Pineapple and coconut cheezecake

I've been eating a lot more sweet things since coming back from Thailand, but most of my raw desserts tend to be quite chocolate heavy! As much as I LOVE chocolate I wanted to try to create something a bit different, with more of an exotic fruit vibe, so I invented this cheezecake- raw and vegan but I swear it's MUCH nicer than any dairy based, sugar-laden dessert. This made a really big cheezecake, it filled a 10 inch flan dish. You could double the amount of crust if you wanted a deeper base, but I wanted a deep filling with less crust. It turned out perfectly first time, much to my surprise, so I will make it exactly the same way next time!

Ingredients:

For the filling
3/4 of a ripe pineapple, cut into chunks
1 cup cashews, soaked about 4 hours
I pack pure creamed coconut (the hard block kind that's just coconut, no additives)
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil

For the crust
1 cup walnuts (soaked overnight- about 8 hours)
1/2 cup dates

Topping
4 fresh passionfruits

Method:

1) Put the walnuts and dates in the food processor until it all comes together, almost into a ball. Press this down in a flan or pie dish, so it forms the crust, along the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Put it in the fridge to chill.

2) Mix the coconut with about 200 ml of warm water until it gets to a thick cream consistency. Then put it in the food processor with the pineapple, cashews, coconut sugar, scraped out vanilla seeds and coconut oil. N.B. Add the coconut sugar a bit at a time and taste as you go... you may want to add less or more than I did, dependent on how sweet your pineapple is and how much of a sweet tooth you have. Process it all until you get a smooth cream.

3) Pour the pineapple coconut cream on top of the base in the flan dish and smooth down the top. Put it in the fridge and leave it to chill and set for an hour.

4) Drizzle the passionfruit all over the top.

5) Slice, eat, enjoy!