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?