Ultra-rich and creamy baked Vegan New York Cheesecake made with no cream cheese or tofu! It's sweet but not too sweet, tastes amazing, and can be served with your choice of topping. I love it with some berry compote and fresh berries.
Love cheesecake? Be sure to try my very popular Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake and Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake next!
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send it straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way! Unsubscribe at any time.
FEATURED COMMENT
"Not even joking, this cake is amazing! I am a huge cheesecake fan, and this consistency is right on the money...Amazing. Great flavour, and fantastic texture...you can't even tell it's vegan, it just tastes like a homemade cheesecake. I'm in love." - Al ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More reviews →
It doesn't get better than this Vegan New York Style Cheesecake! It is just like a "real" baked cheesecake in texture. Dense, rich, super creamy, very satisfying, completely dairy-free and unlike most vegan cheesecake recipes, you don't need any vegan cream cheese or tofu to make it.
This recipe is such a popular one with AVV readers, with 5-star reviews aplenty, and it comes highly recommended on Reddit too. One user commented, "I have made this one multiple times and always get rave reviews from non-vegans. It tastes and has texture like a real baked cheesecake. I can't recommend it more."
To get the perfect baked cheesecake texture, I tested and retested this recipe dozens of times with many different ingredients and methods and eventually found that a very unlikely combination of chickpeas and cashew nuts gave amazing results, and that tried-and-true version is the one you are seeing here today.
Please don't let the cashews and chickpeas scare you off, though. You would NEVER know! The cashews give the filling its creaminess and the chickpeas make the filling dense and creamy, which means you don't need to use vegan cream cheese or tofu.
I hope you love it!
Mel x
🤍 WHY YOU'LL LOVE THIS Vegan New York Cheesecake
- Easy - Simple instructions and quick to prepare.
- Delicious - It tastes just like regular cheesecake and even impresses non-vegans.
- Great for making in advance - It keeps really well for up to a week in the fridge. Perfect for a stress-free dessert when entertaining.
- Customizable - Make the cheesecake and choose your own topping.
- No vegan cream cheese - Most plant-based cheesecakes need store-bought cream cheese for the filling. This recipe doesn't, which means it's cheaper to make and more accessible for people who can't easily buy vegan products.
- Soy-free and dairy-free - Perfect for people with allergies or intolerances.
- Naturally sweetened - Instead of refined sugars, the cheesecake filling is naturally sweetened with maple syrup, which gives it a balanced, not-too-sweet flavour.
- Family-friendly - This is a vegan dessert recipe the whole family will love. It's perfect for holidays and dinner parties.
Serving Suggestions
It's delicious as it is, but a topping or sauce not only makes the Vegan New York cheesecake look beautiful, it also adds flavour and contrast.
In my pictures, I topped it with my easy frozen berry compote (blended and sieved to make it smooth) and piles of fresh berries.
Other toppings that work really well include:
- Vegan caramelized bananas and coconut whipped cream
- Vegan Lemon Curd (amazing with some fresh raspberries too)
- Pumpkin Caramel Sauce
- Roasted Strawberries
- Blueberry Lavender Sauce
- Frozen Berry Compote
- Healthy Caramel Sauce
- Melted Biscoff spread (you could even use Biscoff cookies instead of digestives or graham crackers).
Readers have had so much fun with this recipe over the years. I love seeing your remakes! One very popular riff, which I haven't yet tried myself but sounds amazing, is to use Oreo cookies for the base, with chunks of broken Oreo stirred through the batter and lots of chocolate syrup or sauce to drizzle.
Recipe FAQs
I have personally never tried freezing it, but several people in the comments have said they have with success. Be sure to wrap it very well if you decide to try it.
To make this recipe gluten-free, you'll need to find some gluten-free digestive biscuits or graham crackers. The filling is naturally gluten-free.
You can use either a springform pan or a cake pan with a loose push-up style removable bottom. I do not recommend trying to make this cheesecake in a cake pan without a removable bottom, or you will never get it in one piece.
Sorry no. The full-fat coconut milk is important for setting the cheesecake.
Recipe
Vegan New York Cheesecake
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
FOR THE BASE
- 23 (350 grams or 12 oz) digestive biscuits, or graham crackers
- 6 tablespoons (90 ml) melted vegan butter, or coconut oil
FOR THE FILLING
- 2 cups (300 grams) raw cashews, soaked in boiling water for 15 mins then drained (measured before soaking)
- 1 cup (175 grams) canned chickpeas, drained & rinsed well
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
- ½ cup (120 ml) maple syrup, (real maple, not pancake syrup!)
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 x 14oz (400ml) can full-fat coconut milk (It must be full-fat, not light. If your can is only 398 ml, that's fine).
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 320F (160°C) and line a 9 or 10-inch spring-form pan that is at least 3 inches deep. First, grease it with vegan butter or a little oil so the paper sticks. Then draw around the bottom of the cake pan on parchment paper, cut it out and put that in the bottom of the pan. Line the sides of the pan with a long rectangular strip of baking parchment.
- Put the digestive biscuits (or graham crackers) into a food processor with the melted butter/coconut oil and blend until well combined and looking like crumbly damp sand. Press very tightly into the bottom of the cake pan to form a thick crust layer. Refrigerate while you make the filling.
- Add all of the filling ingredients to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour over the crust, then set the pan on a baking tray.
- Bake for about 50 minutes or until set well around the edges with a tiny bit of a wobble in the middle. Time will vary slightly depending on your oven and the pan you use.
- Allow to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 4 to 5 hours or overnight. Don't put it in the fridge while hot/warm.
NOTES
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send it straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way! Unsubscribe at any time.
Tamar Benda says
Just prapared it Last night. stole a bit corner and it certaily IS SOMETHING AMAZING!!!
can't decide what finish to put on top as they all look atractive...
Thank you Thank you Thank you so very much
Tamar
lauren says
im very sad as i wanted this to work so bad! i made it for my partners birthday and put a bakeapple (cloudberry) compote on top, and sadly that was the redeeming factor:( the consistency is wonderful, but there’s very little sweetness and flavour, and there’s an aftertaste that isn’t super pleasant. i really, really wanted this to work out but it just didn’t:(
Dayna says
Can I make this without syrup to make sugar free? Can I add stevia and and water or something to replace the liquid of the syrup? Thanks
Melanie McDonald says
I recommend following the recipe as written for the best results. Maple syrup is important for its rich flavour as well as the sweetness.
I can’t guarantee the recipe will work well with any substitutes.
K says
Tell me about the chickpeas in this recipe. I’ve never seen a cheesecake recipe with chickpeas. I find it fascinating! What does it do to the consistency?
Rachel says
Hi, This recipes sounds wonderful. I'd like to make it for a family member who is on a strict low saturated fat diet (due to heart disease). I realize the full fat coconut milk is ideal but do you think silken tofu or cashew cream might work in replacement?
Melanie McDonald says
This is a 10 year old recipe so I can't remember the testing process for the life of me, however, I have written in the recipe that the canned coconut milk MUST be full fat and not light, which suggests to me that I tested it with light coconut milk and it did not work well. That will be because the fat solidifying in the coconut milk helps to set the cheesecake and that also means that silken tofu and cashew cream won't work either because they have nothing in them that will set. It might be possible to tweak the recipe to make it work with them, but it would take some testing and it's a big ol' cheesecake. I'd hate for you to have a failure and waste all of those ingredients and you certainly don't want to be winging it when you make it for your family member. I'm sorry it's not a more positive answer!
Rachel says
Thank you for responding so quickly!