Small Batch Vegan Blueberry Burnt Basque Cheesecake Recipe
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This deliciously creamy vegan burnt Basque cheesecake is made in small batch form and is the easiest cheesecake ever!! Recently updated, it’s perfect for beginner bakers and seasoned pros alike! You’re never going to believe this Basque cheesecake is made entirely without eggs and dairy!
Why this is the easiest vegan cheesecake you’ll ever make!
If baking a cheesecake intimidates you, then I want you to try out this Basque cheesecake. It’s probably the easiest traditional-style cheesecake you’ll ever make (aside from no-bake cheesecakes) with a texture that is ultra rich and creamy.
Originally, I made this recipe as a full batch Basque cheesecake; however, I noticed people were still having some struggles (because vegan cheesecake is a bit more liquid-y than regular cheesecake AT FIRST when it comes out of the oven- and this I think really throws people off! But trust me it does set beautifully).
So I actually decided, let’s make this a small batch version instead. And though Basque cheesecake traditionally does not have a crust, I couldn’t help but want to add a graham cracker crust, just so you can easily enjoy this small batch cheesecake 🙂
The beauty of a Basque cheesecake? You don’t even need a water bath!
This recipe is so good, I had to make a chocolate version too. YUM.
What’s more, this is an entirely dairy free and vegan Basque cheesecake- yep, no dairy whatsoever, yet the texture and flavor is that of the classic: super decadent and lush with a beautifully sweet tang. And, this cheesecake is also eggless, so no need to worry about properly incorporating eggs into your cheesecake batter.
Of course, I wanted to add a bit of a twist, so I topped mine with fresh blueberries- a lovely treat going into spring and summer time.
But if you want a classic burnt Basque cheesecake sans dairy and eggs, simply omit! Then once you realize how easy cheesecakes are, you can move onto the more fun versions, like this baked chocolate cheesecake, Oreo cheesecake, and cookie dough cheesecake!
What is burnt Basque cheesecake?
If you’ve never heard of a Basque cheesecake, you’re in for a treat. Unlike classic New York-style baked cheesecake, Basque cheesecake originated in Basque Country in Spain, and is an entirely crustless cheesecake.
What’s more, Basque cheesecake is ultra creamy and thick, with a deliberately burnt outer shell, thanks to the higher heat that it bakes at.
What do I need to make Basque cheesecake vegan and gluten free?
Typically, a burnt Basque cheesecake is comprised of cream cheese, heavy cream or milk, eggs, and flour. We’re straying away from the classic ingredients to make this blueberry burnt Basque cheesecake entirely dairy free, eggless, and gluten free.
All while maintaining the creamiest and richest cheesecake flavor!
So here’s what you’ll need:
- Vegan cream cheese: The star of the burnt Basque cheesecake show, I recommend using a store bought cream cheese for this recipe. Homemade cream cheeses are a bit trickier and have more variables (though I am developing a cream cheese that can be used in both frostings and cheesecakes! So stay tuned!). My favorite brands to use here are Tofutti, Kite Hill, and Miyoko’s. The best flavors I find are with Tofutti and Kite Hill.
- Vegan sour cream: If you can’t find vegan sour cream, you can just use dairy free yogurt! I love Forager Project for both vegan sour cream and dairy free yogurt.
- Vegan heavy cream: I have tested this cheesecake recipe with vegan heavy cream. Silk is my favorite!
- Granulated sugar: Make sure that the sugar you’re using is certified vegan- I recommend Florida Crystals!
- Vanilla extract & paste: Extra vanilla is key here for a rich and “buttery” flavor.
- Cornstarch: You can also use arrowroot starch here if you have a corn allergy!
- Blueberries: If you want, you can keep this vegan Basque cheesecake traditional, and skip the berries. However, I find they’re really lovely!
Overview: Step by Step How to Make Vegan Basque Cheesecake:
Serving recommendations for your vegan Basque cheesecake:
The beauty of this easy vegan cheesecake is that it’s absolutely delicious on its own. However, you can also serve it with a warm berry sauce or homemade blueberry or strawberry jam.
It’s also lovely if you want to go even richer, and top with a vegan ganache or caramel sauce.
You’re just going to absolutely love this vegan Basque cheesecake! I can’t wait for you to try it!!
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Creamy Vegan Blueberry Burnt Basque Cheesecake Recipe
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 70
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Spanish
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This deliciously creamy vegan burnt Basque cheesecake is made in small batch form and is the easiest cheesecake ever!! Recently updated, it’s perfect for beginner bakers and seasoned pros alike! You’re never going to believe this Basque cheesecake is made entirely without eggs and dairy!
