Vegan Vanilla Cheesecake! – Jane’s Patisserie

A deliciously creamy no-bake vegan vanilla cheesecake – with a biscuit base, vegan cheesecake topping, strawberry coulis, and fresh strawberries! 

Vegan cheesecake

So, let’s be honest here and say that I am a very big lover of all things cheesecake. I have published well over 70 recipes now that are cheesecake related and I am not sorry about it… I love it. However, none of them are vegan. 

So.. I have had request after request for a vegan cheesecake and it is finally here!! Celebrate, party… eat cheesecake! But I will say one thing, this is not a ‘raw’ cheesecake. It is a substitute cheesecake.

This basically means that I have done my absolute best to get this to be as similar to my no-bake vanilla cheesecake as I possibly can, by using lovely supermarket substitutes! However, if you would like a ‘raw’ version, then let me know!!

Vegan cheesecake base

Typically when you make a cheesecake you would use a biscuit base, more commonly digestives, and then butter. This bit is quite easy to make vegan – you just need to use vegan biscuits and vegan butter! I just use any vegan digestives I can find, and then I tend to use Stork Block (not the tub) as my butter personally. 

Vegan cheesecake filling

For the filling, you follow the same idea of cream cheese, cream and sugar being the base. As this is a vanilla cheesecake, you naturally add in the vanilla too. I have never found a problem with any vegan cream cheese – some are more solid than others, but most I have tested have worked well. 

My personal favourite was the Violife based cream cheese – but I have seen a few more out there. It is more pricey, which is annoying, but you still want to stick to about 500g if you can for the depth of cheesecake! 

Vegan cream

I found the cream the hardest part of all of this – as a large number of vegan creams are single cream style, or just don’t work. Recently though, I found Elmlea plant alternative double cream – and that is by far my favourite! 

You really do need a vegan cream that can whip (single creams don’t work) – or you can use coconut cream like I do in my Pina Colada Cheesecake, or Bounty Cheesecake – you will just be very coconut heavy then! 

Sugar and vanilla

I use icing sugar in my cheesecakes, which if you use the right one (I use Tate & Lyle) IS VEGAN at the time of writing this. I always get comments saying icing sugar isn’t vegan… and some for sure do have a may contain warning, but you need to make sure you aren’t mixing normal icing sugar with royal icing sugar, which will always contain egg. 

You can use caster sugar in place of the icing sugar if you prefer it – but I always use icing sugar and prefer it that way. For the vanilla, I used Nielsen Massey Vanilla Bean Paste as I wanted the flecks of vanilla in the cheesecake – but any will do! 

Method

The process for making it is basically the same, you just have to be more careful. Because the cream isn’t actually ‘cream’, I do whip it separately, and I do find it can be more moussey compared to whip cream, but it’s usually fine once folded into the beaten cream cheese mix. 

Setting agent

Obviously, as it’s vegan, you can’t use gelatine to set the cheesecake. I don’t in this recipe anyway, but if you are worried, it’s best to use a vegan alternative such as agar agar, or vege-gel, just to make sure you get the best set. If you find once removing from the tin that the cheesecake is a bit soft, you may need to put it in the freezer for a bit to help serve it, but this is a risk of the lower fat vegan ingredients!

Decoration

Once the cheesecake has set overnight, I drizzled it with some strawberry coulis, added some fresh strawberries on top, and sprinkled with freeze dried strawberries too. All decoration is optional, but I just fancied a fruity theme! 

Let me know how you get on with the recipe below in the comments, and definitely comment if you have recommendations for products! x 

Biscuit Base!

• 300 g Vegan Biscuits (I used digestives)
• 100 g Vegan Butter

Vanilla Cheesecake

• 500 g Vegan Cream Cheese
• 75-100 g Icing Sugar
• 1-2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 250 ml Vegan Double Cream (or coconut cream)

Serve with…

• Strawberries
• Strawberry Coulis
• Freeze Dried Strawberries

For the Biscuit Base

• Blitz the biscuits in a food processor to a fine crumb, or bash up in a bowl with a rolling pin, or in a food bag. 

• Melt the butter carefully until it is a liquid, and then mix in with the biscuits.

• Press the biscuit mixture into the bottom of an 8″/20cm deep springform tin, and refrigerate/freeze whilst you make the filling.

For the Cheesecake

• In a large bowl, or stand mixer, add the vegan cream cheese, icing sugar, and vanilla and beat until smooth.

• In a separate bowl, whisk the vegan double cream to as stiff peaks as you can – I find it can be more moussey, but you want it as thick as possible.

• Add the whipped vegan double cream to the cream cheese mixture and fold the mixtures together until combined.

• Once combined, add the cheesecake mixture to the top of the biscuit base making sure to pack the mix into the sides of the tin to prevent any air gaps, and set it in the fridge for 5-6 hours, or preferably overnight.

• For this recipe to be vegan I personally used:
  • Violife cream cheese
  • Elmlea plant based double cream 
  • Supermarket own digestives
  • Flora plant block butter 
• You can use any vegan biscuit as a base, such as Biscoff Biscuits, or anything else! 
• In the fridge, this will last 3 days once set. 
• I use Nielsen Massey Vanilla Bean Paste in the recipe. 
• If you find the mixture a bit soft, you can set the cheesecake in the freezer for about 1-2 hours before removing from the tin! 

ENJOY!

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J x

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