The Easiest Classic Vegan Cheesecake Recipe
This ultra creamy and rich vegan cheesecake tastes JUST like classic New York baked cheesecake, and it only needs 7 ingredients (NO tofu, no cashews though!). And it’s SO easy to make with my simple steps to ensure you get the creamiest and perfectly tangy vegan cheesecake ever!
A classic New York-style cheesecake- made vegan:
Truly. It took me years to develop an amazing baked vegan cheesecake that tastes just like a slice of classic cheesecake: super rich, ultra creamy, decadent, and just sweet with the perfect tang. Rich, like New York cheesecake, but made at home, and all without eggs and dairy.
And make it easy, too.
Plus you don’t need to soak any cashews beforehand nor prep any tofu. This vegan cheesecake is made entirely without cashews, tofu, nor coconut cream, and the result is ultra velvety, creamy, and lush. And we’re only using 7 simple ingredients too!
What I love most about this recipe, from a recipe developer’s standpoint , is that it can now be used as the base recipe for other cheesecakes. In fact, it’s inspired some of my most popular cheesecake recipes, including my caramel cheesecake, cannoli cheesecake, tiramisu cheesecake, and pistachio cheesecake!
The only 7 ingredients you need:
- Vegan cream cheese: Many vegan cream cheese do use nuts, I am aware of this. That’s why I made my 3-ingredient homemade vegan cream cheese that’s NUT FREE and soy free. For store bought, I personally love Tofutti and it works wonderfully in this recipe. However, for my soy-free readers, I have tried this cheesecake with Kite Hill and it is a DREAM!
- Dairy free yogurt: You can use your favorite here (mine is Forager Project); whether it’s oat milk yogurt, cashew milk, coconut yogurt, soy milk yogurt, or almond. Using dairy free yogurt also helps us to replace the silken tofu found in other vegan cheesecake recipes, and lemon juice.
- Vegan heavy cream: Most classic cheesecake recipes don’t use heavy cream, but I’ve found in my testing, vegan heavy cream helps to really set beautifully with the cornstarch to add an extra richness and slightly denser mouth feel that comes with traditional cheesecake.
- Cornstarch: Our other egg replacement here that helps everything beautifully set! You can also use arrowroot starch.
- Sugar: I used organic granulated sugar here. Be sure that your sugar is truly vegan. I always personally use Florida Crystals Sugar for that reason. They’re also minimally processed!
- Vanilla extract: Sub in vanilla powder if you’d prefer!
- Graham cracker crust: This homemade graham crackers and vegan butter to achieve a deliciously buttery vegan gluten free graham cracker crust! You could also sub in melted coconut oil for the vegan butter if you’d prefer!
Why we’re using cold vegan heavy cream and room temperature vegan cream cheese
This is crucial for making a fluffy vegan cheesecake that looks and tastes like the classic.
Room temperature cream cheese will help the cream cheese integrate into all the remaining ingredients much more easily. Cold vegan cream cheese, like traditional cream cheese, clumps very easily and won’t cream into other ingredients.
However, cold vegan heavy cream will help create volume in our cheesecake. Since cream integrates easily into ingredients warm or cold, this isn’t a concern here. But cold heavy cream, like when making whipped cream, will thicken and aerate, which will help give our cheesecake a bit of volume while baking!
Step-by-step how to make my classic homemade vegan cheesecake recipe:
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Step 1: The vegan cheesecake crust
Must like a traditional crust, you’ll just blitz together the graham crackers into a fine crumb, then mix in the melted vegan butter.
Press into the pan and up the sides of the wall before baking. While the crust is baking, we’ll make the filling and boil the water for the water bath.
Step 2: The vegan cheesecake filling
When developing this recipe, I’ve tried several different methods, including just using a food processor (originally, this was my go-to method). And while the cheesecake will still taste lovely with a food processor, you really get that airy, velvety texture when you use a stand mixer or hand mixer.
So this is the method I recommend going forward, which is very similar to making a traditional cheesecake!