Ingredients
- 1/2 package (125 g) biscoff cookies
- 1/4 cup (57 g) melted vegan butter
- 16 ounces (450 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 tbsp (30 g) dairy free yogurt or dairy-free sour cream, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (180 mL) vegan heavy cream, room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) organic granulated sugar
- 5 tbsp (60 g) cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1 tbsp (12 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 400F. Place a piece of parchment paper pressed into a 9″ loaf pan. Make sure that the parchment paper is lining the walls of the pan. Measure out all ingredients.
- Make the optional crust: Blitz the Biscoff cookies in a food processor until they resemble a fine crumb. Then stir in the melted vegan butter. Press the wet cookie crumbs into the bottom of your loaf pan. Set aside.
- Make the batter: In a stand mixer with whisk attachment or large bowl with a hand mixer OR in just a bowl with a whisk, cream together the vegan cream cheese until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Then add in the yogurt and heavy cream and mix again until fluffy. Add in the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, and sea salt, and mix again just until combined and fluffy. Make sure to stop to mix the batter with a silicone spatula and scrape the bottom to ensure everything is combined.
- Assemble the Basque cheesecake: Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Add the blueberries on top and gently press them into the top of the cheesecake.
- Bake: Place the cheesecake onto a baking sheet and into the oven to bake for 28-30 minutes, or until the top of the cheesecake is slightly burnt. You can finish by setting the oven to broil for 2-3 minutes, until the top of the cheesecake reaches that burnt look. The cheesecake will still wiggle, and that’s okay. Remove it from the oven.
- Cool: Allow the cheesecake to cool at room temperature until it’s no longer hot (around 30 minutes to 1 hour). Then cover the cheesecake and place it into the fridge to set for 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Slice and serve! Remove the cheesecake from the fridge and remove it from the loaf pan. Pull the parchment paper off, and slice and serve your vegan burnt Basque cheesecake. Enjoy!
- Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Cream cheese: I recommend using either Kite Hill or Tofutti cream cheese here. Or you can use my homemade version, but it will just be an extra step of work. Either option is fine.
Sour cream: The vegan sour cream I LOVE to use in my baking is Forager Project. Dairy free yogurt will work, but sour cream is really a lovely choice!
Heavy cream: I’ve tested this recipe with both heavy coconut cream, and upon further review, I really recommend using vegan heavy cream like Silk for best results.
Refined sugar free: You can use maple sugar if you’d like. NOT maple syrup.
Don’t want berries in your burnt Basque cheesecake? Not a problem! Skip the berries if you’re making this cheesecake around the winter time, and bake it just as the batter.
If you wanted a crust, could you add one?
Yes! You can use the one I have on my classic cheesecake recipe 🙂
Wow! Looks stunning! Would love to make it and was wondering how much the granulated sugar impacts the consistency. I can’t take much sugar so I usually use stevia powder or drops and some erythrit. Do you think I can either reduce the sugar amount to 100g or use the above mentioned alternatives without too many problems in consistency?
Also, what base does your cream cheese have? I could use chickpea, almond or soy based from what’s available here…
Thanks!
Hi Juliane! Oh I hope you do try it! For the sugar, could you swap in a granulated lower-sugar option, like granulated monk fruit? I think it’s important to keep the volume of sugar the same, if possible! I would only reduce by 1/4 cup (50 g) if at all. And for the cream cheese, I used Tofutti (soy based), and have also tested with kite hill (almond based) and Miyokos (cashew based) with great success! I hope that helps!
I avoid dairy, but do eat eggs – I wonder how many eggs would sub for the starch? Looks beautiful!
Hi Judith! Aw thank you! Unfortunately, I haven’t tested this recipe with eggs so I wouldn’t know what to recommend, as cheesecakes can bake very differently with eggs! If you have the starch, I do recommend using it because it truly is lovely!
Ugh. I am super bummed and have zero idea what went wrong. I have made your recipes countless times with perfect success (cakes, cookies, dinner rolls), but I just pulled a greasy, soupy boiled-over mess from my smoking oven. (Thankfully most of it was contained on the baking sheet.) Not only did I waste $40 worth of vegan dairy products, but I have to make a different dessert for my brunch tomorrow. I used Kite Hill cream cheese and Follow Your Heart sour cream. The filling that went into the oven was creamy and delicious…
I’m so incredibly sorry to hear this!! I have not used Follow Your Heart sour cream, but I just checked the ingredients and those should have been fine (though that might have accounted for the greasiness- I find coconut products tend to have a greasy feel due to the fat content being mostly oils)- I’m wondering how close the cheesecake was to the top of the oven? Sometimes a little bit lower (middle or low rack) is best. The cheesecake will puff up, but it should create a skin that prevents the spilling over, I’m so sorry that didn’t happen, and I’m not sure why unless there wasn’t enough cornstarch in there (I usually say use a kitchen scale because it’s the most accurate!). I’m so sorry this happened though, this shouldn’t have been the case for you (I’ve tested many times and with Kite Hill a few of those times, so it definitely wasn’t the Kite Hill that was the issue!).
