This baked dairy-free cheesecake is just as good or better than any baked cheesecake you’ve ever had. It’s creamy and cheesy and simply sensational!
So you may have heard me whining on this blog about not being able to get dairy free cream cheese. Well…the other day when I was wondering around my local supermarket, imagine how excited I was to see some tofutti dairy free cream cheese!
I was so excited that I basically bought their entire stock of it. And then got busy making baked cheesecakes.
I made a few before I got to the perfect consistency but oh wow, this cheesecake is exactly the consistency of the baked cheesecakes you know and love! In dairy free form. Yay!
Of course it’s also egg free because hey this is a vegan blog! But it really doesn’t miss the eggs either.
If you love cheesecake then you’ll probably also love our no-bake vegan cheesecake and vegan pumpkin cheesecake.
How to Make Baked Vegan Cheesecake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
The Crust:
- I went with an old favorite here which is an oreo cookie crust. Golden oreos and vegan butter make the perfect crust for this cheesecake.
- Just add oreo cookies to the food processor and process into crumbs.
- Then add in melted vegan butter and process again until all the crumbs are coated with the butter.
- Press down into a 9-inch round pie dish.
The Filling Part One:
- The first part of the filling is to add coconut cream, the separated cream part only from a can of chilled coconut cream to a blender jug.
- Add cashews and blend.
TIP: This is very thick, so if you have a Vitamix, you’re all set. But if you have a weaker model blender, then the best thing to do will be to blend the coconut cream first, until it’s well blended, and then add the cashews and blend them into the coconut cream.
The Filling Part Two:
- Then you move on to the second part of the filling which is to add two tubs of vegan cream cheese (we used Tofutti) to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with caster sugar (also called superfine sugar), cornstarch, salt, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- Starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until everything is well mixed.
TIP: Be careful not to overmix. Don’t just leave the mixer running.
- Then (not pictured) add the coconut cream and cashew blended mix and lemon zest to the cream cheese mix and fold it in carefully.
- Pour the filling over the golden Oreo crust and smooth it down.
- Bake the cheesecake in the oven for 60 minutes at 320°F (160°C).
- After the cheesecake has baked for an hour, turn off the oven and crack open the oven door. Leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool down slowly for another hour.
- When it’s just finished baking it will be a little jiggly in the middle, don’t worry it firms up.
- After it finishes cooling in the oven, transfer it to the countertop and let it cool all the way down to room temperature and then move it to the fridge until chilled through and preferably overnight.
- Add the topping and serve!
No Water Bath
We bake this cheesecake at a low temperature so it doesn’t need a water bath. In addition to the low temperature baking, we crack the oven door after it has baked for an hour and let it cool down slowly for another hour. Baking it slowly and then cooling it slowly like this, means you don’t get cracks in the top.
As you’ll see from my pic above, mine cracked a little on the top, but that was because I got a little impatient with the cooling process and cut it short. If you let it cool nice and slow then it tends to not crack. But this tiny little crack in the top isn’t enough to convince me to go to the effort of a water bath. Especially because the crack will just get covered with a cookie crumb topping.
The Topping
The topping is just crushed golden oreo cookies. The topping is completely optional and you don’t actually have to have a topping at all.
I’m just a fan of how it looks with all those cookie crumbs!
Vegan Baked Cheesecake Q&A
It’s ideal to make this cheesecake in advance because you ideally want it to chill overnight in the fridge so it can firm up to the perfect consistency.
The filling is already gluten-free, so to make this cheesecake gluten-free all you need to do is use a gluten-free vanilla sandwich cookie to make the crust.
Keep it stored in the fridge and it will last around 5-7 days.
Yes you can freeze it! I froze a few slices and then thawed them in the fridge and they were perfectly delicious.
More Vegan Desserts
- Dairy Free Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Lemon Bars
- Vegan Chocolate Tart
- Vegan Mug Cake
- Vegan Nutella
- Vegan White Chocolate
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Dairy Free Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 28 Golden Oreos
- ⅓ cup Vegan Butter (75g) Melted
For the Filling:
- 1 ¼ cups Canned Coconut Cream (300ml) hardened cream only from a chilled 14 ounce (400ml) can, chilled in the fridge overnight
- 1 cup Raw Cashews (150g)
- 16 ounces Dairy Free Cream Cheese (450g) We used Tofutti brand
- 1 ⅔ cups Caster Sugar (330g) Superfine Sugar*
- ½ cup Cornstarch (64g)
- ½ tsp Salt
- 5 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Zest
For the Topping (Optional):
- 6 Golden Oreos Crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C).
