Do you fancy a vegan cheesecake that tastes just as good as the dairy version? Then try our simple recipe without tofu.
Cheesecake is one of the most popular desserts. It is characterized by a crispy sweet base and a wonderfully fluffy cheese-quark cream. It is surely impossible to make a good vegan version, after all, the cake lives from the dairy products and the cheese flavor, right ?
You thought wrong. We have found a great recipe that allows you to make the cheesecake without any dairy products at all. It’s so close to the original that others won’t even notice that something is “missing” in the cake. Here comes an ingenious recipe !
Vegan cheesecake : Simple recipe
In most vegan cheesecake recipes, tofu is used to give the cake its usual firmness. Although tofu actually has a fairly neutral taste, it is not popular with everyone. That’s why we don’t use it in our recipe and use soy curd instead of tofu.
To prevent the cheesecake from falling apart when you turn it over, we replace egg with applesauce. The applesauce binds the quark mixture and also gives the cake a nice, sweet taste.
What you need :
For the dough
- 150 g flour
- 40 g sugar
- 1/2 sachet baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- a little cinnamon
- a little vanilla
- 55 g margarine
- 50 g apple puree
For the filling
- 350 g soy quark
- 150 g Soy Cuisine
- 1 tbsp soy flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 30 g cornflour
- a little lemon zest
- a little vanilla
- 35 g sugar
- 40 g margarine
Also
- Pan ∅ 22 cm
And this is how it works :
- Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl and mix together. Melt the margarine in a saucepan and add to the flour bowl together with the applesauce. Work into a dough with your hands or a dough hook. If the dough is too dry, add some more applesauce. In the end, you should get a kind of shortcrust pastry.
- Line a pan with baking paper and spread the dough on it. Press the dough flat on the bottom and raise the edge by about 2 cm.
- Now you can make the filling. Put the soy curd, Soy Cuisine, soy flour, baking powder, cornflour, lemon zest and vanilla in a bowl and mix. Now season the mixture with sugar. The amount of sugar you need depends on your personal taste and whether the soy curd you are using is already sweetened or not.
- Melt the margarine in a saucepan, allow to cool briefly and then stir into the soy curd cream. If the cream is still very liquid, add a little more soy flour.
- Now spread the soy curd cream over the short pastry. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for about an hour.
- Carefully remove the cake from the oven. Do not be surprised: It is still very runny, but that is quite normal. Let it cool overnight and take it out of the pan the next day. The curd mixture should have set by then. So delicious!
Cheesecake with fruit
If you like, you can pimp the cheesecake with fruit or nuts. You have two options. Either add the nuts or fresh fruit to the finished cake or mix it into the filling (after step 4 in the recipe). If you use frozen or canned fruit, remember to drain it well. Otherwise the dough will end up too runny.
Suitable fruits for the cheesecake are, for example :
- Apricots
- Peaches
- Mango
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Bananas
- Rhubarb
If you are not sure which fruit to use, it is best to go for regional and seasonal produce. This is not only good for the environment, but also for your wallet.
Tip : If you don’t like whole pieces of fruit with your cake, you can also make a delicious sauce from the berries. Simply puree the berries and add a little sugar if necessary. You can simply pour the puree over the cake later. Super delicious!