Lemon curd cheesecake.

vegan lemon curd cheesecake

Everyone knows cheesecake (I guess). But the cheesecake I grew up with was not the kind of cheesecake made with cream cheese. Instead, it had curd cheese in it, and the one my mom used to bake (and still does) was based upon a recipe she had gotten from a neighbour who, in her turn, had it from her husband’s German relatives. In German, this is called Käsekuchen or Quarkkuchen. The Austrians have their own word for it, Topfenkuchen. As far as my research indicated, the correct English term would be lemon curd cheese (the recipe indeed includes lemon zest and juice). But do correct me if I’m wrong.

When turning vegan about 12 years ago, I stopped having this marvellous cake which, apart from curd cheese, also has quite some eggs. But then after analysing numerous recipes of veganised versions, I started making my own curd cheesecake based upon a mixture of silken tofu and firm tofu. It actually worked and it was quite a decent cake. But now I have been able to bring the art of lemon curd cheesecake baking to top-level quality. And all thanks to two new ingredients. The first one being the soy-based curd cheese alpro has launched  (its organic counterpart provamel did the same), and which really tastes like I recall curd cheese to taste. The second one being aquafaba (ok, admittedly, that is not something new, but the insight that this chickpea liquid actually has distinct eggwhite-like qualities still is relatively recent). The addition of aquafaba is not strictly necessary, but it does add a sublime airiness to the cake’s texture. Take these two ingredients, and you’ll get a curd cheesecake that no one will ever suspect to be vegan in the first place.

So here you go!

 

vegan lemon curd cheesecake

 

• Servings: 12 decent slices
• Time: 1h 30 min
• Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients

Crust

• 300 g flour
• 100 g vegan butter
• 75 g cane sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 1/4 cup water

Curd cheese filling

• 2 packages (400 g each) alpro Go On plain (curd cheese/strained yoghurt)
• 100 g cane sugar
• 15 g baking powder
• 50 gram package vanilla pudding powder
• 4 TB cornstarch (maizena)
• 2 tsp vanilla-flavoured sugar
• 250 g plant-based milk
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 2 TB lemon juice
• liquid of 1 can drained chickpeas (about 10 TB)

Directions

Crust

Mix all ingredients and knead until you end up with a smooth ball of dough. Roll it out with a rolling pin and line the bottom and side of a (relatively large) springform pan with it. Use a fork to perforate the dough here and there.

Curd cheese filling

Whip the aquafaba until it forms stiff peaks (and you can hold the bowl upside down 🙂 ). Set aside.

Mix all other ingredients. When you have a smooth batter, gently fold in the whipped aquafaba. Pour into the springform pan.

Bake for an hour in a preheated oven on 160-170 degrees Celcius. Your cake will be rising during the baking process, but will somewhat collapse afterwards. When done baking, leave it to cool in the oven (with the oven door ajar) for 20 more minutes before removing it.

Let cool completely (and thus firm up) before serving.