Lemon Vegan Cheesecake

This picture is totally unrelated to the following entry.

Ok, I admit that I'll probably continue to neglect this blog and only update on a sporadic basis. I've had half an entry on my road trip sitting in my draft box for weeks, and I'm not entirely sure I'll ever finish it. But I promise you, this vital recipe will very nearly atone for my lack of dedication.

Chances are fairly good, in today's environmentally trendy world, that you are associated with at least one person who is, or tells people they are vegan. If not that, then you certainly know someone who's body just can't deal with the dairy. Lactose intolerance is quite common in many world cultures, so if you don't know either of these people yet, you will.

SITUATION!

Said person is coming over for a dinner party! The main course? Psh, no problem, you've got a wicked vegetable curry up your sleeve. But what are you going to do for dessert?! Your aunt Gertrude made a fierce cheesecake, and you really want to share that joy with your calcium deprived comrades!

Impossible, right?

WRONG.

Vegan cheesecake is one thing. But vegan cheesecake approved by a genuine cheesecake lover? That is an entirely different story. That is the story I'm going to tell you today. The title?

The Mystical Lemon Vegan Cheesecake of Wonders

It started out with a simple vegan cheesecake recipe I found online. It was quick and easy, and reasonably tasty, but it was just so...vegan. The texture was too airy and there was a slight soy aftertaste. It was good, but it wasn't cheesecake. To be honest, this recipe still isn't cheesecake. If I had chosen to opt for pricey "wannabe dairy" products like Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese, maybe we would be a little closer to the real thing, but until I modify this recipe further, this is a good alternative that won't make your vegan feel like they're cheating.

So this is what you need:

500 g medium smooth tofu

1/2 cup coconut milk

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon zest

juice of one lemon

Optional:

1/4 cup of flour, depending on your preferred firmness

Add a little lime juice

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 Celsius).

The crust is a graham cracker crust. For a 9" cake, I used a heaping cup of crumbs, mixed with a couple tablespoons brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and just enough canola oil to give me some fairly large clumps. Then just dump it all in your chosen pan (a springform works nicely for cheesecakes) and press it flat against the bottom, as evenly as you can. My crust was still a bit crumbly, so next time I might try replacing the sugar with maple syrup, and hopefully that will improve the consistency.

The rest is as simple as accumulating all the ingredients and throwing them in the blender! Dry off your tofu in a paper towel, and cut it into some manageable chunks. Everything else, just toss it in on top.

The coconut milk is key to this recipe. I saw a lot of recipes with soy milk, but soy milk lacks both the neutral taste and the creamy texture that coconut milk provides. It does contain saturated fats, but in small amounts that are supposedly beneficial to your health, so while you wouldn't want to drink it, it's perfect for adding richness to vegan cooking or baking.

Once blended, your ingredients should resemble a thick pudding. Feel free to taste at this point to see if it needs more of anything. If it's too runny, add some flour.

When you are sufficiently pleased with your mixture, pour it onto your pressed crust and pop it into your preheated oven. If you are using a springform pan, I would recommend placing it on top of another baking pan, in case any oil or liquid leaks through and causes a smoky, smelly mess. Leave it in the oven for about 50 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges, and then take it out to cool. Then refrigerate for at least a couple of hours before serving. It's lovely on it's own or with some fresh berries or sauce to top it off!

If you want more of a New York style cheesecake, take out the lemon, add the flour, add more sugar (maybe brown sugar?) with a bit of vanilla extract. Try it with an oreo crust! Or try a different flavor! Mango would be nice. But whatever you do, try it! Even if you're not vegan, or lactose intolerant, it never hurts to expand your horizons.

Voila! Bon appetit!

**UPDATE: This tastes even better after a couple of days in the refrigerator!**

Invent a recipe: Chuckleberry Chili Cakes

Baking is another thing that I've already had a fair bit of practice with. My abilities have gradually improved by many hours spent in the kitchen making batch after batch of assorted goods, largely for my banana-bread loving host family in Germany. And whenever I bake now, I'm always reminded of a brief conversation I shared with the father there, who said that, despite being one of my biggest muffin fans, he preferred cooking over baking, because cooking was less precise and formulaic... he didn't like following recipes.

