This cheesecake is absolutely divine.
It's made with real pumpkin puree and
warm pumpkin pie spice, but it doesn't
have any dairy, eggs, or even
store-bought vegan cream cheese. Hey,
welcome back. Today, I am sharing one of
my favorite fall recipes, which is my
vegan pumpkin cheesecake. I actually
made this recipe because so many vegan
cheesecake recipes use store-bought
vegan cream cheese, and there are two
problems with that. For one, the flavor
and texture of vegan cream cheese really
varies depending on which brand you buy,
so your results might vary. And two, I
don't live in the US anymore. I live in
Taiwan and I hardly even see regular
cream cheese, let alone vegan cream
cheese here. So, we are doing something
a little bit different, but don't worry
because it is super easy. So, to start,
we're just going to preheat our oven to
375°
F. And we are also going to grease a 9
in spring form pan with this recipe. Uh
I'm using vegan butter, but you could
also use a little bit of oil. All right,
so next we're just going to take 1 and
1/4 cups of cashews and soak them in hot
water for 10 minutes. I haven't found
any pre-made vegan graham cracker
crumbs, so I am just going to take my
homemade vegan graham crackers and I'm
just going to pulse the blender until I
have 1 and 3/4 cups of crumbs. If you
want the recipe for the graham crackers,
I will also link that in the description
below. All right, so we are going to
make this graham cracker crust by mixing
up the crumbs with 2 tbsp of vegan brown
sugar and a teaspoon of pumpkin pie
spice. Then I'm just going to add 6
tablespoon of melted vegan butter. If
your 6 tablespoons isn't enough to bring
it all together, you can add a little
bit of water if needed, but this should
be a good amount. All right. So, now
we're just going to press that into the
pan. Uh, I'm smoothing out the bottom
with a glass. And then I'm going to
press it about halfway up the sides. I
want to try to keep it as even as
possible on the sides and not too far up
the pan because I don't want the crust
to be higher than the actual cheesecake.
And we're just going to pop that in the
oven for 10 minutes and then set it on a
wire rack to cool. After you take it out
of the oven, you're also going to want
to reduce your heat to 325° F. Okay, so
next we're going to make the filling.
I'm going to warn you, depending on the
size of your blender, this filling might
be too much to do in one batch. So, you
might need to blend up parts of it at a
time and then kind of mix it all
together. My blender jar is just big
enough to hold all this. Uh, so if you
have something that's like 6, seven cups
or larger, you should be okay. So, we're
going to get the blender jar and just
add 12 oz of silken tofu, your soaked
and drained cashews, 1 and a3 cups of
pumpkin puree, which is not the same as
pumpkin pie filling, 1 cup of full fat
canned coconut milk, half a cup each of
vegan white sugar and brown sugar, 1/4
cup each of cornstarch and lemon juice,
1 and 1/2 tbsp of nutritional yeast, 2
tsp teoons of vanilla, half a tablespoon
of pumpkin pie spice, and half a
teaspoon of salt. So, we're going to
start off the blender on a low speed and
then just gradually increase the speed.
And then you're going to let it blend
for a few minutes until everything is
totally smooth. Now, I'm going to put my
cooled spring form pan and the pie crust
into a 10-in silicone cake pan, which I
think is the best way to protect the
cake from leaks in your water bath. Um,
you could also wrap it in a few layers
of heavy duty aluminum foil and then use
like a roasting bag or something on the
outside of it, but I just find this
silicone cake pan easy. It's reusable
and I prefer it. So, if you can find one
of those, definitely grab one. And then
we can just pour our filling right into
the pan. For your water bath, ideally,
you want to use a large roasting pan,
but I actually couldn't find one locally
because not many people have ovens, and
the ovens here are quite small. So, I am
just using this 12-in cake pan that I
found instead. Before you put your
cheesecake in the oven, you want to just
boil just enough water to fill your pan
with the cheesecake in it. Uh you don't
really need to bring it to a full boil.
If it just starts to bubble just a
little bit, that's fine. And you're
going to put your cheesecake at the
center of your roasting pan. And then
put that whole thing in the oven on the
middle rack. And I like to use a large
mixing cup for this because it's
somewhat small and easy to pour. Um and
just pour that into the roasting pan.
Just be careful not to splash any water
inside the cheesecake or the silicone
mold. And you also don't want to fill
the water all the way up to the top of
the silicone mold. Maybe just fill it up
2/3 of the way to the top of the
silicone mold. All right. And we are
just going to bake this for 55 minutes.
If you are not using a water bath, you
can bake it for 45 minutes instead. What
you're looking for is the cake to be
firm around the edges with when you move
it a little bit, it the center will
jiggle a little. Definitely don't
overbake it because you'll end up with
cracks on the top and we don't want
that. Once it's done, we're just going
to crack the oven door just a little bit
and leave it cool down inside the oven
for 1 hour. Then you can put it in the
fridge to chill for either 4 hours or
overnight. All right, the cheesecake is
almost ready. I'm just going to make
some caramel sauce to drizzle over top.
So, basically, I'm just taking half a
cup of sugar and I'm going to melt that
down on the stove until it turns nice
and golden. And then, you want to be
careful here cuz it'll splash out. But
you're going to add half a cup of canned
coconut milk. Mix that in and also add
about an 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt. My
cheesecake is ready. I've put some
coconut whipped cream and cinnamon
around the edges. And then once it's
sliced, then I'm just going to drizzle
some caramel on top.
And that's it.
So, I am not always the biggest fan of
all the pumpkin spice everything that
comes in the fall, but this pumpkin and
these warm spices just pair so perfectly
with the cool and creamy cheesecake. It
is just
so delicious.
Well, that is it for this recipe. If you
do try it, please let me know what you
think. Leave me a comment here or on my
website. Thank you so much for being
here and I'll see you next time.
[Music]