As you may know, I’ve made vegan cheesecake a few times. Every time I’ve made cheesecake, however, I have never made my own crust. This month’s Daring Baker’s challenge has given me the motivation and opportunity to make my own crust, which I think turned out great.

Without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake

Shortbread Crust

• 1 cup vegan butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, cream vegan butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir together flour and baking powder, then add and blend into your vegan butter mixture.

If you are using a springform/cheesecake pan, trace and then cut a circle of parchment paper based upon the base of the pan, then brush canola oil or vegan butter on the pan, press the parchment on top and then brush oil or vegan butter on the parchment. You may also use a regular pie pan and forgo the parchment.

Press the shortbread dough into the bottom of the springform or pie pan. You may have extra dough which you can keep for another recipe. Once it’s in the pan, take a fork and poke a few holes into the dough.

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.

Once it’s cool enough to handle, grease the sides of the springform pan with butter so that the cheesecake won’t stick.

Filling

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
• 1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan milk
• 6 squares dark chocolate (I used the Trader Joe’s brand)
• 5 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Drain the tofu and put it and the Tofutti cream cheese into your food processor. Blend until smooth.

Add the sugar and milk, and process again until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except chocolate and peanut butter) and process until completely smooth, about 3 more minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove, or in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish.

You currently have about three cups of cheesecake batter. Pour one cup into a separate bowl, and pour another cup into another separate bowl. Add the melted chocolate to the one cup of cream that remains in your blender or food processor and mix until the chocolate is well incorporated.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie crust. Then spread it out so it is an even layer. Place in the fridge as you prepare your peanut butter layer.

Add the peanut butter, one tablespoon at a time, and one cup of plain cheesecake batter back into your blender or food processor (clean) and blend again until completely smooth. You may want to taste test at this point to make sure that the peanut butter flavor is strong enough. If not, add one tablespoon of peanut butter, blend, then taste test again. Continue in this way until you are satisfied with the flavor.

Pour the peanut butter mixture into the pie crust on top of the chocolate mixture layer, and spread it around carefully so as to not mix the two layers together. Chill in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Finally pour the last layer on top, which is the plain batter. Again, spread as carefully as you can to make sure it’s even and doesn’t mix with the next layer.

If you are using a springform pan, wrap the pan in several layers of foil, then place in a pan that is a little larger. Pour boiling water in the outer pan. This is a water bath, which helps the cheesecake to bake more evenly and the foil makes it so the water does not seep into the cheesecake. Finally, place the cheesecake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes (do not allow to brown). Filling will be slightly jiggly, not completely set until chilled.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled (the longer, the better).

So finally, what you should end up with is a three layered cake:

If you want the layers to be more even, I’m thinking that chilling in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes after adding each individual layer would help. I didn’t do this, but chilling the first layer for a few minutes did seem to help a tiny bit.

I think that this cheesecake turned out nicely. It had a delicate flavor and it was a more balanced cheesecake than some of the ones I’ve made in the past. Overall I’m pretty pleased with the results and would probably make this exact version again.

Have you made vegan cheesecake? How do you think it compares to the original dairy version?

A few years ago I worked as a receptionist at a fine stringed instruments dealer. It was a very interesting cultural experience, because we sold extremely expensive violins, violas and cellos to people with a good deal of money. It was, and has been so far, my only true exposure to this slice of the music industry. It was also a very interesting and enjoyable foray into fine chocolates, desserts and other culinary delights. This was prior to my swearing off of cheese, milk and other dairy items, so I’ll confess that I had quite a few non-vegan experiences (and one non-vegetarian one, which I didn’t realize until later – um yeah, imitation crab is still real fish, FYI).

Whenever it was someone’s birthday, or a staff person was leaving for greener pastures, or because we all needed a good morale booster someone would pop over to Soutine, a lovely little bakery on the Upper West Side, and grab, more often than not, a flourless chocolate cake. It was spectacular. (If you are not a vegan or a part-time one at least, and if you are ever in NYC, you must have a dessert from Soutine. Otherwise, you definitely must have a dessert from Babycakes, which has many wonderful vegan and gluten-free desserts. It’s located in the Chinatown/Little Italy region of Manhattan.)

So when I saw what this month’s Daring Bakers challenge was, I thought back to the days of endless classical music and to those moments filled with dessert, wine and workplace camaraderie. Then after wondering how on earth I was supposed to veganize something that relies mostly on eggs, I encountered a technically vegan flourless chocolate cake from a fellow Daring Baker and vegan, Hannah of BitterSweet. I had to try her recipe, Daring Bakers challenge or no solely because of the fact that the base of the recipe is black-eyed peas. Using legumes in place of flour seemed most unusual, but intriguing to me, and I ventured ahead.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake
This recipe comes from Hannah of BitterSweet

• 2 cups black-eyed peas, cooked
• 1 12-ounce package extra-firm silken tofu
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder (note that I left this out)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt

If you are cooking the black-eyed peas yourself, you can soak the peas overnight, then give them a good rinse before cooking them for a couple of hours (only cook in plain water – do not add salt!). At that point, check them to make sure that they are fully cooked.

Once they are done, give them a good rinse.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan or a 9-inch springform pan.

Toss both the black-eyed peas and the tofu into your food processor or blender, and let it run until the mixture is completely smooth.

Give it a good long time to work, since it would be rather unpleasant to find any whole beans in your cake.

Add in the sugar and coffee powder, and pulse to combine.

Separately, melt the chocolate and stir well until smooth before adding into the blender or food processor.

Once you’ve added the chocolate to the blender or food processor, let it run for a minute until fully incorporated. Unfortunately I was finding it difficult to get it well blended in a blender, so I had to switch to our food processor.

