Soak your cashews overnight making sure to fill bowl with plenty of water as cashews expand quite a bit. If you don’t have time, soak at least 2-3 hours. The longer you soak them, the smoother the consistency.
Place all crust ingredients in a food processor, blender or high speed blender and pulse until nuts and dates are chopped well.
Drop 3 spoonfuls of crust mixture in each section of a muffin tin, making sure to place on top of parchment strips if using. Press down until mixture is firm and creates a crust like bottom layer.
Next, put all filling ingredients in a food processor, blender or high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. If you are not using a high speed blender, then you will have to blend for a while to get a smooth consistency but eventually you will. When I use my food processor it takes about 5-7 minutes.
Put 3 spoonfuls of filling on top of the crust layer in the muffin tins. You may need to add more, depending on your tins. You want the filling layer to be about ¼ to ½ inch from the top of the tin. Then sprinkle some coconut palm sugar over the top of each cup.
Freeze overnight for best results, or for at least 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve, but not much longer or they may get too soft.
Meanwhile, to make the optional garnish, take the can of coconut milk out of the refrigerator and open it.
Using a spoon, remove the harder white thick layer from the top, reserving the clear coconut water for a later use if you want. It makes a great addition to smoothies! Using a hand or stand mixer, mix the coconut cream layer with the rest of the ingredients until light and fluffy.
Once they are frozen and ready, pull up each cheesecake cup with the parchment paper tabs and place on a serving platter.
Use a small spoon to top each cheesecake cup with a dollop of coconut cream, sprinkle with a touch of cinnamon and place a piece of cinnamon stick on top. This is all for décor so remember that it is optional. Enjoy!
Notes
Before I start, I cut strips of parchment paper (about ½ inch wide and 4-6 inches long) to put under each cheesecake cup.
This makes tab-like sides that you can pull up easily when removing them and so that the dessert cups don’t fall apart. The coconut oil is optional, but the consistency will be a little bit different if you leave it out.
You can also sub another sweetener for the dates and date paste, but again consistency may be different.
I used some coconut palm sugar in the filling instead of all date paste, purely because I wanted to hit that signature churro flavor of sugar mixed with cinnamon, but if you wanted to you could use all date paste.
For the coconut cream garnish, you can also use a sweetener of choice. Date paste is light and fluffy so works well as a sweetener as far as texture goes, whereas something liquid like maple syrup may affect the fluffiness of the coconut cream. But the taste will still be great!
The garnishes are all optional so if you’re short on time, leave them out. Or you can even just use store bought whipped cream, still delicious!