You all know my most favourite thing to create is healthy vegan desserts. I love my vegan desserts so much! to me, they are better than the real thing because they not only taste good but are good for you and don’t leave you feeling awful after eating them. I have however noticed that some people just don’t feel the same way about my healthy desserts as I do. They need quite a bit of time getting used to the less sweet taste, the bitterness of dark chocolate and the often nutty texture of things. Every once in a while I nail a dessert that is not only healthy but also tastes JUST LIKE a traditional dessert. This is one of them! This is one of the most traditionally tasting desserts I have made yet. I really hope the photos do this dessert justice because it not only tastes like the real deal, but it also uses no coconut and no cashews like most vegan desserts do. I was finally able to bring myself to trying some slivered almond instead of cashews in my cheesecakes and I am pleased to say that they worked just as well or even better. I will now be using either cashews or almonds in my desserts interchangeably to mix things up. I get lots and lots of questions for alternatives to coconut and cashews as these seem to be standard in most vegan desserts. It really is quite hard to come up with alternatives because both serve a specific function. It’s also difficult to try experiment with something different as healthy desserts can get very expensive thanks to all the nuts involved and you really don’t want them to fail as they cost a lot of money especially when you make them all the time as a food blogger!
The recipe uses my favourite Mt Elephant hemp seeds and oil to make this dessert extra nutritious. Hemp seeds are a superfood so I try to sneak them into most of my desserts and breakfast recipes. It has a delicious crunchy crumble topping and a perfectly sliceable cheesecake centre. The crumble part is quite difficult to slice and gets a bit messy but it is worth it for the taste. The gingerbread part is because I developed the recipe for Christmas time but it can be omitted and be made plain or with vanilla etc. You can also make it chocolate or add some fruit to change things up.
| Vegan Baked Gingerbread Cheesecake Slice- No Cashews, No Coconut | Print |
- BASE:
- ⅛ cup Mt Elephant Hemp Seeds
- ½ cup quick oats (sub quinoa flakes for gluten-free)
- 1½ cups almond meal
- 4 TBSP Mt Elephant hemp oil
- 4 TBSP maple syrup
- FILLING:
- 1 cup slivered almonds (soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes)
- 1 300g packet silken tofu
- 6 TBSP maple syrup
- 1 TBSP nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp tahini
- 1 TBSP vanilla
- 1½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- CRUMBLE TOPPING:
- 1½ cups roughly chopped pecans
- ⅓ cup wholemeal spelt flour (or sub flour of choice)
- 3 TBSP maple syrup
- ⅓ cup Mt Elephant hemp seeds
- Preheat oven to 180 C
- For the base: add all base the ingredients into a large bowl and mix together until sticky. Press down into the base of a lined 10 cm square baking tin and set aside.
- For the filling: place slivered almonds in a bowl, boil a kettle of water and pour over almonds and allow to soak for about 15 minutes until softened. Drain water and add almonds to a blender with all remaining filling ingredients. Blend until smooth. Pour over the base.
- Place in the oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes, this will make the cheesecake develop a nice crust on top. In the meantime mix, all the crumble ingredients in a small bowl. Once the crust has formed on the cheesecake, remove from oven and sprinkle over crumble. Bake for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing (the topping will be quite crumbly).
