It’s been a while since I’ve shared a cheesecake recipe, which is quite odd as it’s one of my favorite cakes ever and I want to eat it at least once a month. Homemade is best ♥ I always try to make seasonal cheesecakes: flavored with berries in summer and gingerbread spiced in winter. For fall season I love this vegan pumpkin caramel cheesecake. One of the best ways to use pumpkin 😉
To read this post in Finnish, click here.
This cheesecake is not the lightest of cheesecakes, but then again it’s CHEESECAKE, so it should be thick and creamy!
How to make a baked vegan gluten-free cheesecake
Gluten-free crust
The crust is super easy to make. It’s a delicious gluten-free one, made with some of my favorite gluten-free flours: oat flour and almond flour. Coconut oil and maple syrup binds the flours together. With this ingredient combination, I think the crust resembles a “digestive cookie” crust.
It would of course be an easy solution to just crush some store bought cookies for the crust, but I love making my crust from scratch so I can be sure I have good quality ingredients in my cake.
Creamy pumpkin filling
To make a creamy filling, cashews are my number one ingredient. Cooked soft pumpkin enhances the smooth feel as does yogurt. I find soy yogurt works best (because of its ability to firm up when baked), but I’m sure any plant-based yogurt works.
This cake is super simple to make, but it does require one important gadget: either a high-speed blender or powerful food processor, because you want the filling to be silky smooth for perfect cheesecake creaminess.
Vegan caramel for sweetness
This isn’t a super sweet cake, so to make it sweeter, I made a caramel sauce to go with it. I added a few cute caramel dots between blobs of cream, but you can of course add more sauce on top. Caramel stripes would look amazing too!
All these decorations make the cake super festive….so I recommend this cake for either Thanksgiving or if you have Father’s Day coming up like we do, would be a perfect cake for all Dads too 😉
My dad is most likely reading..so now you know what I’m baking for Sunday ♥
Vegan cheesecake love
Because I’m a huge cheesecake lover, I have a whole category on the blog dedicated to cheesecakes. I prefer baked cheesecakes so most of the recipes are baked ones, but there is one super yummy unbaked version too: Chocolate-tahini cheesecake bars. If you want a lemon flavored baked cheesecake, colored with turmeric for a super fun & bright color, here’s the recipe (very similar to this pumpkin one). If you want a festive Christmas version, check out my Christmas tree cheesecake pops!
Pumpkin love
As a big pumpkin lover too, I’m slowly growing my pumpkin recipe archives too. I’ve already shared two delicious pumpkin treats on the blog: pumpkin tiramisu overnight oats and pumpkin tiramisu tarts – both are easy to make, no-bake and easy to eat as either breakfast, snack or healthier dessert 🙂
- [b]Crust[/b]
- 0,6 cups / 150 ml oat flour
- 0,4 cups / 100 ml almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2,5 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
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- [b]Filling[/b]
- 1 cup / 250 ml (or 5 oz / 140 g) cashews
- 1 cup / 250 ml unsweetened soy yogurt (or you can use a mildly sweetened one)
- 5,3 oz / 150 g (or a generous 1/2 cup, bit less than 1 cup) pumpkin puree (or butternut squash puree)
- 4 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
- pinch of salt
- [br]
- [b]Caramel[/b]
- 2,8 oz / 80 g or about 4 pitted medjool dates
- 1/4 cup (or more if you want it thinner) plant-based milk (I used thick barista style oat milk)
- 1 tbsp nut butter
- two generous pinches of salt (or to taste)
- [br]
- To decorate: plant-based whipped cream or coconut yogurt or other thick yogurt, berries and caramel sauce
- Preheat oven to 390 F / 200 C.
- Put a parchment paper on the bottom of a small (about a 7 inch / 18 cm) springform pan.
- Crust: mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add maple syrup and coconut oil and keep on mixing in a bowl until you get a thick batter.
- Press the batter on the bottom of a springform pan.
- Blend all filling ingredients in a high-speed blender or powerful food processor until silky smooth. The filling should be totally liquid and easy to pour on top of the crust.
- Pour the filling on the crust and spread it evenly.
- Bake in the oven for 20-24 minutes or until the middle part of the cake is not wobbly anymore.
- Caramel: blend all caramel ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.
- Let cake chill properly before decorating.
- If you’re patient, let it set in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Just remember to take it out about 30 minutes before serving (so the crust will be softer and it’s easier to cut).
- Decorate cake with cream (or yogurt), caramel sauce and berries.
- Enjoy!
[…] to make it very creamy. Toppings: stovetop gingerbread granola, date-nut butter caramel (recipe here), berries and fruits. […]