Vegan No-Bake Kiwi Cheesecake

Hi baking friends!

This no-bake kiwi cheesecake is about to blow your mind. You might be thinking… kiwi? Why? And I’ll tell you why! Kiwi is such an underrated fruit; it has a beautiful, unique sweetness but also a small amount of tartness to balance it out. This makes for a perfect cheesecake because the tartness is a perfect finish to an otherwise super rich and creamy dessert. The salty, crunchy base is the final element of this showstopper and rounds out the flavour to make a perfect mouthful. My usual test subjects said this was the best dessert I’ve ever made so hopefully that was a reflection of how good this cheesecake is and now how poor the last 15 desserts were!!

Vegan cheesecakes are an interesting topic because there is currently no exact vegan “cream cheese” alternative that seamlessly matches that taste of a dairy cheesecake so you need to get creative! Ideally we want to perfectly match both the texture and flavour!

Most popular ingredients for vegan cheesecakes are:

• creamed (white) nuts such as cashew or macademia;
• vegan “cream cheeses” that usually have a coconut or tofu base but are fortified with stabilisers and lactic acid, the latter of which gives that classic tangy taste;
• coconut cream (taken from the top of a chilled can of coconut milk);
• silken tofu

I experimented with all of the above and I settled on using the first three. The signature formula of a cheesecake is the fat content which makes the dessert thick and sometimes crumbly. To achieve that I had to use the fat and texture of cashews and the fat % from coconut cream. The vegan “cream cheese” is also an absolute must because it contains lactic acid. You could skip the vegan cream cheese and just use more cashews and a teaspoon of lactic acid but who really has that lying about in their kitchen?

Silken tofu was a lovely addition to the texture but I got some feedback that it was far too light for a classic cheesecake. In a previous attempt I added some agar powder to the the filling and it produced a very panna cotta-like dessert. A few of my recipe-testers actually found this result quite appealing with one person commenting “it’s like a Summery, lighter version of the classic and you can eat more without feeling sick”.

Ultimately, I had to agree that it was quite far away from a classic cheesecake but if you’re looking for something lighter then here’s my ingredient swap for you: – substitute the 300g cashews for 300g silken tofu! 

It’s also a personal preference but I like to finish off all my cheesecakes with a jelly layer. Since we don’t use gelatin, the vegan substitute for the setting agent is agar agar powder. If you’re not familiar, agar is a naturally gelatinous powder derived from marine red algae. It mimics a lot of the qualities of gelatin but it has a unique texture- slightly more crumbly and more of a bite than gelatin. It’s a super popular ingredient in Asian desserts such as jelly cakes so you’ll often find it for cheap in your local Asian supermarket! 

For this recipe you’ll need at least 6 kiwis! (I used 8 if you include the decoration!)

If you’re in the UK, here’s a list of exact products I used for this recipe:

• For the coconut cream, buy a couple of cans of coconut milk, chill it overnight and then scoop out the cream from the top of the can! The coconut cream must absolutely be solid at room temperature or the filling of this recipe will be too soft. I used to recommend buying cartons of coconut cream but sometimes they still contain a lot of milk so they do not work.
• I buy my agar wholesale online because I use it so often but it’s also sold in Waitrose (or plenty of Asian supermarkets)
• McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits for the base (if you’re gluten-free you can buy these gluten-free biscuits).
• My go-to vegan block butter is the one from Naturli.
• For the vegan cream cheese, I used 2 x packs of the Violife cream cheese original.

For this recipe you’ll need:

• 8-inch springform cake tin (ideally a push-through cake tin to get smooth edges)
• food processor/blender

5 from 4 reviews

Vegan No-bake Kiwi Cheesecake

March 4, 2021

Servings: 12

Prep: 1 hr

Cook:

Total: 3 hr

Difficulty: Medium

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Smooth and creamy kiwi cheesecake sandwiched between a zesty layer of kiwi jelly and a crunchy biscuit base. This unique cheesecake will be your new favourite dessert!!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 160g vegan biscuits
• 70g melted, vegan butter
• pinch of salt
• Filling:
• 400g vegan cream cheese (2 x packs)
• 300g cashews
• 200g coconut cream
• 80g kiwi pulp (~2 kiwis)
• 120g icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (or paste)
• pinch of salt
• Jelly layer:
• 120g kiwi pulp (~3 kiwis)
• 50ml water
• 30ml lemon juice (1 lemon)
• 40g caster sugar
• ½ tsp agar agar powder
• 1 drop green food colouring (or pinch of matcha)

Directions

• Step 1 Crust: Pulse the biscuits in a food processor until they are completely crushed. Add the melted butter and process until well combined.
• Step 2 Place a circular disk of parchment in the bottom of the cake tin to help get the cheesecake out later. Place the crust mix into the cake tin and spread evenly. Use a cup and baking parchment to flatten it down. Chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
• Step 3 Cheesecake filling: Peel and cut up 5-6 kiwis and weigh them out. We need at least 200g for the filling and jelly (and some extra to account for some lost weight when we remove any pulp later).
• Step 4 Place the kiwis in a food processor and blend until smooth. Remove any white pieces of kiwi flesh. Reserve 80g for the filling and 120g for the jelly.
• Step 5 Bring half a saucepan of water to a boil and boil the cashews for 20 minutes to soften them (you can also soak them in hot water overnight). Discard the soaking water, dry off the cashews and place them into the food processor with the coconut cream. Blitz until smooth.
• Step 6 Add the vegan cream cheese to the food processor with the vanilla extract, icing sugar, kiwi pulp and salt then blitz again until smooth. It will be very thick so you may have to scrape down the sides to get it to blend completely smooth.
• Step 7 Pour this filling into the cake tin in on top of the frozen crust and leave it in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours.
• Step 8 Jelly Layer: Mix together the sugar and the agar powder in a small bowl with the food colouring (or matcha powder). Add a few tablespoons of the water and stir until the sugar and agar are dissolved.
• Step 9 Pour this into a pan with the rest of the water, lemon juice and the kiwi juice. Turn the heat up to medium-low and bring to a simmer, stirring continuously. Allow to simmer for 1 minute until the agar is fully dissolved.
• Step 10 Take it off the heat and allow to cool slightly for 10 minutes. To check if the jelly is going to set, pour a small amount of jelly into a bowl and place it in the freezer. If it doesn’t firm up within 5 minutes then reheat the jelly with some more agar and repeat the process.
• Step 11 Then gently pour onto the cheesecake layer.
• Step 12 Chill for at least 1 hour then serve!