vegan cheesecake

i'm still on the gluten free and dairy free train (thank goodness i am feeling a whole lot better, it certainly makes it easier...) so decided to make this vegan cheesecake for boxing day. i had multiple questions from people that knew i had made it, wanting to know if i was going down the vegan path. here is your answer: no. i enjoying eating meat. i am sure if i desperately wanted to do it, i could. i mean really, anyone can do anything that they want to do badly enough... but i like meat. veganism is not for me at this stage in my life.

but, back to the cake. i don't eat gluten or dairy, so cheesecake was out of the question for me. and what is christmas in australia (ie. frigging hot summer!) without cheesecake or cold dessert of some description? heck to the no was i missing out. so when this delicious looking recipe appeared in my facebook news feed this week, i went looking for the recipe... which you can find here (at ever and ivy) - along with a video for you to follow along with.

vegan cheesecake

crust:
1 cup raw walnuts
1 cup raw almonds
10 medjool dates (pits removed)
3 tbs melted coconut oil
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/ tsp sea salt

filling:
3 1/2 cups raw cashews (soaked 3hrs or overnight)
1 cup coconut cream
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup blueberries

1. process crust ingredients until fine crumbs. pour into tin and press down until smooth.
2. blend all filling ingredients excpet blueberries until very smooth. set aside half of mixture.
3. add blueberries to the half of mix in blender and blend until smooth.
4. pour blueberry mixture onto crust. pour white mixture on top.
5. freeze. allow to thaw for 15-20 mins before serving.

the verdict:
so. it wasn't cheesecake and so didn't have the cheesecakey flavour. but. it was delicious! seriously. i was well impressed, as was everyone else that had some, including my skeptical husband, who i found out later had actually eaten 3 pieces! i will absolutely make it again, no doubt about that. my only comment is that it makes a lot! i made 2 cheesecakes with the mix! which was great because we are having a baby shower here for my friend this weekend, so we'll bust out the second one then, but you could possibly halve the mixture when making it? or not, obviously it is frozen, so you could store it for as long as you need. but yum yum yum. so worth the effort!

vegan pumpkin pie

a recipe as promised, for grace's birthday dinner a few weeks ago, i made vegan pumpkin pie. my oldest niece is a vegan (and has been for the last few years... very impressive!) and when she kindly brought me back some canned pumpkin from the u.s., i decided it was only fair to ensure she had the change to enjoy pie with me!

the first issue i ran into was the fact that pumpkin pie requires condensed milk... which is, of course, milk. so i did some googling and discovered that there is a way to make condensed milk, without dairy. enter coconut condensed milk! i found the recipe here and made the honey version... perfect!

then a slightly modified version of my favourite pumpkin pie recipe from chowhound, replacing the butter with nuttelex and the egg with an egg substitute. the only issue was, that i had to cook it for a whole lot longer, i think it ended up being another half an hour from memory!

so. the verdict. it was not terrible. it was perfectly edible and my niece thought it was amazing and ate a huggggge piece. i also liked it fine, but i must admit, the crust wasn't as good as it is with butter and i missed the creaminess that comes from the milk in the filling. but it was good! and i would definitely make it again if she asked. so. if you're a vegan but not so into raw options, give it a go!