Caramel. Chocolate. Cheesecake. All three of my favorite things together in one dessert!
New York Style Vegan Caramel Cheesecake
Creamy and dense with caramel in every bite!
WARNING: this vegan caramel cheesecake may become a single serving pretty quick!
So be sure to have lots of people to share it with!
For the most intense caramel cheesecake taste
I added thick caramel sauce to the cheesecake batter and added more on top of each slice!
Homemade chocolate shortbread cookies for the base and more for the stars decor!
Although you can eliminate one extra recipe and use any cookie you like best
Not only for the crust but for the decor as well!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CARAMEL CHEESECAKE
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Notes for Success:
Tofutti Cream Cheese is the only brand I will use for my BAKED recipes *not sponsored
I had not had success with any other brand in BAKED recipes; for some reason some other brands I’ve tried have broken down into an oily mess when baked.
However more recently I tried Violife again and it works! Although I still prefer the Tofutti brand
When measuring cornstarch I cannot stress enough that a kitchen scale is the best way to go.
Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Last~ I always make 7″ cheesecakes and I bake them in cake pans not springform pans!
Also I do not use spring form pans, CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON WHY!
Caramel Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1 recipe Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
- or Sandwich Cookie *fillings intact you will need approx 1½ cups crushed cookies (140g)
- Vegan Butter 4 Tablespoons (56g)
For the Caramel Sauce:
- Granulated Sugar 2 cup (400g)
- Water ½ cup (120ml)
- Lemon Juice or Vinegar 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Plant Milk *highest fat milk works best 1 cup (237ml)
- Salt *optional ¼ teaspoon
For the Cheesecake Batter:
- Vegan Cream Cheese *see notes for success above recipe 2 cups (454g)
- Vegan Butter melted 4 tablespoons (56g)
- Light Brown Sugar 1 cup (200g)
- Cornstarch 4 Tablespoons (32g) *see notes
- All Purpose Flour 2 Tablespoons (16g)
- Plant Milk *I use soy milk 4fl oz (118ml)
- Vegan Lactic Acid or apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon
- Salt pinch
- Vanilla Extract 3 teaspoons (15ml)
- Caramel sauce from recipe above ½ cup (120ml)
Instructions
- You can prepare the caramel sauce days in advance to make this project easier!
- For the Caramel: Combine the sugar, water & lemon juice (or vinegar) together in a large heavy bottom sauce pot
- The pot must be larger than you think because once you pour in the plant milk it will bubble up aggressively I cannot stress enough to BE CAREFUL when cooking caramel!
- Stir this mixture only until is dissolved not after it starts to boil or you will get crystals in your caramel!
- Watch it carefully as it turns from a light amber to medium amber, take it off the heat when it is medium amber as it will continue to cook and darken even after you remove it from the heat
- Slowly & carefully pour in the plant milk and once the bubbling subsides stir it to a smooth sauce
- Pour into a heat proof container and refrigerate until needed *it will thicken as it sits!
- Prepare the cookie dough ahead of time and roll out the shapes ~ I just made round cut outs for the cheesecake base since they will be crushed anyway, and extra stars for decor for the final cheesecake out of the excess dough
- First prepare the crust by crushing the cookies in a food processor to fine crumbs.
- Add the melted vegan butter and pulse until it resembles wet sand
- Grease & parchment line a 7" cake pan then press the crumbs evenly on the bottom and up the sides.
- Freeze while you prepare the cheesecake batter
- First combine the brown sugar and the vegan butter together in a medium sauce pot
- Cook stirring occasionally until everything melts and the hot sugar starts to look like lava *see video tutorial
- Cook the sugar mixture while you gather the rest of your cheesecake ingredients.
- Place all of the cheesecake ingredients including the slightly cooled sugar/butter into the work bowl of your food processor and pulse to blend
- Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure an even mix then blend again to a smooth mixture
- Pour the batter into the crust and I added about 2Tbs more caramel sauce to the top for a swirl, but it got lost in the batter so this is optional
- Bake in a greased & parchment lined 7" cake pan in a water bath in a preheated 350°F and bake for 60 minutes~ the cheesecake will no longer be liquid in the center but jiggly like jello.
- Turn off the oven but let the cheesecake stay inside to cool for another hour
- Remove from the oven and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight
- Un mold the cheesecake onto your serving platter and decorate as you like.
- I added some of the extra caramel to my buttercream recipe for the rosettes and drizzled the remaining caramel sauce over each slice at serving
Notes
Caramel Cheesecake must be kept refrigerated at all times and will stay fresh wrapped loosely for up to 10 days.
I do not like to freeze vegan cheesecakes as I find their texture changes and gets soggy on the thaw.
It looks so delicious, I’ll try it too.
Hey Gretchen I was wondering if I could pick your brain about a lower sugar version of this recipe?. Not necessarily the caramel part, just the cheesecake base. I Have someone who really wants a vegan cheesecake for their birthday and I love your recipe using the tofuuti, and I was curious what you thought about replacing some or all of the brown sugar with pureed dates?
This is a very user friendly recipe and can accommodate sugar subs no problem! I have not thoughth about pureed dates though since I typically stick to Monk fruit for my low sugar baking. I don’t think you would have to change anything about the recipe due to the date puree.
Also ALLULOSE is the only sugar sub that will caramelize so you could play around with that as well! I have not yet tried it but here is the link for the recipe I wanted to test out