- Mix: You’ll add the cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl and cream until fluffy. Then add in the remaining ingredients, save for the heavy cream, and mix again to incorporate. Finally, we’ll pour in the vegan heavy cream and whisk again until fluffy.
- Pour: Next, pour the cheesecake mixture over the crust.
- Create the water bath: Pour boiling water into a baking sheet with walls or casserole dish, placing it on the lower rack of the oven.
- Bake: Place your vegan cheesecake onto the middle rack. Close your oven quickly to prevent anymore heat from escaping.
- Cool in the oven: Once baked, allow your vegan cheesecake to cool in the oven to 10 minutes. Then remove the cheesecake to cool at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Setting time: Place your room temperature vegan cheesecake into the fridge to set for 4-6 hours, or until not wobbly anymore.
- Serve and enjoy!
A note on the wiggliness of your cheesecake once baked:
When you stop the cheesecake from baking initially, it will still wiggle. You will THINK it’s not baked fully, but I can assure you that it is! This is why you need to let the cheesecake set overnight. As it sets overnight, the ingredients will cool and solidify, allowing the cornstarch to set and thicken as well.
My easy trick for a water bath:
Instead of a traditional water bath, in which you would wrap the bottom of the pan in tinfoil and submerge the pan in boiling water while it bakes, I have an easier, more beginner-friendly method!
Cheesecakes love moisture, and ovens unfortunately zap moisture. So to ensure we still have a moist environment for our cheesecake to bake in, we’ll place a large casserole dish of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven and place the cheesecake on the middle rack as it bakes. While the cheesecake bakes, the boiling water will evaporate into the oven, but there’s no need to submerge your cheesecake into water!
Why we’re cooling the cheesecake in an OFF oven at first:
This is a crucial step to baking your cheesecake. Once the cheesecake has baked, we’ll turn the oven off, but crack the oven to allow the cheesecake to cool. This will allow the cheesecake to cool slowly rather than being shocked from a super hot environment to a much cooler one (also preventing any cracking!).
This is what happens if you cool a cheesecake immediately from the oven to room temperature:
The cheesecake will begin to pull away from the edges of the pan (which is why it’s super important to line the walls of your cheesecake pan as well!). Then we’ll cover it and refrigerate overnight so that it thickens and sets!
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The Easiest Classic Vegan Cheesecake Recipe
- Prep Time: 15
- Chill Time: 240
- Cook Time: 65
- Total Time: 5 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Cheesecake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This ultra creamy and rich vegan cheesecake tastes JUST like classic New York baked cheesecake, and it only needs 7 ingredients (NO tofu, no cashews though!). And it’s SO easy to make with my simple steps to ensure you get the creamiest and perfectly tangy vegan cheesecake ever!
Ingredients
Vegan Graham Cracker Crust:
- 18 sheets or 1 batch (300 g) vegan graham crackers or Lotus Biscoff Cookies
- 1/2 cup (113 g) melted vegan butter
Vegan Cheesecake Filling:
- 32 ounces vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup (240 g) dairy free yogurt or dairy free sour cream, room temperature
- 1 cup (240 mL) vegan heavy cream, cold
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 9 tbsp (90 g) cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3–4 cups boiling water, for water bath
- Fresh strawberries, for topping
Instructions
- Prep: Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Grease the edges of the pan with a bit of cooking or coconut oil as well, and line with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400F. Bring 3-4 cups of water to a boil while you make the recipe (for the water bath).
- Make the crust: Add the graham crackers or cookies to a food processor, and pulse until you reach a fine crumb. Then add in the melted vegan butter, and pulse again until you get a wet crumb. Press the cookie crumbs into the bottom of your cheesecake pan, working up the sides of the pan as well. Place the pan into the oven to bake for 7 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven.
- Important: Reduce the oven temperature to 325F.
- Make the cheesecake filling: In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, or large bowl with hand mixer, cream the cream cheese until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the dairy free yogurt, sugar, vanilla extract, and cornstarch. Cream together again until smooth. Then pour in the vegan heavy cream and whisk again for about 2-3 minutes to integrate. Scrape the bottom and edges of the bowl in between mixing to ensure everything is incorporated. Pour the cheesecake filling into the springform pan, and smooth the top. Place the cheesecake pan onto a baking sheet.
