Thursday 29 January 2015

Raw Almost-Vegan Double Chocolate Cheesecake

This afternoon, when my kids came home from school, Angus, 4, asked if we could bake. We made a cake recently, so I decided to go for something a little different and as I already had the ingredients, thought this cheesecake would be a good alternative to a cake.

I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I try to eat mindfully and that is especially true of the sweet treats that we have at home. I now make most of my cakes etc gluten/dairy/sugar free and then there's no reaching for more, bloating, feel a bit nasally afterwards.

So, with this cheesecake, I wanted to continue that even if it's got a bit of honey and chocolate in it, it's still pretty "guilt free" and we all love it here!

It's really easy to make and there's no baking involved, just a little time in the fridge to allow it to set.


Ingredients for the base

15 Vegan digestives (Tesco's and Co-Op do good ones)
Runny honey
Cocount oil
Cocoa powder

Ingredients for the Topping

300g Fresh tofu
225g Vegan cream cheese (Tofutti is good)
150g Dark chocolate (as high a % as possible)
Cocoa powder
Water
Runny honey

Making the base

1) Put the digestives in a tea-towel and smash them up with a rolling pin and put the crumbs into a large mixing bowl
2) Add in the melted coconut oil and a couple of dessert spoons of honey
3) Mix it all together until nice and sticky and kind of gluing together
4) Put it into a medium-sized flan tin with a removable bottom and flatten it down until it's a nice even base. Put into the fridge until the topping is ready.

Making the topping

1) Put the tofu and cream cheese into a large mixing bowl and mix it until it's a lovely creamy mixture
2) Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bain marie (glass bowl over a pan of hot water) until smooth, creamy mixture.
3) Add two dessert spoons of cocoa powder to about 50ml warm water and make into a smooth paste.
4) Add the melted chocolate and cocoa paste to the tofu and cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth and creamy with as few lumps as possible.
5) Taste and add honey if needed to sweeten.
6) Spoon the mixture onto the biscuit base and smooth down until even.
7) Put into the fridge to cool and set.

That's it! Give it a few hours and it's ready to eat. We added rice cream on top (as per the picture) but it's good without too.

Enjoy!