Vegan Cheese Cake

Last week was my mother’s 7th year memorial. Wow… In any case, one of the things I miss the most is my Mommy’s cooking. My favorites were always the desserts she made. And of those, cheesecakes always starred. I love cheesecake in general, and along with real ice cream it’s one of the things I miss most since becoming vegan almost five years ago. Check out this great recipe for Vegan NY Cheesecake. It may fall short of the real thing but it’s the closest I have found in these last five years. It’s a lot of work – but so are most of my Mom’s best recipes. Anyway, as far as vegan cakes go it’s worth it!

Ingredients

Cookie Crust

· 5.3 oz Vegan Cookies 150g

· ⅓ cup vegan butter 75g, melted

Cheesecake filling

· 850g vegan cream cheese e.g. Tofutti

· 1 can coconut cream 400ml, or another non-dairy cream

· 1 cup sugar 200g

· 4 tbsp. cornstarch

· 1 tbsp. vanilla extract

· juice of 1/2 lemon

Raspberry Strawberry Sauce

· 150g frozen raspberries

· 150g frozen strawberries

· 2 tbsp. corn starch dissolved in 2 tbsp water

· 2 tbsp. sugar or to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 175°C. Lightly grease an 20cm springform pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
2. Add the cookies into a food processor and crush until fine crumbs.
3. Combine the crumbs with melted butter and stir to combine.
4. Transfer the mixture into your prepared springform pan and press firmly into the bottom of the pan. Set aside while you make the filling

Cheesecake filling

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Then mix in coconut cream, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Pour the cheesecake filling over the cookie crust, spreading out evenly.
3. Wrap the outside of the pan with a double layer of aluminum foil, covering the bottom and the sides. Place the wrapped pan in a larger baking pan and pour in about 1,5 inch of hot water. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour.
4. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for another hour. Then open the oven door and allow to cool to room temperature. (Don’t worry if the cheesecake is still wobbly because it will set in the fridge.)
5. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and, carefully, remove the foil. Place in the fridge overnight to set completely before removing from the pan.

Raspberry Strawberry Sauce

1. In a pot, thaw and puree the fruits. Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little water, then stir into the fruit puree. Bring to a boil again while stirring, and cook for 1-2 minutes until thickened. Let cool as it will thicken up more.
2. Serve your cheesecake with the sauce and enjoy!

If you can’t find non-dairy cream in the store, you can chill 2 cans full-fat coconut milk overnight, then scrape the solid cream off the top, discarding the liquid.

If using fresh fruits to make the sauce, you may need less corn starch.