I think that's a little unfair. I am, as you may already know or will come to know shortly, not at all precise, and my measurements, if I measure at all, are best described as vague. I think both cooking and baking require some form of instruction at the beginner level. I know I can't cook much without a recipe, so I definitely need a helping hand, if only to get the feel for where to start. Granted, you can boil, broil, fry or barbeque a potato, and you can pretty well only bake a muffin, but once you've got those proportions down, the opportunities for freestyling your recipe are endless, easy, and unlike cooking, nearly always foolproof.


So today, I took my favourite cakey-muffin proportions and decided I needed to do something with the nearly-too-ripe huckleberries in the fridge. I love huckleberries, and this is the first year in a long time that the plant seems to have thrived in my area. I slaved away in the forest for hours picking the tiny buggers, so it would be a terrible shame to waste them.


For those of you that don't know what huckleberries are, they come from a small(ish), oval-leafed plant that grows along the west coast of North America, particularly on dead cedar trees. I'm told there are multiple varieties, but the red ones are the ones I like; small, sour, and succulent! Lingonberries would probably be a good substitute, but if they're too tart (as in, totally unpleasant to eat fresh), you might need to boil them in sugar-water for a couple of minutes. I'm sure halved raspberries would be fine, too.


Anyways, huckleberries are always tangy, and sometimes very tart, so I wanted to have a muffin with a stronger flavour to balance the bite of the berry. Thus, I decided cocoa powder would be a nice addition. And being a huge chocolate fan, I didn't think a few tiny chocolate chunks would hurt. A little chili powder for some kick, and my recipe was born. So here it is in writing, and remember: The measurements are very approximate! In Germany, I used a teacup and a dinner spoon to bake, so like I said, as long as you have everything roughly in proportion, it's not a big deal.


Chuckleberry Chili Cakes
Makes 10 muffins


1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg




1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (1/2 cup if you don't use banana)
Optional: 1 old mashed banana
Water/milk




1/2 to 3/4 cup huckleberries
1/4 cup chopped semi-sweet chocolate bits




So, first things first, heat up the oven to 350 degrees Celsius. If you've got an old banana that needs using, mash it up in a little bowl and set it aside. Then get out a bigger bowl and combine the dry ingredients. Mix them all together and you should have a light brown, chocolatey-chili scented powder. Please note: I don't actually have any idea how much chili powder ended up in my muffins because my container had a salt-shaker type lid, but I'd imagine not much more than 1 teaspoon. Use your best judgement.


Then dump your almost-liquified banana in, followed by the egg, the vegetable oil, and maybe a half cup of milk. Again, note: I used canola oil because I had it on hand, but it just occurred to me that chili oil might have been brilliant... could have even replaced the powder. I'll try that next time. Anyways, then just take a spoon (you really don't need an electric mixer) and mix it all together until it's a thick paste. It'll probably still be a bit dry at that point so add milk or water until it's just right. If it's still looking just a little dry, put the berries and chocolate in first. Sometimes the water on the berries (from washing them) is just enough to get it where you want it. The mixture shouldn't really hold its shape, but it shouldn't just pour out either, so be careful not to get it too runny. But if mistakes happen and you do over-water it, bake it anyways. It's likely that it will still taste good, the only problem might be the berries and chocolate sinking to the bottom and burning.


So, then you take your greased muffin pan and start emptying the mixture into the compartments. I usually start with a heaping spoonful in each of the ten and then spread around and even out whatever is left at that point.


Then just pop them in the oven... 12-15 minutes later they should be done! I usually check every 2-3 minutes after the ten minute mark to see how it's going. To make sure your muffins are done, you need one of these little metal prods (or a toothpick, if it's long enough), and when you can insert it all the way into the center muffin, and it comes out dry, your muffins can come out and start to cool! After you've taken them out, leave them in the pan for at least five minutes before putting them on a cooling rack. This keeps them moist. After another ten minutes or so, you can either put 'em away or chow down!





Mine were quite delectable, if I do say so myself. If you find them dry, try slopping in a bit more oil next time. Any problems or successes, let me know!