- Add the oreo cookies to the food processor and process into crumbs. Melt the vegan butter and then add to the processor and process again until all the crumbs are coated with the butter. Spray a 9-inch round pie dish* with non-stick spray and then press the cookie crumbs down into an even layer. Set aside while you prepare your filling.
- Take the can of chilled coconut cream from the fridge and open the can. Scoop the hardened cream that has risen to the top into your blender jug, leaving the watery part behind. Add the raw cashews and blend until smooth. If your blender is not powerful (like a Vitamix) then blend the coconut cream first, and then add the cashew nuts and blend them in. Set aside.
- Add the two tubs of dairy-free cream cheese to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the caster sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until everything is well mixed. Be careful not to overmix, it just needs to be mixed in, don’t leave the mixer running.
- Add the coconut cream and cashew mix along with some lemon zest to the cream cheese mix and fold in.
- Pour the filling over the crust and smooth down.
- Bake for 60 minutes.
- After 60 minutes turn off the oven and crack open the oven door leaving the cheesecake in the oven to cool down slowly for an hour.
- When it’s finished baking it will be a little jiggly in the middle, this is perfect.
- After cooling in the oven, move it to the counter and let it cool down to room temperature and then move it to the fridge until chilled through. It’s ideal if you can leave it overnight.
- When it’s completely chilled through and firmed up then add the crumb topping and serve!
Notes
- Golden Oreos. You can switch the golden Oreos for a different vegan cookie if you prefer.
- Coconut cream. The hardened/separated cream from one 14 ounce can of coconut cream will usually equal about 1 and ¼ cups (300ml). If you have to replace the coconut cream in this recipe with a different cream then this is the amount you would use.
- Caster sugar. If you can’t get hold of caster sugar (superfine sugar) then you can use regular granulated white sugar instead.
- Pie dish. Our pie dish is 9-inches round and 2 and ½ inches deep. It needs to be a deep pie dish to fit the volume of this cheesecake. You could also use a 9-inch springform pan.
- Make it gluten free: The filling is already gluten-free, so to make this cheesecake gluten-free all you need to do is use gluten-free sandwich cookies (or other gluten free cookies) to make the crust.
- Storing and freezing: Keep it stored in the fridge and it will last around 5-7 days. It’s also freezer friendly.
This was my first time making this recipe and it was delicious! I do have a word of caution however, I recommend that bakers use a regular cake pan and not a springform for this particular cake, as the high oil content (my vegan butter is coconut oil based) in the crust caused oil to leak out of my springform pan and into the oven. Other than that hiccup the recipe went off without a hitch!
Thanks for the tip Jennifer! Glad it turned out well in the end. 🙂
I am looking to make this for my wife, but she loves strawberry cheese cake. Do you have a recommendation on how to add fruit to this recipe?
Hi Justin, you could perhaps add a strawberry compote on top? I don’t think it would work well to bake it into the cheesecake just because it would change the recipe too much.
Putting it as a topping worked great.
This is the first time I have ever made a Cheese cake and it came out perfectly.
The crust was firm and had a bit of a crunch to it and the cake itself was soft and full of flavor.
So glad it was a success! 🙂
Did you scrape the cream from the oreo? Or blend everything
No need to scrape it, just put the cookies whole into the food processor.
Can I make this in the Instant Pot? I do dairy cheesecake for 28 minutes 10 min natural release. I CAN NOT WAIT TO TRY THIS!!!
I haven’t tried it in an instant pot so I’m not sure.
My daughter is allergic to tree nuts. Can we omit the cashews?
Hi Charnita, you might be able to, but I haven’t tested it like that so I’m not 100% sure.
Hi there, wondering if I should do 2/3 or 1/2 of the recipe for a 6inch cheesecake?
