One of the greatest perks of being a food blogger is the generosity of others who share delicious food with me!
Friends and family with gardens always offer their labours of love for the picking, clients bring me goodies, and every now and then complete strangers pass along some yummy treats… like these plums!
A co-worker of my hubby, whom I’ve never met, brought a massive, and I mean massive, bag of plums to his work for me! He heard I was a food blogger and happens to have a plum tree that is bursting with fresh, sweet, beautiful plums!
Thank you Mr. Plum man!! If you happen to read this – you ROCK!
Plums provide a nice punch-in-the-face of vitamin C, are loaded with antioxidants, digestion boosting soluble fibre, and are super low on the glycemic index so they are great for those with blood sugar issues!
So, when I got this plethora of plums I instantly started brainstorming. How would I use these ripe beauties in a healthy, NITK worthy recipe?
I took to Pinterest for inspiration and scrolled through a mass of plum filled recipes and after all of my searching I settled on a mini, grain-free, dairy-free, tart-like, roasted-plum-compote-covered-cheesecakey-thingy!
Ha! I love how one idea sparks another, which sparks another, then after some testing, trial, (the odd error), and finally a win in the kitch, a new delicious recipe is born!
I love the idea of dairy-free cheesecake. Since I discovered I had a dairy intolerance almost two years ago I’ve had to really dive into the world of dairy-free, and while I do have to admit I miss cheese on occasion, I’ve pretty much found a suitable, healthy, dairy-free substitute for everything dairy that I used to enjoy!
Also, one blessing in disguise of a dairy-free diet is that most junky desserts out there (the ones with lots of refined sugars, loads of butter or cream, and white flours) I can’t have anyways – so it’s kind of easy to say No! But, I do of course, get a craving for a sweet, rich dessert once in a while, so in those instances, I make my own!
These Honey Roasted Plum & Vanilla Cheesecakes definitely do the trick!
Whole, healthy, and naturally sweet ingredients all blend wonderfully to create this very Fall appropriate dessert… one that might even make the menu for Thanksgiving this year??
I’ll have to see! There’s always dairy-free pumpkin pie too!
Ok… so maybe both??
Are you a fan of plums? How do you opt to use them in recipes? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
- For the Cheesecake Base:
- ¼ cup coconut cream
- heaping ¼ cup raw cashews
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla
- For the Honey Roasted Plum Layer:
- 8-10 small plums (a mixture of different kinds or just one kind is fine)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- For the Crumble Topping:
- ¼ cup pitted dates
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 2 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp room temperature coconut oil
- 2 tsp natural almond butter
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper and place plums on the pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of honey and sprinkle ½ tsp cinnamon.
- Roast for 10-12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, line a muffin tin with 6 cupcake liners.
- Blend the cheesecake base ingredients in a blender until smooth.
- Pour the mixture evenly between the cupcake liners.
- Place muffin tin in the freezer for 30 minutes to set. The cheesecake base should be firm to the touch when removed.
- Once the plums are roasted, remove the pan from the oven and mash plums with a fork, mixing together to make a compote consistency. Place the plum mixture in the freezer with the cheesecakes to cool until the cheesecake bases are set.
- While the plum mixture is cooling, prepare the crumble topping by pulsing all ingredients in a blender until crumbly and slightly sticky.
- Remove the cheesecake bases and plum mixture from the freezer and divide the plum mixture evenly among the liners to top the cheesecake base.
- Evenly sprinkle the crumble topping over the plum mixture for each cheesecake.
- Place the pan back in the freezer for another 10-20 minutes then serve.
- Store in the freezer if consuming at a later time. You'll need to let the cheesecakes thaw slightly (about 10 minutes) before serving.
Have a lovely rest of the week!
Christal
Nutrition in the Kitch
I remember my granny had a plum tree, and it produced the sweetest and juiciest plums there ever was 🙂 They taste nothing like the ones in the shop. These chessecakes looks and sounds absolutely stunning Christal! I’m attempting a less healthy cheese cake for a birthday party this weekend, but as a weekday treat, these look perfect – scratch that – even for party times 😀
Aw, that must have been nice getting fresh plums from your granny’s tree! I hope your cheesecake for the birthday party went well this weekend! 🙂
First time to comment here,
The plum cheesecake looks absolutely marvelous!
Thank you for sharing this, and so I shared the page with my health conscious friends online,too.
Just got curious to ask a question … when you mentioned that you ” discovered I had a dairy intolerance almost two years ago” – Do you have any allergic reaction to cheese and dairy foods, like Yogurt ?Is it how you figure out if you have an intolerance to dairy food? Thank you
Thanks for commenting Yoshimi! Glad to have you on the blog! Yes, I was having digestive symptoms that were very persistent so I narrowed it down to dairy products and as soon as I eliminated them from my diet the symptoms literally disappeared!! I haven’t intentionally had diary since and my digestion has been wonderful! Every now and then I might accidentally have some and I notice it the next day because those same symptoms come back!
Whatever you call them, they look awesome. I find plums to be hit or miss when eaten raw but roasting definitely brings out their yumminess.
Absolutely! It brings out the natural sweetness for sure! 🙂
Haha, Christal! You made me laugh out loud with “Thank you Mr. Plum Man!” 🙂
But seriously these look delish! Maybe you SHOULD bring them to Thanksgiving Dinner this year? *hint hint* 😉
Lol! I just might have to!