From the Vgarden Test Kitchen, A Holiday Dessert Sure to Please

This December, we are featuring a series of recipes from our sponsor’s test kitchen in Israel. Every few days, we’ll share desserts that are as beautiful to look at as they are delicious to eat. We are starting this series with this showstopper: Vegan cheesecake made with plant-based ingredients including almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts and Vgarden’s award-winning non-dairy cream cheese.

Base:
1/3 cup coconut oil
1+1/2 cup flour
1 cup grounded almonds
2 tablespoons sugar
2-3 tablespoons water

Filling:
2 cups Vgarden cream cheese
1/2 cup coconut cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup grounded almonds
1/2 cup hazelnuts

Preparation:
Mix the coconut oil, flour, grounded almonds and sugar until uniform crumbs. Add the water until the dough is combined to a ball. Put in the fridge for 30 min.

Heat oven to 180°c. Place an English Cake baking pan lined with baking paper with a layer of dough (1 cm thick), the rest of the dough place in a medium size baking pan – 1 cm thick.

Bake for 12-15 min until the dough is golden. Cool to room temp. Bake almonds and hazelnuts in the oven for 5-7 minutes until they turn golden. Cool to room temp.

Peel the walnuts. Mix the nuts and roasted almonds in a high-quality food processor until they become a uniform spread. Add all the additional ingredients and grind to a uniform filling. Taste the filling and balance the sweetness, if necessary add a little more sugar or lemon juice. Pour the stuffing over the cake dough in the English Cake baking pan. Crumble the extra baked dough over the cake and put in the freezer for two hours. Before serving, slice and defrost for half an hour.