Cheesecake: Baking-Round 1

I followed the directions exactly*, except that I tried to be a hero and create the ultimate healthy cheesecake; I subbed stevia in instead of the sugar. It all blended up nicely and I was pretty happy with everything until I poured the misture into my springform pan. There was maybe half an inch of to-be-cake, which mirrored what someone had said in the RecipeZaar.com comments. I had half a container of silken tofu left, so I made another 1/3 batch of the recipe, this time using sugar and threw it on top. This is when I made the fatal error: I didn't mix the batches together before I tossed it into my preheated oven.

Once again mirroring a comment, the cheesecake didn't look ready after the requisite half an hour. I turned down the heat to 250 (a guess) and set the timer for another 30 minutes. I realized later than the timer had jammed at 15 minutes, having no idea how much time had passed. I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool.

Once it was cool, I put it in the fridge. The recipe said to wait 2 hours at least, but I was impatient and left it for about an hour and a half. When I tried to take it out of the springform, half clung to the bottom and half came off. It sort of became the world's thinnest layer cake. It occurred to me that this could be a result of not mixing the two batches of batter together.

*It didn't specify which density of tofu to use, so I followed an instruction and went with a block of extra firm silken and what was eventually a block of firm silken.

Cheesecake: the preliminaries

Cheesecake has always been my favourite cake. I used to make dairy cheesecakes with my mom for almost every family function and they were always a hit. I am looking for a recipe that I feel is a passable equivalent to its dairy counterpart (as I remember it).

I chose to use the internet as my initial recipe pool. I am against chocolate cheesecake, so that cut out a significant chunk of recipes. (Why? Because as long as it's chocolaty and creamy, you can forgo cheesiness. Unacceptable.)

The best vegan cheesecake I have EVER had was a lemon cheesecake made by a classmate's partner. Unfortunately, he won't share the recipe. He did say that there are only four ingredients, hence my obsession with simplicity.

The most widely available vegan cheesecake in Toronto is by Sweets From The Earth and is good, but not quite what I'm looking for. I can't find the ingredients online, but they are numerous.

I finally settled on this recipe from RecipeZaar.com. (It looked similar to another recipe that was credited as being an adaptation of a Bryanna Clark Grogan recipe, so it may be an uncredited adaptation.)

Midnight with the flu: The mission statement.

I envision that this blog will be a way for me to archive the (mis)adventures I embark on while trying to perfect recipes. The recipes I wrestle with will be in line with my dietary restrictions, so they will all be vegan. I try to limit my sugar intake and cut it out of my diet altogether for weeks at a time. Having been raised by a dietitian, I know how to eat balanced meals... I just don't always have the time/money.

Sin carne will be as much about the process than the end result.

Thus far, the battle to create a base for meat/poultry/fish substitutions and the many variations is underway. The creation of a better cheesecake than what is commercially available in Toronto is also underway. I plan to perfect lasagna and paneer, both of which I have been informally working on for some time.

In the future, I anticipate an epic battle with hard cheeses.

Come along for the ride. It should be pretty neat.