Vegan Cheesecake

[Caitlin]

Wow that sounds good! Does vegan cream cheese taste pretty good? I can't wait to make it!

[cedarblue]

used this yummy recipe (http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/VeganDesserts/chocolate_cheesecake.htm) for daughters birthday tea and all the carnies lapped it up, not realising it was vegan ;)

i also served a vegan birthday cake on another thread, look out for that one too - also lapped up by all :)

[Mr Flibble]

Melt the margarine in the bottom of a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the crushed biscuits. Spread over the base of a 6-8 inch cake tin and place in fridge to chill.

Just as a general comment, from previous experience I've found it's best to blind bake a biscuit case first. It bonds it together a lot better and stops the whole thing falling appart. Margerine is a lot softer than cows milk butter which people adapt recipes from that suggst chilling is enough. Of course, if you add chocolate to the biscuits/margerine mixture it bonds it together even better :D

[Free_Tibet]

Thank you for this recipe :)

Does anyone know if this is good chocolate? http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/chocolate.html

[Mr Flibble]

which?

[Free_Tibet]

Any brand of vegan chocolate which is good and is available either in Australia or online.
Thanks

[Mr Flibble]

Green and blacks (http://www.greenandblacks.com/) is organic, fairtrade and available in au. A lot of their products are labelled suitable for vegans. A little while ago they were bought by Cadbury (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4543583.stm), who I've heard mentioned (no proof thou, just gossip) have pretty lax rules on where they get their cocoa from. Until I find more evidence of this though Cadbury arn't on my personal boycott list (not that they sell any vegan products I know of now since the last ingrediants revision of Bournville about 2 years ago - i'll never understand dark chocolate with milk in (other than to mask the taste of crap cocoa/lack if cocoa butter)). Cadbury have said however that whilst they own Green and Blacks, the company's original ethics manefesto will remain the same (ie fair trade and organic) and it will be operated as a seperate business.

[StmpyElephant]

It's all about sweetwilliam baby.

sweetwilliam.com.au

If Cadbury bought out the company doesn't that mean they will get the profits? If so ...hmmm. I don't want to support Cadbury.

[flojo]

hi!
just wondering if anyone has a cheesecake recipe (just an ordinary lemon one, not the chocolate or fruit type and not the baked type either) that they have tried and definitely works?
i can't get vegan creamcheese here, so it can't have that in it.
also, i've got heaps of vegan cookbooks and i've tried a few cheesecake recipes that turned out good tasting but not rich enough, if you know what i mean.
so i'd love to hear if you've got a recipe that you've tried and is great.
flo http://veganforum.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

[lolamako]

Hmm, thats hard without vegan cream cheese. Not baked?? Well the one this one is baked....I mabye if you messed around with the liquid content you would not have to bake it? use this or other recipies as jumping off points, just "feel" it out you can tell when you have the texture right.

OHHH, heres an idea. soak some cashews overnight then process them(the best is in a champion juicer) and youll get a thick goo/butter. You can process this with the tofu and it will thicken it up and make it richer. Ive made a tofu cream at work like this and it is amazing!

I know you dont want a baked one but here is one I have been wanting to try, but still havent gotten around to it.

If you do try it please let me know what it was like:

Very Vegetarian by Jannequin Bennett (its a vegan cook book though*shrug*)

Oven 275 8-12 servings(probably super small)

1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 C toasted wheat germ

1/2 C ground almonds

2 T margarine

2 T oil

Pinch salt

mix all till it resembles crumbs, press into the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch spring form pan(I would use a pie tin if I didnt have a spring form) Lightly grease sides of pan.

2 Lbs silken tofu

1 C sugar

1/2 C maple syrup

1/4 C oil

1/2 C soymilk

2 T cornstarch or 1/4 all-purpose flour

1 1/2 T lemon juice

2 T orange juice or water

Zest of 1 orange or lemon

2 T Grand Marnier

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Press tofu of excess water.

In a blender or food processor puree tofu, sugar, maple syrup, and oil. When its quite smooth add remaining ingredients and puree again.

pour into crust and bake in center of oven for 15 min. Then insert a dinner knife between the cake and the pan. Slide the knife around the perimeter of the pan to separate the cake from the side of the pan. This will make it easier to remove the cake later.

Repeat this a few times during baking. Cake is done when the center stops jiggling. About 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

Allow to cool and then flip it out, if it doesnt come out the you can place it on a burner on a VERY low heat for a about 30 seconds and try again.

[flojo]

thanks for that - it looks lovely.
i actually made a pretty similar one a couple of days ago. can you believe, in the last four days i've made THREE cheesecakes!!! all in the quest for the perfect one (my family/friends/aquaintances/office-mates are all sick of cheesecake now! :D )
the first one i made was really nice, a baked one, but didn't taste 'cheesy' enough. the second one i put heaps of strawberries in and was almost perfect but not rich enough. the third one was like a mix between custard tasting & cheese but too sloppy. i think this one will have to be frozen - that always seems to rectify any problem with desserts - just freeze it!
anyway, cheers for the recipe. i should post my little trial ones so that you can all tell me what i did wrong! ha ha
have a nice day :)

[Cherry]

Hello

Hope you manage to perfect your cheesecake Flojo.

