Best Cheesecake with Apricots & Blueberries

I’ve always had a weakness for cheesecake. Before I became vegan, cheesecake was one of my absolute favorite cakes. If not the favorite cake. I was really missing that but never really thought a purely plant-based version could taste great as it is in the name: it is all about the cheese. Then I have however somehow realized that it is indeed possible to bake (or even to freeze) very delicious cheesecakes without milk and eggs. Vegan cheesecake without curd cheese?! Yes, absolutely no problem – I know many won’t believe it, but I actually do prefer this recipe to the real thing! Give it a try and I am sure you’ll love it.

Prep time	Cook time	Total Time
20 min	40 min	60 min

Allergy advice:
Contains fruit sugar

Some recipes, especially raw ones, replace the “cheese” with cashews which gives you a super creamy consistency but for me this is a different cake. It is not really comparable to the non vegan version, that is not to say it isn’t much healthier and tastes great. It certainly does but I wanted to not taste the different as I always adored a proper cheesecake. So I experimented a lot and then created this recipe which I promised the consistency is very similar to traditional cheesecake with curd. This is perfect for the next get together as it is keeping well and easy to transport. I made the cake when I visited my parents and my family was very enthusiastic about it, they were very surprised when I told them the main ingredient is tofu not cheese.

The secret here is the combination of different types of tofu. This is really key, it must be 1/3 normal tofu combined with 2/3 of silken tofu to achieve this amazing consistency and taste.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

200g white spelt/ wheat or gluten free flour
60g brown sugar or maple sirup
100g vegan margarine
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla sugar/aroma
Optional: 2 tbsp soy milk

For the filling:

2 organic lemons (we will need their peel and juice)
800g silk tofu
400g tofu
100g brown sugar or 1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp vanilla sugar or essence
80g vegan margarine (melted)
80g corn starch
1/2 cup blueberries and 2 fresh apricots (or peaches)

Instructions:

Melt the margarine
Use a tbsp of the margarine to grease your baking dish
Put all the remaining ingredients for the crust into a bowl and mix
Mix with kneading hooks or your hands until smooth but not for too long
Press the dough into the baking dish and spread out evenly while pressing some dough to form an edge around the dish – when thin enough, place in fridge for around 45min
Meanwhile make the filling: Melt the margarine and put the silken tofu on a plate covered with kitchen paper and add something heavy on its top and let drain
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Thoroughly wash the lemons (we don’t want any pesticides) and grate the lemon peel, then squeeze out all the juice
To make the filling, pour the melted margarine, brown sugar, the starch, both types of tofu, vanilla sugar and the lemon juice into your blender or food processor and blend for 3 mins or until very smooth
Pour the filling into your fridges crust, add the blueberries and sliced apricots on top if you like or pour one layer of filling and sprinkle the fruit and then cover with another layer of filling
Then bake for 1 hour, depending on the oven it could also take 1.5 – the cake will be ready when slightly golden on top, you can try whether the tofu turned solid by using a wooden stick – when it comes out looking like before it is ready