Veganer Kirsch-Käsekuchen (vegan cherry cheesecake)
A no-bake vegan cheesecake, soaked cashews blended long past the point they look smooth to get a genuinely creamy filling rather than a grainy one, set with agar-agar rather than gelatine, and topped with a cooked cherry layer. Agar sets firmer than gelatine and needs a real boil to activate, which is the one technical step worth doing properly.
Prep40 min
Cook10 min
Rest480 min
Servings12
Christoph's vegan cherry cheesecake, blending the cashews far longer than seems necessary and using agar rather than gelatine, which needs an actual boil rather than a gentle warm-through.
Ingredients
Written for a 22 cm round tin
Units
Temperature
Servings
Base
- 200 g oat biscuits, vegan rounded
- 80 g coconut oil, melted rounded
Filling
- 350 g cashews, soaked in cold water at least 4 hours, drained rounded
- 200 ml coconut milk rounded
- 90 g sugar rounded
- 40 ml lemon juice rounded
- 60 ml neutral oil rounded
- 5 ml vanilla extract rounded
Cherry topping
- 400 g sour cherries, pitted, well drained if jarred rounded
- 80 g sugar rounded
- 100 ml cherry juice or water rounded
- 3 g agar-agar powder rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs and stir in the melted coconut oil until it looks like wet sand. Press firmly into the base of a 22 cm springform and chill while you make the filling.
- Blend the drained cashews, coconut milk, sugar, lemon juice, oil and vanilla together until completely smooth, a full 2 to 3 minutes past the point it looks smooth; any remaining graininess will still be there once set.
- Pour the filling over the chilled base, smooth the top, and chill for at least 4 hours, until firm enough to hold a topping.
- Combine the cherries, sugar and cherry juice or water in a pan. Whisk in the agar-agar powder while cold, then bring to a full boil, stirring, and boil for 2 minutes; agar needs this genuine boil to set, a gentle simmer is not enough.
- Cool the cherry topping for 10 minutes, until it starts to thicken slightly but is still pourable, then spread it evenly over the set filling.
- Chill at least 4 more hours, ideally overnight, before releasing the ring and slicing.
Notes
- Blend the cashew filling far longer than seems necessary. Cashews look smooth in a blender well before they actually are; any remaining graininess is far more obvious once the filling is cold and set.
- Agar sets differently from gelatine and needs a real, rolling boil to activate, not just a warm-through; skip this and the cherry topping stays liquid no matter how long it chills.
- Soak the cashews properly. Under-soaked cashews blend to a grainy paste no amount of processing time fixes; a full 4 hours in cold water, or 1 hour in just-boiled water, softens them enough.
- It keeps for 3 days in the fridge, covered.
Ingredient substitutions
- Sour cherries can be sweet cherries, pitted, with the sugar reduced slightly.
- Agar-agar comes in flakes as well as powder; flakes need roughly double the quantity and a longer boil, so check the packet if using flakes instead.
- Coconut milk should be full-fat for the right body; light coconut milk gives a thinner filling.
- For a nut-free version, sunflower seeds soaked and blended the same way give a reasonable, if less rich, alternative to cashews.
From Christoph Mayer