This no-bake, gluten free and dairy free cheesecake is a sight to behold! It is deliciously decadent yet light and fresh. It’s also egg free, grain free, probably paleo and has options you can use if you are avoiding certain nuts.
When we first had to go dairy free, I never in a million years imagined I would enjoy something like a cheesecake, ever again! This no bake dairy free cheesecake is very special to me because it’s one of the very first recipes I lovingly developed, practiced and refined and shared on the blog, not long after I first started it.
The recipe below includes instructions to make a ‘Black Forest’ flavour – cherries and chocolate. Feel free to mix up the flavours. You could try:
STRAWBERRIES’ AND CREAM
Use only strawberries for the berries – either fresh of frozen. Divide the mixture into two instead of 3 and add the strawberry puree as you would the berry puree in the instructions. This mix will also make a strawberry jelly for the top
BERRY CHEESECAKE
Replace the cherries and strawberries with any berries you like – raspberries, boysenberries, blueberries – the possibilities are endless.
MAKE IT VEGAN
This is really easy to make vegan, since there is no gelatin in the actual cheesecake, you just need to replace the gelatin in the jelly 1:1 with agar, or even chia seeds. Though you would need to make sure it’s a thick chia jam so that it stayed in place. Also, use a vegan sweetener like maple syrup or rice malt syrup. Maple is my personal favourite, it gives it the perfect balance of texture and sweetener.
THE JELLY ON TOP
This is based on my healthy jelly lollies recipe, the gelatin I usually use is Great Lakes Gelatin in the red tin, which is the one that sets them firm. I’ve used it for years now and it still remains my favourite gelatin to work with.
CASHEW NUT FREE?
If you are avoiding cashew nuts, but have have other nuts, then you can replace the cashews in this recipe 1:1 for macadamia nuts. There are notes on how to do this at the bottom of the recipe.
No Bake Dairy Free Black Forest Cheesecake
Equipment
- Food Processor
- 18 or 20cm Round spring-form cake tin
Ingredients
Base
- 1 cup dates*
- 1 cup nuts (I used a mix of Brazil nuts, almonds and cashews)
- 1 cup dessicated coconut
Filling
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoons cacao powder**
- 4 cups cashew nuts (soaked for 4 hours***)
- 3/4 cup sweetner (I used half honey, half maple syrup)
- Scant 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup + 60ml Coconut oil (melted)
- 3/4 cup coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1.5 cups Berries strawberries, cherries, raspberries, boinsenberries or a mix (this will also be used for the jelly)
Jelly
- Berry Puree from the base
- 2 Tablespoons gelatin
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons sweetner I used coconut sugar
Instructions
Base:
- Put the nuts and coconut in the food processor and blend into course crumbs.
- Add the dates, salt and cacao and blend to combine into sticky crumbs that hold together when pressed.
- Line the cake tin with baking paper. Press the mix firmly into the bottom of the tin.
Filling:
- Put the cashews, lemon juice, vanilla, salt and sweetener into the food processor, blend until it's all super smooth and creamy.
- Add the coconut oil and coconut milk and blend again to combine. Leave the mix in the processor, or tip out into a bowl if you will need it to blend the berries. (I just used my stick blender for the berries).
- Blend the berries, (thawed first if frozen) into a purée.
- Get two bowls, Pour 1/3 of the mixture into each bowl. Pour the ⅓ that's left in the processor into the cake tin, on top of the base, and return to the freezer.
- In one bowl mix in the cacao powder, and in the other mix in 1/2 of the berry purée.
- Pour the berry filling on top of the vanilla and swirl it round a little with a knife to create a marble effect. Return tin to the freezer. Let that layer set in the freezer while you make the jelly. Your chocolate mixture will still be in a bowl. Leave that there for now.
Jelly:
- Put the other half of the berry purée, water and sweetener in a small pot and bring to the boil, then simmer on low. 'Bloom' the gelatin by mixing with 3 Tablespoons of cold water until it's expanded and thick, then add to the pot.
- Stir for 2 minutes until dissolved, taste it to make sure it’s delicious. Add more berries, sweetner or whatever, if you need.
To finish:
- Add the chocolate filling layer to the cake tin, spoon it over carefully and evenly so it doesn’t break through the other layers.
- Set in the freezer for 30 mins to an hour while your jelly cools and you clean up the horrific mess in your kitchen.
- Add the jelly layer to the top and return to the freezer for another 30 mins. Then you can either keep it in the fridge until it’s time to serve (a couple of days) or keep in the freezer and thaw out the day of serving.
- If you are like us and usually stick to cheap ingredients and easy fuss free recipes you can now congratulate yourself on completing this monstrosity! (If you had a child helping in the kitchen and you kept your cool, you can also congratulate yourself on that too). I promise you will be impressed when you unfurl it from its tin, and marvel in its grandeur.
- This is a monster of a cake, we had 8 guests for Christmas lunch and we didn’t even make it through half the cake. Serve it plain or dress it up with some fresh berries and whipped coconut cream, it looks magnificent either way!
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