Lolamako - do you have a good recipe for a lemon cheesecake that does have creamcheese? It would be much appreciated. :)

I usually use half silken tofu and half cream cheese, but I don't think it would set enough without chocolate in it so I haven't been brave enough to attempt a lemon one yet.

[Cherry]

I made the following for my hometown's first ever vegan festival and it was devoured faster than you could say"A slice of that chocolate cheesecake please"
http://www.parsleysoup.co.uk/VeganDesserts/chocolate_cheesecake.htm

Hey, that's my recipe :) Cool.

That's a very good tip about the chocolate IN the biscuit base Mr Flibble. Think that may have to be done.

[Mr Flibble]

this book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571138209/202-7230928-4075048) (published in 1986 and what I view to be the granddaddy of vegan recipe books) has a good lemon cheesecake recipe in it based on silken tofu which is easy to make. I've only tried it the once, and it was several years ago, but if memory serves it was pretty good. I tend to only make chocolate cheesecakes these days :)

[Cherry]

I've put it on my wishlist. Thanks :)

[Mr Flibble]

The recipes in it are all very old school (what with being from the 80s and all) and tend to be not very exciting, but they're well researched, have a tendancy to work as they should and I know several others who feel the same way about it.

[Mr Flibble]

That's a very good tip about the chocolate IN the biscuit base Mr Flibble. Think that may have to be done.

More chocolate, need more chocolate. A layer of chocolate fudge on the top of a chocolate cheesecake is also recomended :)

[Cherry]

Mmmm.

[lolamako]

I have :

Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dierterly

Now, some of the recipes are total flops, but we did this one last thanksgiving and HOLY SH*T it was sooooo good. I am a cheesecake nut so it better be real BAD, rich, fat, creamy, all the good stuff. I would make this more often but it was really expensive with all the tofutti cream cheeses..

so here you go:

New York-Style Cheesecake

oven 375 coat one 9 inch springform pan with oil

Crust-(I didnt make the crust and I think that the one in the other recipe sounds better)

1/2 C maple syrup

1/4 C canola oil

1 3/4 C whole wheat flour

1/2 t vanilla

(this is more like a pie crust and I would prefer a graham craker crust, Ive heard health valley makes a vegan one)

Blend all in a food processor or hand mix ina bowl. Press into pan prick with a fork and bake for 10 min. Reduce oven to 350 and set crust aside

Filling-(this is where it gets good)

4 8oz containers soy cream cheese

1 box (12 ounces) firm silken tofu

1 C granulated sugar

1 t vanilla

1/3 C unbleached white flour

(I think that you could add lemon extract? for the lemon flavor, and for the top make a lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch or agar agar and lemon zest, lime might be good too, syrup like topping)

Blend cream cheese and tofu in a food processor until smooth, add sugar, and blend again. Add flour and vanilla blend again. Pour into crust. Place on top rack of oven. place a shallow pan filled with water on the bottom rack of oven.

Bake for 50 minutes.

There is a topping for this but I really dont think it sounds good at all. You can always do whatever kinda topping you want.

[flojo]

not fair!!!!!!

i've got that book too - true some are flops - but haven't tried the cheesecake because i can't get vegan cream cheese here! :(
have you tried the jelly donuts? i wanted to try them in the weekend, but bit nervous with that book - some of the recipes are REALLY dodgy.

[DianeVegan]

Okay, I have that book too and have only made one recipe. Please tell me which are flops so I don't waste time making them. Please?!? :)

[Lily]

I also have that book and haven't tried anything from it yet, so I'd also appreciate knowing which recipes not to try :)

[flojo]

ok, heres the flops - cherry, cherry not contrary cake has a weird taste (maybe the chickpea flour?), choc chip cookies are just gross, no wet ingredients and fluffy mint frosting is like glue.
i've read that maybe there are a few kinks in the recipes that can be ironed out, but i've got lots of other books that have better recipes that i can rely on, so i'm not really willing to go through any more stuff-ups.
i can honestly recommend 'The Artful Vegan' - Tucker, which has an awesome german choc cake recipe (lot of the recipes look like heaps of work, but they break down into smaller parts and you don't have to do all of it because those recipes stand alone as well). i can also recommend 'Everyday Vegan' - Burton, the more-ish brownies are the best i've ever tasted, honestly, i ended up making them four times in a fortnight!

[Mr Flibble]

i can honestly recommend 'The Artful Vegan' - Tucker, which has an awesome german choc cake recipe (lot of the recipes look like heaps of work, but they break down into smaller parts and you don't have to do all of it because those recipes stand alone as well).

Nice book, but I wouldn't recomend it for anyone outside the US who wants a recipe book they can just pick off the shelf and follow instructions. Tucker is passionate about using local fresh organic ingrediants, which I can definately understand, but this makes it a lot harder for people who don't have access to these to make most of the recipes. I like food and it is a good book from what I can tell, but I haven't been able to sample many of their recipes the way they were meant to be made, only my semi educated adaptations.

[flojo]

but i ordered this in from the US and i'm in Australia, and haven't had a problem at all! you really just need an asian mini-mart/deli and fresh ingredients. also, a wholesale place that sells spices/flours/dried fruit/nuts etc is great - we've got one of those up the road too. so i suppose it wouldn't be a good book if you weren't near any of those places.