Vegan lemon cheesecake
Vegan lemon cheesecake
Are you guys ready to put your feet up? I certainly am. This past week has been manic and we have had a big health scare, which turned out to be a false alarm luckily but it did stress us both out no end, caused some unpleasant emotions and disrupted sleep so I am not feeling my best. After I hit publish on this recipe, I intend to do nothing (well, less at least) for a week. I need a little breather from recipe creation so that my brain can switch off a little.
As it’s Easter and my last recipe was savoury, today I’ve decided to tackle a bit of an Easter classic – baked cheesecake. As it’s spring and spring for some reason makes many people crave lemons – it’s a curious thing, isn’t it as not only do they not grow in our part of the world, but even where they do it’s not until late summer – so I made a lemon cheesecake. Even though I am more of a chocolate, coffee and nuts kind of dessert person, I do love this cheesecake!
It’s delicate and creamy, with a deliciously crisp base that has little hints of salt. You can have it as is or if you are feeling flamboyant, make a bit of a warm blueberry sauce to top it with. It’s divine. You can also pop some blueberries into the cheesecake as it bakes if you like a bit of a blueberry treasure hunt while you eat. Whatever you do, please make it as it’s super easy to make and it’s to die for, I promise.
- 1 tbsp psyllium husks (for GF version only)
- 100 g / 1 cup almond flour
- 125 g / 1 cup GF flour mix (I used this one) or regular all purpose flour
- 50 g / ¼ cup caster sugar or coconut sugar
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 65-75 g / 5-6 tbsp odourless coconut oil or vegan butter, melted
CHEESECAKE
- 200 g / 1½ cups raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes
- 120 ml / ½ cup oat milk (or other)
- zest of 2 lemons + 90 ml / 6 tbsp lemon juice
- 250 g / 8¾ oz silken tofu
- 125 g / ¾ cup icing sugar or ground up coconut sugar
- ½ tsp lemon extract (optional)
- 2 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- a generous pinch of turmeric (for colour)
- a generous pinch of kala namak (black salt) or regular salt
- 16 g / 2 tbsp tapioca starch
TOPPINGS
- fresh blueberries
- dollops of vegan meringue or vegan whipped cream
- If making GF version, mix psyllium husks with 30 ml / 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl and set aside to hydrate.
- Place almond flour, GF or regular flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Add in melted fat and, if making a GF crust, activated psyllium to the dry ingredients and use a little less fat (I found 5 tbsp of melted coconut oil to be sufficient). Rub them into the dry ingredients with your fingers. The mixture should resemble slightly moist crumb by the end.
- Grease the baking tin (I used a round 20 cm / 8″ springform tin) and line the bottom and the sides with baking paper.
- Using your hands, spread the crumb on the base of your tin and mould it to the bottom and a little to the side using your fingers. Compress the crust using a flat bottomed glass over a piece of baking paper. Pierce the bottom with a fork in a few places.
- Bake in a 180° C / 355° F oven for 30 minutes. Allow it to cool.
CHEESECAKE
- Place drained cashews, oat milk, lemon juice and lemon zest in an upright blender. Blend until the mixture is super smooth and there are no lumps or visible grain.
- Next, add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth again.
- Pour the mixture over the pre-baked base. Tap the tin against the workbench a few times to burst any air bubbles in the mixture as they will cause cracks after baking.
- Bake in a 160° C / 320° F oven for about 40-45 minutes – it’s ready when the sides are set, but the middle is still a bit wobbly. Cool completely (overnight is best) before cutting.
- Decorate with blueberries and dollops of vegan meringue or vegan whipped cream. Once cut, store leftovers in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 5 days.
I intend to bake this cheesecake for Christmas since all your recipes have been a hit, no exception!
I was wondering if it would be possible to use ground almonds instead of almond flour?
thank you!
Sure, you can - just make sure they are ground quite finely. Hope you'll enjoy this one too. x Ania
I am looking to replace sugar with dates, soaked in water and blended. Should I keep the same quantities? Would it work?
Thank you for your work 🥰
Yes, it should work but a few pointers. Firstly, the colour will change into brown-ish so be prepared for that. Secondly, I would soak them in warmed up oatmilk used in this recipe as you do not want to introduce any additional moisture or the cheesecake will be too soft. I would do that and then blend them into the tofu. x Hope this helps! Ania
PS: something else I thought of: if there is too many dates to soak them in only just 120 ml of oat milk, you could simply soak them in water, squeeze out well and not add any oat milk to the cheesecake mixture and that would hopefully give you a firm enough texture.
Cheesecake, any cheesecake not just vegan, relies on fat for its creamy, melt-in-the-mouth texture. This is why I've suggested extracting coconut cream as it's closer in fat content to cashews, however, if you feel like experimenting feel free to try full fat coconut milk but be aware than you mean need a bit more cornstarch or else the cheesecake may end up not firm enough. Thin milk will definitely not work, I'm afraid. Lemon juice is used for flavour mainly, but also to replicate tang that you get from using dairy cheese. Hope this helps. Ania
Have I missed something about coconut cream? doesn't seem to be in the recipe. Its says oat milk, so I'm not sure what you mean by "thin milk won't work" ?
If you look carefully, you'll see that the same reader asked me, in a separate comment, if she can make this recipe without cashews so I suggested coconut cream. You are correct, the recipe calls for oat milk and that's what I used in the cheesecake you can see in photos. Hope this puts your mind at rest. Ania
You could use coconut cream (obtained from a full fat coconut milk by chilling the can for a few days) instead but you may need to use a little more cornstarch too or bake for a little longer. I have only tested tofu version so you'll need to try and see what adjustments are needed. Hope this helps! Ania
I made it yesterday morning. The crust was fine. It didn't need any baking stones or rice.
I knew my dark coconut sugar would turn the tart brown, but I used it anyway because I had nothing else.
Everything was fine otherwise. Texture is solid and tastes just like lemon cheesecake.
I let it cool down in the kitchen then transferred to the fridge for further setting up.
We had a slice last night. Perfect!
Baci
Silvi
No, I didn't find there was any need for that - the middle may bulge up a little but just gently push it back down whilst still warm. The key is to compress the mixture really well before baking. I did test with baking beads once and a lot of the 'pastry' got stuck to the paper underneath so I think it's easier not to use them. Hope this helps! Ania
Do you think I could replace the all purpose mix worth a combination of gf flours like rice flour and some more starch? And did you prebake the meringue and then just put it on top?
Thanks!
You only need that if you are making GF version of the curst. I'm pretty sure that chia egg or flax egg should work also but I have not had the time to test that. Hope it works out. Ania
Yes, olive oil (I recommend mild variety) should work well in the crust. You *should* be okay texturewise to replace, BUT the tofu flavour is likely to come through - my ratios conceal it completely. Hope this helps! Ania
I feel like you meant to leave this comment under the cabbage rolls recipe? If so, I used white jasmine rice (brown takes much longer to cook so needs to be precooked). White cabbage is fine too. Hope this helps! x Ania