Vegan salted caramel cheesecake
A vegan vanilla cheesecake topped with salted caramel sauce and crumbled pretzels. A decadent no bake dessert great for when you have guests over.
Servings: 12
Ingredients
For the base
- 200 g rich tea biscuits
- 90 g margarine melted
For the cheesecake filling
- 340 g vegan cream cheese
- 425 g cashews
- 150 g full fat coconut cream from 400ml can of coconut milk * see notes
- 50 g coconut oil melted
- 265 g caster sugar
- 3 lemons zested and juiced
- 3 tsp vanilla bean paste
For the salted caramel sauce
- 100 g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 75 g coconut cream from 400ml can of coconut milk * see notes
- 25 g margarine
- 25 g light brown muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 20 g salted pretzels
- 20 g dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Grease and line an 8 inch loose bottomed, springform cake tin.
- In a food processor, pulse the biscuits until they resemble a crumb texture. Stir into the margarine until well combined.
- Pour the biscuit mixture into the tin and press down firmly. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Place the cashews in a saucepan and pour over boiling water, ensuring the cashews are covered. Boil for 30 minutes.
- Drain the cashews and pat dry. Blitz the cashews in a food processor until well chopped up.
- Scrape out the cashews into a large mixing bowl and add the coconut cream, coconut oil, caster sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Stir well, don’t worry if the mixture has any larger lumps. Next add half the mixture to the food processor. Pulse until the mixture is smooth and creamy, this should take roughly a minute. Remove the biscuit mixture from the freezer and pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.
- Add the remaining cheesecake mixture to the food processor and pulse again for another minute. Pour this into the cake tin. Spread the mixture out until even and place in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 3.5 hours. Then remove from the fridge and place in the freezer for a further 30 minutes to allow the cheesecake to completely set.
- Make a start on the caramel sauce (see notes). Add the sugar and water to a pan. Heat over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut cream, margarine, brown sugar, maple syrup and salt. Return the pan to the heat and bring to a boil, continue at a simmer for 4 minutes, stirring intermittently. Pour into a heatproof bowl and set aside at room temperature.
- Remove the cheesecake from the freezer and drizzle over the salted caramel sauce. Decorate with crushed pretzels and dark chocolate chips.
Notes
Use two cans of full fat coconut milk for the cheesecake filling and sauce. Open up the tin and simply skim off the top layer of coconut cream. Don’t worry if you get a bit of water alongside the cream.
Be careful when handling the caramel sauce, it is extremely hot and should be handled with care. Allow to cool before tasting.
Keep the cheesecake in the fridge until ready to serve.