I made baked cheesecake and I was very happy with the result, and now I wanted something simpler, but just as spectacular: cheesecake without baking. Of course, in the recipes that abound on the net, cheesecake is made with cheese, which is why it is called cheesecake. As in the previous recipe, I replaced the cheese with almond cream, which this time I enriched with coconut cream. In the classic recipe, with cheese, the crust is made of crushed biscuits mixed with butter. I changed that too. It is a vegan version, without eggs, without dairy, easy to make and very tasty.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
- 150 grams of dates
- 50 grams of coconut oil
- A large spoonful of coconut flakes
- ½ sachet with vanilla sugar or a few drops of vanilla essence
For the "cheese":
- 200 grams of almonds
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 150 grams of coconut cream
- 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
- 3-4 drops of lemon essence or a tablespoon of lemon juice
- A tablespoon of agar agar
For topping:
- Jam of your choice (I put strawberry jam)
Method of preparation
Almonds are soaked 10-12 hours before, then peeled. Wash several times during this process. The dates are also soaked, but for them it 3-4 hours is enough. The dates are washed before soaking, because we will use some of the water in which they were soaked.
Let’s start with the crust. In the blender we will put the dates, melted coconut oil, coconut flakes, vanilla and a few tablespoons of date water. Mix until a thick and homogeneous cream comes out and pour it into the cake pan lined with plastic wrap. My pan is 18 cm in diameter and has removable edges. Refrigerate for a few minutes, until the cheese is done. Well cleaned and washed almonds are put in a blender, along with coconut cream, honey and flavors. Mix well until slightly blended. It will be difficult because it has no water. In a kettle we put 200 grams of water together with agar agar and boil them shortly, 30 seconds or 1 minute from when they start to boil, stirring constantly. Immediately pour this mixture into the blender and mix until completely homogenous, then, just as quickly, pour the mixture over the crust that we removed from the refrigerator. We move quickly because agar agar hardens as soon as it reaches a cold surface and we will not be able to work with it, it remains stiff. We put it in the fridge for another half an hour or an hour, then we can spread the jam on top. In order for it to be completely coagulated and not to disintegrate when we cut it, we leave it in the fridge for another hour or two. We remove the removable edge of the pan, gently peel off the plastic wrap and at this stage we can decorate if we want our cake to be presentable: with fruits, pieces of chocolate, colorful hearts or whatever comes to mind. I left him like that, because I was hungry and I didn’t feel like putting to much work into decorating. But if we want to make it as a birthday cake, for example, it’s worth the effort. We will have a simple cake to prepare, healthy (no added sugar, baking powder, cereals or chemicals). To be even healthier than that, we can replace the jam with a fruit jelly, to which we put a little honey in it.