It’s almost that time, you know. CHRISTMAS TIME. It officially starts on Friday, and I can’t even stand the excitement.
Yes, I’m one of those Christmas people. Yikes.
BUT, at the same time, we need to mourn the loss of pumpkin season. It’s a short-lived and heavily-loved time of year. Caribou stopped carrying my pumpkin latte on Halloween, so I’ve been acclimating to a pumpkin-free world for a while now. Yes, on Halloween, the DAY OF PUMPKINS, they stopped offering pumpkin lattes. Doesn’t that seem wrong? Me thinks so.
So, today, I’m cheersing pumpkin season with a little pumpkin butter love. I think of pumpkin butter as the holy grail condiment of fall, and it seems just SO RIGHT to highlight it for a Thanksgiving dessert.
This recipe is kind of weird. I totally get it. It’s tofu blended with coconut milk but it’s frozen and ice cream-ish with pumpkin butter but it’s cheesecake-ish too, and there’s a graham cracker crust and you’re probably like WHAT IS GOING ON, but I insist that it is totally delicious and worth your while.
The crust is a simple blend of cinnamon graham crackers and coconut oil, which is baked up until golden, and then covered with a super creamy, sweet mix of soft tofu, coconut milk, agave nectar, cane sugar, brandy, salt, and vanilla bean. The agave and brandy keep the mixture from freezing solid, which gives the dessert a smooth ice cream consistency. The crust is crunchy and cinnamon spiced, while the ice cream is smooth and rich, with a little pop of pumpkin butter on top. There’s some fall vanilla bean harmony magic going on.
This recipe is vegan friendly, as long as you use vegan graham crackers and vegan pumpkin butter. The ingredient that usually makes those two ingredients UN-vegan is honey, so you really just want to find some honey-free ingredients if you need these cheesecakes to be vegan. I’ve found some options here and here. You could also make your own pumpkin butter, which I haven’t tried yet, but I’m very intrigued.
Even for the un-vegans, these little cheesecakes are perfectly rich and creamy, and could absolutely pass for a full-dairy dessert. Plus, you can make these ahead of time and just pop them out when you’re ready for a treat. Or, you can take multiple bites of multiple cheesecakes while trying to take the perfect bite picture for your blog.
#reallife #somuchcheesecake
Creamy and rich frozen vanilla bean cheesecakes swirled with pumpkin butter! Dairy free and vegan friendly!
Yield: 12 cheesecakes
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes (plus freezing time)
Nutrition Information: Serving Size: 1 cheesecake, Calories: 303, Sugar: 29.6g, Sodium: 223mg, Fat: 14.3g, Saturated Fat: 10.2g, Carbs: 40.6g, Fiber: 1.3g, Protein: 3.7g