fresh ingredients here and the taste can very largely due to ripeness, etc.
- **Add the lecithin and melted coconut oil and continue blending until creamy and the powder is well-integrated.
- Pour the mixture over the prepared crust.
- Gently tap your pan on the counter top to bring all the bubbles to the surface.
- Place in the fridge to set up.
Tip: If you don’t have pumpkin spice, you make your own by combining the following:
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon into a small bowl or cup.
- 1/4 tsp of ground ginger.
- 1/8 tsp of ground allspice or ground cloves.
- 1/8 tsp of ground nutmeg.
- Stir to blend.
- Makes 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice.
Ingredients for the Pecan Carmel Sauce:
- 1/2 cup raw almond butter
- 1/4 cup raw agave nectar
- 1/4 cup yacon syrup
- 1/2 cup date paste
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup of water (may need more or less, do you want to drizzle or use as a frosting?)
- 1/2 – 1 cup raw pecans, chopped
Preparation for making the caramel sauce:
- Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and process until smooth. You may need to stop occasionally to scrap the sides down.
- Hand stir in pecan or place on top after applying the caramel sauce.
- Store left sauce in the fridge in a glass container for up to 2 weeks. To soften, leave out at room temperature for a few hours or place the container in a bowl of hot water.
- Assembly: Pour caramel over the cheesecake and allow it to drizzle down the sides. Cut and serve!! Keep chilled.
Posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 7:23 am. Filed under: Bars, Cake / Pies Tags: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free, Soy Free, Thanksgiving, Vegan RSS 2.0 feed.
You have stars by the lecithin and the coconut oil ingredients, but do not reference them. What do the stars refer to?
Thanks, this looks great!
Good afternoon Rebecca,
The stars refer to #3 in the directions. I failed to put the stars on #3…thank you for bringing that to my attention. I fixed it. :) I hope you try the recipe, it is yummy! Many blessings, amie sue
Hey there! I LOVE your site and all the recipes I have tried so far! I make at least one a week for my family and also one for my diabetic grandmother. I haven’t been disappointed yet! I just wondered if you know how many calories are in a piece of these pies? My mama could sit and eat a whole one in a sitting :-} and wondered how many calories she was consuming. I make this one most often.
BTW, I tweeked a couple recipes and made a banana chocolate cheesecake. SO YUMMY! Thank you so much for your site and all your info!
Thank you Alicia :) So happy to hear that you are enjoying the site! Boy, I don’t know how many calories are in that pie. We can be rest assured that it is healthier for us but like everything else, one must practice moderation. :)
can i use another thing for lecithin.
Thank you thank you thank you! I made this for my birthday, which was on (Canadian) Thanksgiving, and it was beyond perfect!! I went to a wedding the night before and was sitting next to a display of SAD cheesecakes, including my all time favorite: PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE!! I supplemented date paste for most of the maple syrup since I have an intolerance to processed sugars and made coconut whipped cream (pop a can of organic coconut milk in the fridge overnight, turn it upside down in the AM, pour out the watery milk, then whip the cream all by itself – delish!!!)
Once again, your the best!! This is my all time favorite recipe site ;)
Oh Catherine I so happy to hear this!! I love waking up to such wonderful comments. hehe Your making me hungry for this again. I am so pumpkin head over heels for them right now, just LOVE them. Thank you so much for sharing this, it made my day. In honor of your Thanksgiving celebration… I am thankful for you. :) Many blessings, amie sue
HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!
I would like to try to make this for Thanksgiving. However, I do not have a dehydrator for the pecans used in the crust. Any alternatives? Also, what brand is your springform pan? I recently went looking for one, but only found round pie springform pans. Thanks!
Erica… check out my Amazon store on the site. I try to put all the gadgets I use on their so people can get an idea as to what I use. You can just soak the nuts, drain them well and use them wet. I love this pie… I might have to make it soon ! Good luck, amie sue
One last question… I am gathering the ingredients for this recipe and am having a hard time finding yucan syrup for the caramel sauce. I did a search on the internet and it comes up with a different spelling. Yacon instead of yucan. Is this the same thing? And would maple syrup or agave nectar give the same results? Thanks!
Morning Erica,
That is a typo on my end. It is Yacon. Taste wise molasses is the closest in taste, but that isn’t raw so not sure how important that is to you in this. Maple syrup would be the next ingredients in line that I might use to replace it, but again it’s not raw. Agave is much runnier that Yacon, as well as a different flavor profile. It’s all up to you. Have a great day in the kitchen, amie sue
Amie-Sue! This was fabulous! I’m not 100% raw but eat raw most of the time. I also love messing around in the kitchen and in my “pre-raw” life one of my specialties was cheesecake (and it’s many variations). I tried this one yesterday and served it to the faculty at a meeting none of whom is raw and they just couldn’t believe it was raw. This recipe was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t resist and added shredded coconut to the crust and I loved it, so I just make repeat it. Ok I’m rambling now, just wanted to thank you for posting this recipe. Can’t wait to try other recipes.
Perfect Myrna! So happy to hear that you all enjoyed it. Raw cheesecakes are so easy and always a hit! Have a blessed day and thank you for sharing. :)
I tried this and was very pleased with the result. I was thinking of replacing the pumpkin with frozen strawberries to make a strawberry cheesecake. Do you think it will work?
Hello Igloo,
That is awesome, glad you enjoyed it. You could use strawberries but word of caution, frozen berries will create a bit of sauce once thawed, so be sure to thaw and drain them really well. The added liquid might make the cheesecake to loose. Scrumptious!
Oh, I hadn’t thought about the extra liquid frozen berries could cause! It’s a good thing I asked. Thanks!
You betcha. Consistency of ingredients is the first thing that pops in my head when I create recipes. Well wait, I take that back. I get a hankering for a certain flavor then I think of what foods I can’t use to create the texture needed to make a wonderful mouth-feel recipe :)
I made this Amie Sue….three times. I made it for an office party (didn’t say it was raw), then for a potluck and then I was asked to make it again for our church Health and Temperance ministries. It was absolutely delicious and because I never leave good alone, I added shredded coconut to the crust. (hope you don’t mind). Thanks for sharing this recipe.
That is so wonder Myrna! I don’t mind at all that you “added” to the recipe. That is what these recipes are here for… for you to make them you own! To play, experiment and having fun with healthier foods is what it is about! Thank you for sharing and have a great day. amie sue
this is a huge hit around here and its beautiful in its presentation to boot
i also cheated a bit as its the wrong time of year for the sugar babies here -since i had a few yams hanging around with no purpose in mind i substituted them for the pumpkin-absolutely fantastic results
(these were organic american yams like in your regular grocery section-NOT oriental yams that HAVE to be cooked before eaten) want that clear since this is world wide internet
thankyou again for this recipe another keeper for sure
Great way to find ingredients to work for you Constance. I really appreciate you sharing that with me. You didn’t cheat… you created!!!! :) Have a blessed weekend, amie sue