Scrape down the sides to make sure you aren’t missing anything, and give it another minute to process. Finally, add the cocoa, coffee powder, baking powder, soda, and salt, and pulse to combine.

Pour and then spread the mixture into your prepared pan, leveling off the top with your spatula as best you can.

Bake for 60 – 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let it cool completely in the pan before serving.

I was surprised, but you can’t taste the peas. You’d think you would be able to, but if you think about it, you can’t really taste flour in regular cakes or desserts. You’re tasting a whole host of ingredients that harmonize together to offer up a sweet sensation. I will say, though, that this tasted best on the first day, and after that it did become a little dry. It also needed some sort of vegan vanilla ice cream or coconut sorbet, but I didn’t have any on hand (it’s so expensive these days!). Still, we can’t help but help ourselves when we have chocolate dessert sitting around, waiting to be eaten. This is why this cake is now just a memory. ;)

I’m now very inspired to find other dessert recipes that utilize beans as a base. We’ve noticed lately that flour has gone up in price significantly, yet dry beans still remain pretty cheap. Therefore it seems that it is probably less expensive, and potentially more healthy to use beans in place of flour. (I can’t imagine it being a 1:1 ratio, however.) Anyone know of any good recipes?

One year ago we embarked on the vegan cheesecake quest. It was my husband’s birthday and I made him a cheesecake from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. We didn’t love that first cheesecake, but the texture was there, as well as the creaminess. It seemed that we had a mission. My husband had that gleam in his eyes that he sometimes gets when he sees a worthy challenge set before him. This year it’s a different gleam, because now peanut butter has entered the picture and we’ve both realized that the possible flavors are endless.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake
Many thanks to Susan at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen for giving a wonderful base for vegan cheesecake.

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
• 1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan milk
• 1/4 or 1/3 lb. dark chocolate Note that after two or three chocolate cheesecakes, we would recommend reducing the amount of chocolate – our original recommendation was 1 lb. but that really makes it too rich and overwhelming.
• 5 Tbsp. peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 prepared graham cracker crust, vegan

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drain the tofu and put it and the Tofutti cream cheese into your food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the sugar and milk, and process again until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except chocolate and crust) and process until completely smooth, about 3 more minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe container to a point that it is soft enough to blend with the other ingredients. You can also melt it on the stove in a double boiler.

Pour half of your blended cream into a seperate bowl and then fold in the chocolate until it is fully incorporated. Pour the chocolate mixture into the pie crust.

Add the peanut butter to your remaining cream mixture and blend again until completely smooth. You may want to taste test at this point to make sure that the peanut butter flavor is strong enough. If not, add one tablespoon of peanut butter, blend, then taste test again. Continue in this way until you are satisfied with the flavor.

Pour the peanut butter mixture into the pie crust on top of the chocolate mixture layer and bake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes (do not allow to brown). Filling will be slightly jiggly, not completely set until chilled.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled (the longer, the better).

Look at this cheesecake. It doesn’t look vegan, and it certainly doesn’t taste it either. I can’t say it tastes like regular cheesecake, but let me tell you – it is so good you’ll forget you’re eating products that never came out of a cow. I’ve tried other vegan variations and they don’t even come close to the flavor and texture of this.

So happy birthday, my dear. What shall we try next time? Hmmm?

Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake
Based heavily on Fatfree Vegan Kitchen’s Vegan Eggnog Cheesecake — When I originally made her recipe, I didn’t eliminate the “eggnog” associated ingredients (aside from the vegan eggnog), which is probably why we didn’t like it as neither one of us are fans of eggnog.

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
• 1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk (he used hazelnut milk this time around)
• 1 lb. dark chocolate (he used Trader Joe’s)
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 prepared graham cracker crust (he used chocolate this time)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drain the tofu and put it and the Tofutti cream cheese into your food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the sugar and milk, and process again until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (except chocolate and crust) and process until completely smooth, about 3 more minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe container to a point that it is soft enough to blend with the other ingredients. You can also melt it on the stove in a double boiler.

At this point you need to decide if you want a cheesecake that is completely chocolate or half chocolate and half plain cheesecake. If you choose to do the first add the chocolate to your blended ingredients and blend again until the chocolate has been fully incorporated into the mixture. If you choose to do the latter, then pour half of the blended mixture into a separate container (or straight into your pie crust if you want plain on the bottom and chocolate on top), and then blend the chocolate with the remaining half that is still in the blender.

Pour the blended mixture(s) into the pie crust and bake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes (do not allow to brown). Filling will be slightly jiggly, not completely set until chilled.

Remove from oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled (the longer, the better).

We only allowed this to chill for probably 2-4 hours before we had a piece. The texture was still soft, and it was smooth. The flavor was rich – I imagine it was enhanced by the hazelnut milk that we used, and if you have ever tried Nutella you’ll recall that it is a chocolate-like spread made with hazelnuts.

After letting the remainder chill overnight we had a much denser cake:

I think that there are two key things to making a vegan cheesecake. First, it has to have the right consistency. Cheesecake has a very thick and smooth texture, and part of the whole experience of eating cheesecake is how it feels when you take a bite. It has to feel creamy, thick, and fattening. It has to feel like an indulgence.

Secondly, the taste has to be there. True, I doubt that there will ever be a vegan cheesecake that tastes exactly like dairy-filled cheesecake, but at the same time ingredients like chocolate can certainly make you forget that it is vegan. That is the nice thing about this recipe – you honestly cannot taste the tofu and Tofutti. It doesn’t have to seem fake – and well, honestly, it isn’t. Who said that vegan cheesecake is fake cheesecake? It still tastes and feels like an indulgence.