Catherine's Cooking @ cathteops: Non Bake and Non Dairy Cheesecake

Can't take dairy product but craving for cheesecake?

Last year my teenage daughter made me non bake carrot cake topped with "creamy cheese" for my birthday. I was surprised and amazed by the taste of the "cheese" that she put on top of the cake though she told me it was non dairy - meaning not cheese and nothing to do with animal fat.

Daughter read alot on non dairy food as she wants to avoid dairy products due acne issue. She trys to avoid food that are dairy though she love ice cream and pastry and cake and cookies and pizza which are dairy. And usually i will only bake dairy cakes and cookies.

Few days ago, she said "I am craving for cheesecake" . For her sake, I went into google and search for non dairy cheese cake recipes. Read quite a few recipe online how others make non dairy cheesecake. I have adopted partial recipe for cheese cake filling from blog.fablunch.com. Did not follow through the entire recipe. In facts, made quite a fair bit of changes in my ingredients for fillings. For crust, I did the dairy cheesecake way which I usually will do. But change the ingredients by replacing melted butter with coconut oil.

The "cheesecake" taste so like real cheesecake that I forgotten that it was not make of cheese. 😁

One important note is this "cheesecake" MUST put in chiller overnight to achieve the texture of a cheesecake. Try! You will love it. This is a "cheesecake" that I will make often from now moving forwards. I would say this is probably healthier choice.. but in all things.. eat all food in moderation and exercise regularly to maintain healthy body and lifestyle.

This is the recipe and how I made them :

Crust Ingredients:

5-6 pieces digestive buscuits pound into powder

4-5 tablespoon coconut oil

Filling ingredients

1 cup raw cashew nuts( soak 3-4 hours)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup maple syrup (to reduce to about 4 tablespoon)

1/4 cup water (cold or room temperature boiled water)

2 tbsp of lemon juice(approx 1/2 big lemon)

1 tsp vanilla extract/essence

A pinch of salt

4 strawberries for topping purpose.

Method:

1. Place digestive biscuits into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crash and pound the biscuits into powder. You may use food process if you have.

2. Add coconut oil into powder biscuits and mix them well. Prepare 4 small cleaned glass bottles. Spoon 2-3 tablespoon of crust mixture into each bottle. Number of scoop depend on the size of bottle. Press the mixture to the base of bottle. Then, leave the bottles with the crust in refrigerator for about an hour to be harden.

3. Pour away the water use for soaking cashew nuts. Rinse the nuts. Place nuts and all the fillings ingredients into blender. Blend until you see a creamy texture. If the texture is too thick and difficult to blend, add additional water one spoon at time. DO NOT over add water. Please make sure the water is boiled and left to cool before use.

You may adjust the sweetness according to your desire taste by adding additional or reduce maple syrup during blending process.

4. Once the fillings ingredients is done. Bring out the 4 bottles with crust from fridge. Scoop the 3-4 tablespoons of creamy fillings into each bottle. Again, number of scoop depend on your size of bottle. Top with strawberries or other berties.