- Create the water bath: Place a large casserole dish onto the low rack of the oven. Pour the boiling water into the casserole dish. Close the oven door.
- Bake the cheesecake: Place the cheesecake baking sheet onto the middle rack and quickly close the oven to bake for 75 minutes, or until the the top of the cheesecake lightly golden. The center is set but still wiggly. Once baked, turn off the oven, and keep the cheesecake in the oven but crack the oven door. Allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for 1 hour. The cheesecake will still be a bit wiggly. This is completely fine and should be that way. This cheesecake will not seem cooked at all when you first turn off the oven.
- Chill the cheesecake: Remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool at room temperature for 15 minutes. Then cover and place the cheesecake into the fridge to chill for 4 hours, or overnight.
- Serve and enjoy! When ready to serve, top with fresh berries, cherries, or jam, and enjoy! Store any leftover cheesecake in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Cornstarch Starch: make sure that your cornstarch or arrowroot starch (also called powder) is stored properly and is still active. Improperly stored or expired arrowroot will not work. You can also swap in an equal amount of cornstarch.
Vegan heavy cream: If you can do cashews, you can use cashew cream.
Water bath: Using a water bath is extremely important for a moist cheesecake! Please see blog post for all tips.
Gluten free: Swap in gluten free vegan graham crackers or gluten free homemade biscoff cookies!
Please read the above blog post for all tips & tricks on how to make this baked vegan cheesecake, as well as watch the quick YouTube tutorial! Thank you!
Hi, just jumping into say, for the love of god, make this cake! I made this cheesecake, with the ingredients exactly as listed but completely fumbled my way through the baking process, like opening the oven door for the cake to cool but forgetting to turn the oven off (: (I do not recommend multi-tasking half a dozen things while baking!) and yet it turned out absolutely fantastic!
I imagine because of the whole oven thing, my cheesecake developed a dry film like cover on the surface of the cake, but leaving it in the fridge overnight cleared that right up, (just mentioning in case anyone else sees a film on their cake, its not a problem). I served it a family birthday party with a berry coulis and everyone adored it! Mind you no one else in my family is vegan and I would say they’re skeptical of the whole idea at best, and yet they couldn’t stop devouring this cake! Creamy, rich, and somehow perfectly balanced between light and indulgent. This is the best baked cheese cake I’ve found and will definitely be making it again in the future
When Britt says use a springform pan, she wasn’t kidding. I didn’t use one, used a pie plate instead, which wasn’t deep enough. My lovely cheesecake just went over in the oven, the drippings started smoking, and the entire thing is ruined. My fault for not reading the directions thoroughly until I was in a remote kitchen without a springform pan. I’m so sad! It seemed like a lovely start to a great cheesecake.
Hi Laura! So sorry this didn’t work for you! Unfortunately, the springform pan is essential when making cheesecake. I do hope you’ll give it another go! 🙂
Best cheesecake recipe I’ve tried! The texture is perfect. I used Tofutti cream cheese and Violife sour cream. It did look weird toward the end of baking-it got oily and liquidy around the edges, but was fine once it cooled down. The texture and taste are perfect. I made it with oat pecan crust and apple caramel topping.
Made it for my coworker’s birthday. It came out great! Texture and consistency is right on. I’ll definitely be making this again!
Just a note:
When reading the recipe, you have a heavy cream in the ingredients with no reference to a milk, but in the instructions you use the term milk with no reference to a cream. I was confused about this for a minute and kept wondering if something was missing. I ended up going all the way back through the post until I saw where you had talked about the milk and how you could also use a cashew cream INSTEAD. It could be super helpful if in the ingredients it could say “milk OR cashew cream”.
Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Michael! WOW! This turned out beautifully and looks so delish! I am so sorry for the confusion with the ingredients and will update the recipe ASAP!
Hi Brit, thank you for all your wonderful vegan recipes!
you mention vegan milk in the description for the filling, but it’s not listed in the ingredients, only the yoghurt, cream cheese and heavy cream. how much milk should be added to the filling? thank you so much in advance, can’t wait to try this recipe!!!
