sweet recipes Vegan

Vegan Eggnog Easter Cheesecake

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This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)

You would think there are some things you are not able to veganize, that something made completely out of egg would be one of those things. But no, this experiment is successful! And amazingly good!

Easter is coming and everything is eggs, eggs, eggs… But eggs are not included for a vegans diet.

I can remember from when I was younger that my father and grandma had eggnog with Easter and Christmas, with a huge dollop of whipped cream on top. It was one of the few alcoholic drinks my father really liked. And I get it, it’s creamy, sweet, like a vanilla custard with alcohol!

I also thought it was quite tasty and thought, I should be able to make that without eggs right? And I think I got quite close!

1 advise, well 2 actually… if you might think, I want to replace the salt with Kala Namak (black salt), DON’T DO IT!

I did it with my first attempt, because the black salt has this kind of eggy smell and taste, but its quite easy to overdo it and so did I and I ran around in my kitchen gagging because of the disgusting taste.

And if you really want to have that in there, make sure you really put in a tiny tiny tiny bit and not the casual pinch of salt. Because you will regret that. Hahaha!

And 2: Here in the Netherlands I used specific brands, but try to use a very thick vegan yogurt, vegan cream cheese or a silken tofu. I used Oatly Greek style, but Alpro No-Sugar is also one you can use.
For the Eggnog I used alpro vanilla dessert, you also can use a vegan custard.

Tips:

Alcohol free variation tip: If you don’t want to use alcohol, you can leave this out and use an extra 60 ml of vanilla drink, and just leave it out for the topping.

Gluten free tip: Use a gluten free cookie for the crust, only custard powder and no semolina and don’t use Oatly but one of the other options I mentioned earlier.

Ingredients:

Crust:

  • 200 gram cookies (I used McVities Digestive but feel free to try any vegan cookie)
  • 50 gram vegan butter (I used Flora Plant)
  • 75 gram dark chocolate

Cheesecake filling:

  • 600 gram thick plant based yogurt (or vegan cream cheese or silken tofu)
  • 100 gram sugar
  • 30 gram custard powder
  • 20 gram semolina (you can also add an extra 20 gram of custard powder I just think the texture is nicer with semolina)
  • 210 ml Alpro vanilla drink (or anything similar from another brand)
  • 60 ml Brandy
  • 50 gram vegan butter (Flora Plant)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

Topping:

  • 200 ml whip-able vegan whipped cream
  • 1 tablespoon of whipped cream stabilizer
  • 2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
  • 30 ml vegan eggnog
  • decorative chocolate flakes/sprinkles

Vegan Eggnog:

  • 30 ml Alpro vanilla dessert of custard (do not get the yogurt its to sour for this)
  • 10 ml of brandy
  • pinch salt
  • ¼ teaspoon of turmeric (for a more yellow/orange colour)
  • And maybe some powdered sugar to thicken it a bit more if you thin.

Preparation:

Start with the crust, get a baking tin of 22cm and line with parchment paper.

Crumble the cookies, and melt the butter and mix them together. Press firmly into the tin.

Melt the chocolate and pour this over the crust, you can try to spread it out a bit but be careful not to break the crumbs crust.

Place the tin into the freezer so the chocolate can stiffen up while you go ahead with making the filling.

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees.

Trow all the ingredients of the filling into a blender or kitchen machine, and mix really well.

Do not forget to melt the butter before throwing that in!

As soon as the chocolate is hard again you can pour in the filling.

Place it in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. The first 30 minutes at 170 degrees and after that 50 minutes at 100-120 degrees depending on how browned the top of your cheesecake is.

As soon as your cheesecake is not bubbling anymore you know it’s ready.

Tip: place a heatproof bowl filled with water underneath your cheesecake to prevent the top from cracking.

Leave the cheesecake to cool slowly in the oven for about 15 to 30 minutes with the door ajar. And let cool off outside or inside the fridge after that. This is to prevent the cheesecake from deflating.

Toppings:

When your cheesecake is cooled down completely (after about 3 – 4 hours) you can start your toppings.

Just whip up the whipped cream with the stabilizer and the vanilla sugar. And decorate the cheesecake.

And for the Eggnog, you mix the Alpro vanilla dessert, turmeric, brandy and salt together in a small bowl. If you don’t think it’s thick enough you can thicken it with a bit of powdered sugar.

Spoon this on top of the whipped cream and decorate with some chocolate flakes or sprinkles.

And your done! Happy Easter!