Vanilla Cheesecake... the vegan way

We at times like to settle for some simple desserts on weekday nights while the exotic ones are reserved for the weekends. Though we generally avoid indulging in heavy dinners followed by rich desserts, it's sometimes nice to just sooth down and pamper ourselves after the stress and hustle-bustle of the day, with sometime really as simple, yet exotic as this Vanilla Cheesecake.

No, I wouldn't admit that it's as quick as whipping a dessert in minutes and serving them, but it's fairly simple. I developed this light, yet rich-tasting dessert for our dinner a few months ago. I know it would seem too long to post, but I held on to this post thinking it wasn't the best of the photographs I took that night to justify it here. The summers were warm and as mentioned the temperatures were at peak too. So when I brought them out of the refrigerator to photograph them, they went on a melting spree in few minutes! By the time I could get good lighting and adjustments, they almost began to leach, putting me off completely.

I like desserts which I can prepare ahead of time. That gives me time to focus on other items on my menu. I would love to experiment more with cheesecakes, probably baked ones too. I could make these for entertaining events because I can prepare them ahead of time, which is what I love. But at the moment I am yearning for a spring form pan for more to be baked!

Vanilla Cheesecake

INGREDIENTS

For the crust:

1 pack digestive biscuits
1 tbsp margarine butter

For the cheesecake:

1/4 cup silken tofu
3 cups plain soy milk (400 ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pack china grass/agar-agar (vanilla flavor)
1 cup sugar (avoid if your pudding mix already has sugar)

DIRECTIONS

Crush the digestive biscuits and add in the melted butter. Mix well so that it resembles bread crumbs. Cover the bottom and sides of the cake tin with a cling film if you don't have a spring form pan. Layer the biscuit crumbs on the bottom of the pan and press it down well evenly. Push it into the freezer till you prepare the cheesecake.

Bring 2 cups of the plain soy milk to a boil. Mix the china grass mix to the rest of the soy milk. Add in the sugar to it if your china grass mix has no sugar added in it. The china grass pack that I used had sugar in it, hence I didn't add any extra sugar. Once the soy milk has come to a boil, add in the china grass milk to it. Bring it to a gentle boil or until the agar-agar has completely softened into the soy milk. Turn off the flame, remove from heat and allow it to sit for a while.

Meanwhile, blend the silken tofu until very smooth. Add extra vanilla if required. Add in the warm china grass milk to it, blend again till it's one uniform mixture. Transfer this to the prepared biscuit base. Cover the top with a cling film if required and refrigerate for few hours, preferably overnight.

Before serving, melt some dark chocolate and pipe it through a zip lock bag in stands over top of the cheesecake. Top with chocolate shavings if required. It compliments well with the vanilla flavors of the cheesecake.

When I made the cheesecake, I used very little silken tofu fearing that it would give out uncooked taste in the dessert. That's why it melted away instead of holding firm shape. The silken tofu particularly added to the creamy texture. I also did not allow it to sit for hours and brought it out before it could set completely, though this did not hamper the taste in any ways. I would suggest you increase the tofu by another half a cup and allow a setting time of atleast 6 hrs.

If you are not a vegan and have tasted those exotic rich and creamy cheesecakes, then you would surely sue me for the difference! These are light, absolutely light! Most vegan cheesecakes would use Toffutti Better than Cream Cheese, but that option was far from possible for me. I can't think of getting hold of something like that here. So I have just skipped that and used pureed silken tofu instead.

The vegan cheesecake was light, dreamy and good. Hubby dear took the first bite and gave thumbs up saying it was totally yum! With common cheesecakes being rich, heavy and relatively high in calories, this one was light, low fat and healthier than it's siblings. Not to forget being vegan too, it's totally guilt free!