You could try it with half and see how it goes. If it seems a bit thin you can increase it, but it won’t go too far wrong by starting with half the recipe.
Hi. This recipe looks amazing but vegan cream cheese is hard to get here. Can i use your home made vegan cream cheese?
You can certainly try it! Let us know how it goes if you do!
Damn surprising that it was really 5star. I think I like this better than a dairy version, I am really shocked – Thank you for the best recipe.
Yay! Thanks so much Cari!
I am vegan AND gluten intolerant, so I decided to try this out for my daughter’s 30th birthday (she loves vegan foods and is an amazing baker so I had a lot to live up to!). I used gluten free cookies in place of the oreos and it worked out perfectly – but I did soak the cashews on a friend’s advice, which made them a bit too creamy. We were impatient and ate it still warm – with homemade blueberry sauce (frozen blueberries, a little sugar, some pectin to thicken) and it was delicious, but had more the consistency of a heavy mousse. However, the best was yet to come – she put about 1/2 the cake away overnight in the fridge, (I know, I should have done it the day before! LOL!) and it firmed up to EXACTLY the same consistency as the best NYC cheesecake I’ve ever had. This gets two thumbs up. Next one I make I will make the day before, and NOT soak the cashews, and I’m going to go with a key-lime flavour. BEST CHEESECAKE EVER – and cruelty free! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
Awesome Christine! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Hello Alison,
After 20 years of baking cheesecakes, this past weekend was my first vegan venture. After much research on recipes, I chose your dairy-free cheesecake. Stakes were high, what with many vegan guests, but it can be said the bake was incredibly well received. I must thank you.
I will note that regarding the recipe, for the base I actually removed the Golden Oreo biscuit from the crème filling and used only the biscuit (with vegan butter) for the base. The crème filling was kept aside to make a frosting with vegan cream cheese. It was a hit!
Awesome Leigh! So happy to hear it was a success! Thanks so much for sharing.
I tried twice. The first one was perfect. But the second one’s filling and base separated when I cut the cheesecake.. Have you ever heard about this kinda situation? What is the reason? Please let me know!
Hi Mia, it could be a result of over-baking. I’m not sure what else would cause that.
Best recipe ever!
Hubby is dairy free and he hasn’t eaten cheesecake for ages. I found a vegan cream cheese and decided to give it a chance and it was a blast! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Isa!
can canned coconut milk be used instead of coconut cream?
Sure, that will work fine.
Hi Alison! Tried this recipe again and it turned out way better. I found out my oven will rise and drop plus or minus 30 degrees from what it is set on :(. It was still too jiggly at the 60 minute mark so I ended up baking it 10 minutes longer. It also didn’t take on any color as was pictured. It has set pretty well and while their edges are pretty cheesecakey the middle is still a little more gooey than I would like. Next time I think I’ll bring the lemon juice down to 4 Tbls, and I am using Tofutti. Everyone I’ve given it to thought it was a lemon cheesecake. My family is a big fan of cheesecake – but I am the only one who like lemon! Love your recipes by the way!
Thanks for sharing Jillian! Ovens can be SO variable which can be so tricky!
I have made this recipe a few times…. honestly I was never much of a cheesecake fan before I went vegan, but I had a craving one day so I tried this out. Seriously DELICIOUS recipe. Even my non-veg friends and family loved it!
Thanks Ana!
Hi!
I wanted to make these as cupcakes and possibly incorporate egg as well. Any tips or ideas? All your recipes looks delicious!! 🙂
Hmmm, sorry no idea about how to incorporate egg in this recipe as it was designed to not need eggs. Possibly you could reduce the cornstarch and add egg in its place, but I’m not sure. All the best! 🙂
I will be using a different cookie for the bottom/crust, can you translate what the 28 oreros would be i.e. 2 cups? Thank you so much!
It’s about 2 and 1/2 cups. 🙂
I’m preparing to try this recipe. Is it necessary to soak the cashews? Will soaking the cashews make the filling more creamy?
We didn’t soak the cashews first in this recipe, if you do want to soak them, then make sure it’s briefly because if they absorb too much water it can affect the consistency and make it too runny. Soaking won’t make it more creamy. 🙂