My two obsessions are together again!
Chocolate and caramel is what life is all about!
Swimming in caramel and pecans with this Vegan Turtle Cheesecake Recipe!
Double chocolate cheesecake takes on a new form with the addition of caramel and toasted pecans.
If you love cheesecake then Vegan Turtle Cheesecake is going to become your new favorite!
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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
Additionally you will notice at times I will use tofu in place of some of the vegan cream cheese for a lightened up version and to cut some of the fat calories.
Usually just 4 ounces, but you can omit the tofu and use all vegan cream cheese instead
Many times people have complained that their cheesecake is like rubber and they don’t know why!
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.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS VEGAN TURTLE CHEESECAKE RECIPE!
Vegan Turtle Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- Vegan Chocolate Sandwich Cookies 12
- Vegan Butter 2 Tablespoons (28g)
For the Cheesecake Batter:
- Vegan Cream Cheese 1 - 8ounce package (226g) *see notes above
- Firm Tofu half package drained not pressed 7ounces *see notes above
- Semi Sweet Chocolate 4 ounces (113g)
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Cornstarch 2 Tablespoons (16g)
- Natural unsweetened Cocoa Powder 2 Tablespoons
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Lactic Acid 1 teaspoon (or 1 tsp apple cider vinegar)
- Vegan Butter 2 Tablespoons (28g)
- Plant Milk ¾ cup (177ml)
For the caramel sauce:
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- ½ cup canned coconut milk (120ml)
- Salt pinch
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon
for the topping
- Pecans 1 cup lightly toasted
Instructions
- Prepare the crust by crushing the sandwich cookies (with cream fillings) in a food processor and then add the melted vegan butter. The mixture will resemble wet sand
- Press it into the greased and parchment lined 7" cake pan and freeze while you prepare the cheesecake batter
- Place all cheesecake ingredients except for the milk & the chocolate & melted vegan butter into the food processor and process smooth
- Melt the chocolate with the vegan butter over a low heat stirring constantly (or in the microwave) and then add it to the other ingredients in the food processor.
- Process smooth while pouring the milk through the feed tube while processing to a smooth batter
- Pour batter into prepared pan with the cookie crust and bake in a water bath in a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour, then turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake inside for another hour.
- Remove from the oven and refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours to set before unmolding
- For the Caramel Sauce: Combine the sugar, salt and coconut milk together in a sauce pot and whisk smooth until it starts to boil
- Once it boils reduce heat to medium and stop stirring and let it reduce to almost half the original volume (which would be about ½ cup) this should take about 5 minutes, not much longer
- Add the vanilla extract and swirl the pan to combine
- Pour into a heat proof container to cool completely, it will thicken as it cools & can be made up to a week in advance for a super thick caramel
- Once cool pour over the cheesecake and top with roasted pecans
Notes
Cheesecake must stay refrigerated at all times, can stay at room temperature for up to 4 hours.
I do not like the way this cheesecake freezes, it gets grainy on the thaw
I haven’t even made it yet, but ALL of yourcheescakes are a 5 out of 5!
I want to point out how helpful your “notes” are about keeping cheesecakes refrigerated, but not freezing them because it will ruin the texture. You do sooo much work to help ensure success.
Gretchen, I’ve been your follower for the longest time. (since the Woodland Bakery days) I’m so upset that most of your recipes from your other website (non-vegan recipes) are GONE! What happened? :’( I was planning to make one of the cheesecakes for my mom’s birthday, but when I visited the website again a few days ago, the recipes no longer existed. Is there anything I can do? Anyways, I love and admire you so much xoxoxo
Hi Nat thank you! Unfortunately my blog is no longer available.
I just couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
I had always said I would continue to share my recipes for free & give free tutorials on YouTube for as long as I could afford to do so, and well.. I just can’t anymore
The cost is severely outweighing any small profits I had been making though running ads on the videos & blogsite.
For some time now, I had been asking for people to help support the channel/blog through PayPal & Patreon to keep it going longer and to help offset the costs to run it all, and many people have been so great & supportive, but at this point it is just not enough.(**Not to mention the curious case of COPPA laws being strictly enforced on YouTube as of Jan 1, 2020 is going to change things for many creators on YouTube going forward. Yikes! perhaps even my entire channel will go bye bye!)
So for me, this dream of making this my business has turned into a very expensive hobby and after almost a decade, all sign just keep pointing to NO for me.
Thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages!
~Gretchen
I hope your whole channel wouldn’t disappear If you ever decided to do fee based membership of $5-10/ month( i’d go $15 because I’ve been following for a while) I would be willing to be a member even with just vegan content. I had planned on buying your e-books with extra money I received for the holidays, I will just buy your vegan book on amazon.
What happened to the original Gretchen’s bakery? I can’t get on the site. Did it change at the beginning of the year
Many thanks throughout the years…..you have been a mentor to me….grateful for all your inspirations John
Thanks Gretchen for all the work you’ve done!!! The cheesecake turned out very well. I have one question though can I add more apple cider vinegar? I think the cheesecake needs a little bit more TANG more cheesecake like. Anyway, I love love your cakes, they all look so goood!!
HI Thanks and yes! You can adjust that as you like, I typically use Lactic acid as I find it to be more of a tang and less acidic? But the ACV is totally fine too!