luscious lemon un~cheesecake

a few days ago i attempted a recipe in the THRIVE book for lemon sesame crisps...i over baked them however and altho tasty, i had this idea that they would be much better as part of a crumb crust base for some sort of dessert rather than the cookie like crackers they would have been if i had not over crisped them : ) i found THIS RECIPE for a raw lemon cheesecake and modified it as follows. you need to soak your nuts for the cheesecake part so it does take some planning ahead but it is well worth the wait!

*lemon sesame crisps*

2/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon zest
2 tbsp dulse flakes
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

~process all ingredients. lightly oil a baking sheet with coconut oil. spread mixture over tray to desired thickness. score with knife to mark desired crisp size. bake 20 min in a 300* oven. remove. let cook and harden before breaking up.

so, i baked this according to the baking directions for the other cracker recipes in the book, which was for 30 minutes....and then left them in even longer than that. i am sure that even if baked according to directions, they could still be used to make a delicious crust for the dessert : ) i am also sure that you could even just mix the above ingredients with the following to make a crust and bake it for 20-30 min @ 300* in a spring form pan and that that would eliminate a whole step!

i crumbled up my botched batch of lemon sesame crisps and combined them with...
1/2 cup ground flaxseeds
3/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
and 1/2-3/4 cup date paste (soak a couple handfuls of pitted dates in hot water for 15 minutes or so, remove and blend into a paste, reserve soaking water to use for the cheesecake filling.)

i pressed this into the bottom of a greased 9" spring form pan.

to make the "cheese"cake filling, i combined the following ingredients in my blender...

2 cups raw macadamia nuts, soaked overnight in water (raw cashew nuts would work as well)
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup agave nectar
a few drops of liquid stevia
1/8 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of the water that was used to soak the dates
blend 'til smooth and then pour into the spring form pan. place the whole thing in the freezer for @ least an hr. garnish the top with a little extra flaked coconut and some lemon zest if you'd like.

manje!