Description
Smooth, creamy and spiced with autumnal flavors, this vegan pumpkin cheesecake is so festive and decadent you'd never know it was vegan.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews, soaked (quick soak instructions below)
- 2 cups graham crackers, crumbled (Nabisco has a vegan variety)
- ¾ tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. sea salt
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
- ½ cup coconut cream (the hard stuff at the top of a can of coconut milk)
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 ½ Tbsp. agave nectar
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 ¼ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- If you didn’t soak your cashews overnight, you can do a quick soak by adding cashews to a saucepan and covering them with water. Bring water to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Drain cashews and set them aside.
- Add the graham crackers, cinnamon and sea salt to a food processor and pulse until the mixture is very fine. Stream in the vegan butter and process until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a 9-inch pie pan and press down very firmly until the crust covers the bottom and goes up the sides. Bake crust for 8 – 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, add the soaked cashews, coconut cream, vanilla extract, agave nectar, lemon juice and salt to a food processor and puree until silky smooth, adding a touch of coconut milk as needed to help things along. Add a tablespoon more agave if you want a sweeter result. Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl. Remove ¾ cup of the batter and spread it into the bottom of the crust.
- Add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice to the remaining batter and mix to combine. Carefully pour the pumpkin mixture over the batter in the crust and use a spatula to spread it evenly. Dust the top of the cheesecake with a bit more pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon and bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until the top is lightly puffed and the edges are golden.
- Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with foil and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.