Hi Michelle! Sorry for the confusion! We have updated the recipe and vegan milk is no longer needed. 🙂 Enjoy
Tried this recipe and had to convert the oven temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius which unfortunately meant that the crust was burnt after ten minutes…
are you using a conventional or convection oven?
Will the result of the cheesecake be very different if using refrigerated cream cheese and yoghurt instead of room temperatured items?
Hi Ulrika! Oh no! So sorry about that, we just use a conventional. Using room temperature items makes it much easier to cream together resulting in the creamiest cheesecake – which we always want! 🙂 Hope this helps!
hi, just wondering how I should change baking times if I want to halve the amount
So I actually haven’t tried halving this recipe- if you’re making the pan smaller though (like using a 6″ pan), the bake time probably won’t change (as it’s still quite dense and tall- using an 8″ pan still would mean there would be less baking time, but not as tall of a cheesecake). I’m so sorry I can’t give you a more confident answer, as I have yet to try this but I will! Maybe a small batch cheesecake is in line next 🙂
Absolutely delicious! I made this cake for my birthday yesterday, except topped it with a mixed berry coulis. The guests were ‘fighting’ for the last slice and I have been asked to make more. Really fantastic. What I do want to mention though is that in step 3 of the method there is mention of dairy free milk which is not part of the ingredients list or on the video. Thank you for this superb recipe.
This is STUNNING oh my goodness!! Happy belated birthday (you share the same birthday as my sister 🙂 ), what a beautiful presentation! And thank you so much for that note!! The video is a bit outdated since I updated the recipe, I’ve been working on getting a new one up soon so stay tuned! So sorry about that confusion!
I just made this for the family and some neighbors. The consensus is that it tastes delicious, but it doesn’t have that cream cheese smell or taste. I used Violife the first time and was about to make the next batch with Miyokos but her cream cheese does not taste or smell good to any of us. I really wanted to like hers.
Is there another brand you have tried? I’m going to head to the store and do a sniff/taste test on Kite Hill and Daiya.
Hi James! I’m so glad you tried it! I would recommend using Kite Hill or Tofutti if you can- those tend to have the best flavor profiles for cream cheese. I would advise NOT using Miyoko’s cream cheese- to me, it doesn’t really taste like cream cheese. Love their butter, but not their cream cheese!
Status update: Fynd cream cheese is amazing! I’ve had Omni neighbors try this and they swore they can’t tell the difference. I also used Silk almond yogurt which is also amazing. So happy with how it turned out. Thanks Britt!
You may want to take out Miyokos as your recommended cream cheese in the recipe. There are definitely much better ones these days.
Im so sad this recipe didn’t work for me. I did everything right except I used Philadelphia vegan cheese and it became a puddle of fat on top and looks so gross.
Hi Natalie! So I really can’t speak to Philadelphia vegan cream cheese as I haven’t tried it and don’t have it locally- I’m so sorry! That must have been the issue though, and I’m so sorry that happened. Is there another brand of vegan cream cheese you could use?
I made this and the texture was AMAZING – I think I may have done something wrong because the aftertaste was very “cornstartch-y”. I also used Tofutti. The next time I will try it with the vegan cream cheese you suggested. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Hi Renata! So sorry to hear this! I wonder is there was a mix-up in the measurements? Tofutti is still a highly recommended brand but keep us posted on the results of your next cheesecake! Thanks for being here!
Could you also freeze this recipe?
Yes, absolutely! I do this all of the time!
Absolutely delightful recipe!! I brought this to a work party, and it was a huge hit! I made the caramel sauce as well, which paired nicely with the cheesecake. I’ll be making this again!
This is WONDERFUL!! Oh I’m so happy!! Enjoy, and thank you for the review!!
Hi,
Does it matter which recipe I use? Video? Or updated version?
Hi Danielle! Thank you so much for the question and heads up! Always follow our recipe cards at the bottom of the page for the most updated instructions! 🙂