32 ounces of cream cheese – is that right? That’s over 900 grams?
In the UK we don’t really use cups for measurement. So I’m always looking for the equivalent in grams. You’ve given some of the quantities in grams but not the cream cheese. So I’m just checking.
That’s correctly! It makes a large cheesecake!
You say it makes a large cake – but in the recipe it says an 8 inch springform -? It seems like a lot of filling for such a small sized pan – is it correct?
Hi Jani! Yup! 8″ springform pan is correct! 🙂
hi hi.
love the look of your cheesecake.
i have to try to bake it.
i cant get vegan cream cheese. can i replace with Philadelphia cream cheese?
do you think I could use frozen bluberries instead of fresh ones?
You could potentially but I haven’t personally tried this! Typically with frozen blueberries in a cheesecake, you might want to try rinsing them in cold water first, then coat them in an extra tbsp of cornstarch or flour!
This recipe must be very dependent on the brands you use! I used down under cream cheese, ayam coconut milk and coyo natural yoghurt and also have unfortunately ended up with a soupy/oily mess. Followed the recipe to a T. Oh well, it was worth a try!
I’m so sorry about this!! I haven’t personally had this happen to me, but I’m thinking it’s the coyo- I’m wondering if because it’s super simple (just cultures and coconut milk and no binding/thickening agents) I’m wondering if that’s what’s causing the splitting of the oils. I’m going to make a note in the recipe card and then test this with a natural coconut yogurt, because I’ve tested it with cashew yogurt, soy yogurt, and a coconut yogurt that had a thickening agent, so I bet that’s what’s causing the issue!
hello! I tried the recipe today but the cheesecake “split”… it went brown (like dulce de leche) with oil at the top… do I need a tofu based cream cheese?
it tasted very good raw though!
Oh no! I’m wondering, what cream cheese did you use? and did you use coconut cream from a can? Sometimes a bad can can cause the split I’ve noticed
it’s a fast reply! I live in the UK and used what I could find here 🙂 Violife cream cheese (it’s coconut oil based), soya yoghurt and Flora double cream (made of lentil protein, oils and starch). Could it be temperature related and the heat contributing to a split of the cream cheese?
Oh interesting, I’ve yet to try the Flora double cream! I’m guessing it was the violife cream cheese, it can at times be finicky with the coconut oil!
thanks for this great recipe. I ended up using Philidelphia Cream Cheese’ plant based version because I didn’t like the flavor of the Almond based one you suggested. Out of the oven some oil had separated. I pulled most of it off with paper towels. Once cooled out of the fridge it was really nice. more of a Flan than a basque cheesecake but delicious nonetheless. next time I’ll try it with your suggested almond-based cream cheese and see if it ends up better. and hopefully the flavor of that almond cream cheese improves once it’s cooked.
I have made this once before and I live in Northern Ireland so I used vegan philadelphia, alpro greek style soya yogurt and Flora whipping cream and it worked great. However, I want to make again for christmas but with a biscoff slant with a biscoff base and some spread in the actual batter. My question is could I possibly had some biscoff spread to the batter- perhaps a 1/4 cup or would that be too much?
Many thanks!
Love this recipe! Would anyone be able to tell me is I can substitute the sugar for a natural syrup?
Hi Natalie! Unfortunately, natural syrup won’t work here. So sorry!!
I also had an issue with it becoming an oily, soupy, smoky mess. I used both tofutti cream cheese and sour cream and coconut cream from a can. I really wanted it to work and am considering trying again with your homemade cream cheese recipe.
Hi V! I just updated the recipe to review what was going on, and apparently it was an issue with some vegan cream cheese brands with coconut cream- I’ve since stopped recommending it with coconut cream, as I can’t test all of the vegan cream cheeses since not all are available to me! I also did update the recipe to be made small batch 🙂 I hope you love it!
Mine also came out with a layer of oil on top, and tasted of smoke. I used both the toffuti cream cheese and sour cream and coconut cream from a can. I was curious if for some reason the toffuti sour cream was the issue? Interesting in trying again with the proper supplies.
Hi V! Just answered your previous question!
Hi there! I was going through the ingredients list and the step by step instructions, and the instructions include vanilla extract, vanilla bean and sea salt. While the ingredients do not have it listed.
How should I make it really? I’m just really curious.
Thank you!
Hi Hannah! I’m so sorry for that!! When I updated the recipe, I accidentally didn’t copy those ingredients over! Just fixed 🙂 Thank you for pointing that out! Enjoy!!
Thank you so much for your reply Britt! No worries at all. I can’t wait to make it!
Oh I’m so glad!! Definitely let me know how it comes out!!