Leftovers Make The Best Desserts

As delicious as the Double Chai Cupcakes are, I think these are even better!

Chai Cheesecake Bites
(makes 3 mini loaf tins/24 mini bites/6 'brownies')

For the base:
75g brazil nuts
75g dates
30g flaked coconut
30g Sweet Freedom (my dates were quite dry - if you use Medjool dates you probably won't need this)

Blitz all the ingredients together then press into 3 mini loaf tins to form a layer approx 1cm thick. Bake for 10 minutes at 170C.

Once the bases are out the oven, leave to cool and then top with leftover chai cream cheese frosting - I told you it was worth making extra for the cupcakes!! You could of course make some cream cheese icing just for these cheesecake bites. I used about 2-3 tbsp of icing per mini loaf tin.

Cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge to set overnight.

I was a bit worried about turning these out this morning as the icing was still quite soft, so I placed them in the freezer for about 15 minutes first. Success!

Phew!

I like desserts in miniature form so that I can eat lots of them, so I cut the first two slabs into 8 pieces each (and ate a few of them before they made it to the tray!)...

These are amazing. I adore the base - slightly chewy, slightly crunchy, with a coconut-brazil flavour running through it. I love that flavour combination. I've already made chocolate-coconut-brazil nut butter, and the base of these cheesecake bites would make great fudge babies/dough balls too I think. However if you have a sweet tooth like me, then they are even better when topped with this icing, I've already eaten over half the batch this morning. Lucky Liam dislikes nuts and coconut so these goodies are just for me!!

For the final cheesecake slab, I just cut it in half to make 'brownies'. I'm not sure why I bothered cutting it differently - it'll all get eaten just as quickly regardless - but it gave me an excuse to take more photos if nothing else!!!

If you have a sweet tooth I suggest you make these right now! Divine. This was how many I had left as I started writing this post - although a few more have been nabbed from the fridge since then!

Yum.

Oh and, completely contradictory to the dessert recipes I've been posting recently, I've just published a page on the blog to keep track of my weight journey. Feel free to ignore it and carry on just reading the main blog, but if you want to encourage me to eat vegetables instead of cheesecake, then head on over there and leave me a shouty comment! Thanks! :)

Off to daughter's school now for their end of term BBQ - summer holidays here we come!! :-D