This vegan salted caramel cheesecake is a decadent, no bake dessert. This pud has it all – creamy vanilla cheesecake with crumbled pretzels, dark chocolate chips and lashings of salted caramel sauce. This is an impressive dessert that is ideal for a dinner party (or you know, just for yourself). Make ahead of time to allow the cheesecake plenty of time to set.
The ingredients
I’ve used a blend of vegan cream cheese, cashews and coconut cream to achieve that much sought after creamy texture. Meanwhile, rich tea biscuits are ‘accidentally vegan’ making for the perfect semi sweet biscuit base.
The vegan cream cheese and lemon juice adds a fresh tart flavour to the dessert which is balanced out with a generous scoop of sugar and vanilla. Cheesecake is meant to be indulgent, and this dense sweet-sour cake is certainly that, yes the addition of salted caramel is a play on the classic but we all need to be more adventurous right? (Yes, I have obviously been stuck in lockdown life for far too long!)
The method
This is an easy foolproof recipe; honestly the only effort required is in blitzing the ingredients and pouring them into a cake tin! Allow the cheesecake to cool in the fridge for a minimum of 3.5 hours and 30 minutes in the freezer and you’ll have a lovely dense cheesecake.
Leave a comment and let me know how you get on making this vegan salted caramel cheesecake. I’d love to see your creations over on instagram!
More baking recipes perfect for Springtime
Vegan strawberry cupcakes with buttercream icing
Vegan salted caramel cheesecake
Ingredients
For the base
- 200 g rich tea biscuits
- 90 g margarine melted
For the cheesecake filling
- 340 g vegan cream cheese
- 425 g cashews
- 150 g full fat coconut cream from 400ml can of coconut milk * see notes
- 50 g coconut oil melted
- 265 g caster sugar
- 3 lemons zested and juiced
- 3 tsp vanilla bean paste
For the salted caramel sauce
- 100 g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 75 g coconut cream from 400ml can of coconut milk * see notes
- 25 g margarine
- 25 g light brown muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 20 g salted pretzels
- 20 g dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Grease and line an 8 inch loose bottomed, springform cake tin.
- In a food processor, pulse the biscuits until they resemble a crumb texture. Stir into the margarine until well combined.
- Pour the biscuit mixture into the tin and press down firmly. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Place the cashews in a saucepan and pour over boiling water, ensuring the cashews are covered. Boil for 30 minutes.
- Drain the cashews and pat dry. Blitz the cashews in a food processor until well chopped up.
- Scrape out the cashews into a large mixing bowl and add the coconut cream, coconut oil, caster sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir well, don’t worry if the mixture has any larger lumps. Next add half the mixture to the food processor. Pulse until the mixture is smooth and creamy, this should take roughly a minute. Remove the biscuit mixture from the freezer and pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.
- Add the remaining cheesecake mixture to the food processor and pulse again for another minute. Pour this into the cake tin. Spread the mixture out until even and place in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 3.5 hours. Then remove from the fridge and place in the freezer for a further 30 minutes to allow the cheesecake to completely set.
- Make a start on the caramel sauce (see notes). Add the sugar and water to a pan. Heat over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut cream, margarine, brown sugar, maple syrup and salt. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, continue at a simmer for 4 minutes, stirring intermittently. Pour into a heatproof bowl and set aside at room temperature.
- Remove the cheesecake from the freezer and drizzle over the salted caramel sauce. Decorate with crushed pretzels and dark chocolate chips.