Vegan No-Bake Passionfruit Cheesecake

Hi baking friends!

I did a poll on my instagram a few weeks ago for you all to choose the next cheesecake I will make and the winner was passionfruit! I absolutely adore passionfruit and I was super excited to work on this recipe. Any fresh, tangy fruits work really well on a cheesecake because they compliment the rich creaming filling underneath. The buttery and 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 their favourite of all the cheesecakes I’ve done! 

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. However, 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!

If passionfruit isn’t your thing, make sure to check out my other cheesecake recipes here! 

Important note before the recipe:

For this recipe you’ll need at least 12 passionfruits. Depending on where you are in the world these can be insanely expensive. In London they range from 40p to £1 each. I therefore recommend using a store bought passionfruit coulis in combination with fresh fruit if you have access to one. This is the one I purchase in the UK. It also contains mango which I think provides an extra layer of flavour! 

Having a pre-made liquid which contains the passionfruit seeds is not only considerably cheaper it’s far far more convenient to use. 

When you open up a passionfruit, the seeds are covered in a thick pulp that’s very hard to remove with your hands. You don’t necessarily have to remove them but to get a really striking final look, you ideally want patterned black seeds across the jelly. Preferably not with thick chunks of pulp around the seeds. If you are using fresh passionfruit, then put the seeds in a sieve and use a spatula to scrape them against the sieve over and over again. After about 5 minutes the pulp will have grinded through the sieve and you should be left with clean black seeds.

When I made this I use a combination of a shop-bought coulis and fresh passionfruit. This way if I come up short on pulp/seed weight then I can just top it up with the coulis from the bottle.

If you are not confident with making jellies or using agar then feel free to just pour this coulis on top of the cheesecake before serving instead!  

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! I used to recommend buying cartons of coconut cream but sometimes they still contain a lot of milk so it’s best to use the cream from a can. 
• 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

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Vegan No-bake Passionfruit Cheesecake

March 25, 2021

Servings: 12

Prep: 60 min

Cook:

Total: 60 min

Difficulty: Medium

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This vegan passionfruit cheesecake is the absolute king of fruity cheesecakes. There's nothing quite like a sweet, tangy passionfruit jelly on top of that creamy vegan cheesecake filling, balanced perfectly with a buttery biscuit base.

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 160g vegan biscuits
• 70g melted, vegan butter
• Filling:
• 400g vegan cream cheese (2 x packs)
• 300g cashews
• 150g coconut cream
• 80g passionfruit pulp, no seeds (~3-4 passionfruit)*
• (you can also buy shop bought canned pulp or a passionfruit coulis with seeds)
• 120g icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (or paste)
• pinch of salt
• Jelly layer:
• 160g passionfruit pulp (6-8 passionfruit)
• 120ml water
• 30ml lemon juice (~1 lemon)
• 60g caster sugar
• ½ tsp agar agar powder
• pinch of turmeric powder (or yellow food colouring)

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: Cut up 9-12 passionfruits and weigh out all the pulp. We need roughly 240g in total. Separate the pulp into 80g with no seeds and 160g with seeds (we do not want crushed up seeds in the cheesecake filling).
• Step 4 Optional step: take the seeded pulp and push it through a sieve. You’ll notice the seeds are covered in a thick pulp that is hard to remove. Scrape the seeds against the sieve continuously until only the black seeds remain. This will make the jelly layer look smoother and allow the seeds to shine.
• Step 5 Warm up any of the cheesecake filling ingredients that can be warmed up. When they are warm, they are typically more liquid which helps to combine them in the food processor. I would recommend melting the coconut cream and the vegan cream cheese in the microwave (only some cream cheeses will soften but it’s worth a try anyway)l
• Step 6 Bring half a saucepan of water to a boil and boil the cashews for 30 minutes to soften them (you can also soak them in boiling water overnight). Discard the cooking water, dry off the cashews and place them into the food processor with the coconut cream. Blitz until smooth.
• Step 7 Add the vegan cream cheese to the food processor with the vanilla extract, icing sugar, passionfruit 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 8 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 9 Jelly Layer: Mix together the sugar and the agar powder in a small bowl. Add a few tablespoons of the 100ml water and mix until the sugar and agar are dissolved.
• Step 10 Pour this into a pan with the rest of the water, lemon juice and the passionfruit pulp. Turn the heat up to medium-low and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 1 minute until the agar is fully dissolved.
• Step 11 Take it off the heat and allow to cool slightly for 10 minutes. Then gently pour onto the cheesecake layer.
• Step 12 Chill for at least 1 hour then serve!