Dairy-Free Cheesecake Recipe. Dairy Variation
Dairy-Free Cheesecake:
I love all my “babies”, but this dairy-free cheesecake is one of my greatest triumphs.
Levana Restaurant fans out there, who remembers our early bakery days? We served this wonderful cheesecake, the dairy way. Whenever I need to get to anyone’s heart with no time to waste, I whip up this dairy-free cheesecake for them. My daughter Bella recently asked me with great urgency whether I had thought of including this recipe in this book. “Whatever you do, don’t forget your dairy-free cheesecake!” she said, smacking her lips and patting her belly. Trust me, I won’t! Okay, so no, it is not dietetic food, but then again, cheesecake is not for dieting. The dairy-free cheesecake version is somewhat leaner and it is not laden with cholesterol as is its dairy counterpart. You will never go back to the dairy version, you will fool them all, as I do. Perfect as Gluten-Free too! There are some seriously delicious and perfectly healthy and natural brands of vegan cream cheese and sour cream, just look in your local heath food stores and better supermarkets.
Throwing in an Italian cheesecake cousin:
Try my Almond Ricotta Pie, for a fabulous variation. This is one is good and dairy, and should be left dairy.
I get a good twenty servings
Cheesecake is good and rich, and a little goes a long way. Also, it freezes perfectly, so none of it will go to waste. Eat some, freeze some!
Dairy Cheesecake:
Still if you would prefer to make your would rather make a dairy cheesecake, simply use dairy cream cheese and dairy sour cream, and proceed with the recipe just as instructed: Voila!
Want to make it even more dramatic?
Serve it with a little pool of Berry sauce. Super easy: Blend frozen and thawed berries with a little cranberry or pomegranate sauce. You could use fresh berries too, but you might have to add a little sugar, whereas frozen berries are naturally very sweet.
Marbled Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake
This variation is a snap to make, and a memorable treat! All our friends who are torn between their love of cheesecake desserts and their addiction to chocolate will be pleased!
My Dairy-Free Cookbook has gone digital!
You will find this recipe and many more all-natural dairy-free renditions of your favorite dairy recipes in my beautiful Ebook, Levana Cooks Dairy-Free. The hardcopy has sold out, and the Ebook version is complete and updated. I hope you will treat yourself: Excellent price too!
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 packages graham crackers (about 10 ounces total) gluten-free OK, or 10 ounces Lotus Cookies
- 1/2 cup oil
Batter:
- (3) 8-ounce containers vegan cream cheese (dairy cheesecake: Dairy cream cheese)
- (1) 8-ounce container vegan sour cream (dairy cheesecake: Dairy sour cream)
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 ºF.
Make the crust: In a food processor, grind the graham crackers and the oil to a fine powder. Press the ground mixture hard into the bottom of a 10-inch round spring form pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan and reduce the temperature to 325ºF.
In a food processor or with an electric mixer, cream all the batter ingredients until smooth (not longer) and pour over the crust. Bake one hour and 10 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the cake inside 2 more hours, without ever opening the oven. Take out and chill completely.
Variation: Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake
Omit the lemon juice. Divide the batter in half. Leave one half as is, and stir into the other half: 1/3 pure cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tablespoon instant coffee power dissolved in a few drops warm water, 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons dark rum, bourbon or unflavored brandy. Pour the white batter into the mold. Drizzle on the chocolate mixture and cut through with a knife to obtain a marbled effect. Bake as instructed above.
Hi,
What kind of oil do you use for this recipe? vegetable? canola? olive? corn oil? Also, i cant seem to find 10 inch spring-form pan. Can i use 9 inch spring-form pan?
Julia, The diameter of the pan is important, because this is how the baking time gets calculated.
Any oil is good.
Can I use flour instead of cornstarch ? Can I add vanilla to the mix
Sonia, No. Flour won’t do the job of a starch. I wouldn’t put vanilla in this cake.
This is an AMAZING recipe. I’ve made it several times with great results. Three suggestions:
1. Bring ingredients to room temperature (about 30 minutes) before mixing.
2. I substitute a one lb (16oz) package of silken tofu for 2 (of the 3) dairy-free cream cheese.
3. On the chocolate espresso variation, I would omit the lemon juice.
Not sure about suggestion 2, I need to try that before I can concur. But suggestion 1 and 3 I totally go for.
How do you adjust baking times and temperatures if making individual size cheesecakes?
Leah I need to understand what size molds you are using so I can answer that.
I don’t see a print button for printing the recipes. This would be very helpful. Have I overlooked it on the page? If there isn’t one, that would be a very helpful addition to your wonderful website.
Devorah this is strange. Yes there is an option for printing all my blog recipes, right by teh title of each recipe (right side)
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my
comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing
all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say great blog!
On your recipe you put 1 container of sour cream, how big of a container? 8oz? 16oz?
I am wondering about this myself. The only dairy free sour cream I could find comes in a 12 ounce container. I’m making this for a friends birthday this weekend and I don’t want to mess it up.
Also, I want to makes this a chocolate cheesecake for her and I am thinking that I should be able to just add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to this recipe without too much fuss. What do you think Levana?
Jason I can see adding cocoa in the batter very easily. Sour cream. 8 ounce is one cup, so just measure the cup.
I was wondering how I would add pumpkin to this recipe so it could be pumpkin cheesecake. I know it Vegan Pumpkin cheesecakes the amount is about 14oz….any tips?
Lisa I would have to tinker with it first before I could answer this. Until then I wouldn’t risk it.
My kids love cheesecake but not the crust. Can this be made crustless?
Dalit, of course! It’s your cake, to make any way you like! I bet it’ll be simpler too.
I just made this for my boyfriend who is gluten and dairy free. It tastes just like real cheese cake!!! We couldn’t believe it. Thank you for this awesome recipe! :D
I used tofutti cream cheese and sour cream and topped it off with cherry pie filling. So good!!
Isn’t it delicious?
I made this for our wedding anniversary as my husband has a dairy allergy and sorely misses my cheesecakes. The texture was lovely and the flavour was “close enough” (I think the lemon juice added some extra sour to help the flavour along). The second night I made a butterscotch sauce which hubby really liked but I think it would go better with a strong fruit sauce like raspberry. I may do some experimenting for flavour, but this is a wonderful recipe as is! Thank you!
Yup You did well! Fruit sauce would be fabulous with this cheesecake. You will find one on my site, unless you have my latest cookbook: Check it out! https://levanacooks.com/cookbooks/
Is the dairy-free cream cheese and sour cream you are referring to the tofutti kind? Those are the only one I know of.
There are a few good and unprocessed new brands, take a good look in health food stores
How does this freeze? Topping idea?
Yes it freezes beautifully. Topping: a fruit sauce, a caramel sauce etc…. You know it’s all in my new cookbook, just came out! https://levanacooks.com/my-upcoming-cookbook/ Fabulous price at amazon, here’s the link! http://www.amazon.com/Whole-Foods-Kosher-Kitchen-Glorious/dp/1616082925/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302206586&sr=1-1
Can you freeze this????
Nice easy to follow recipe idea – thankyou
Isn’t it the best? I never ever bother with the dairy recipe!