A vegan, gluten free, no-cook, grown-up cheesecake made with cashews, pecans, dates, espresso, coffee liquor, and a lot of chocolate. You can’t go wrong with this.
This is a cake you can prepare days before and just keep in the freezer. Thaw before serving or better yet, don’t serve. Keep it all to yourself.
Note: If you like a strong coffee flavor, don’t skip the coffee extract.
Vegan Mocha Chocolate Cheesecake
Prep Time
30 mins
Total Time
30 mins
Course:
Dessert
Cuisine:
Vegan
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cup pecans
- 3/4 cup medjool dates pitted
- A pinch of salt I used Himalayan pink salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
- 1/2 cup espresso about 2 shots
- 2 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked in water for at least 4 hours
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 3 tbsp coffee liquor
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp coffee extract
Topping
- 1 cup chocolate melted in microwave or in bain-marie
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Crust
-
Grind all the crust ingredients in a food processor until you get a sticky paste.
-
Between two sheets of parchment paper, roll the paste out into approximately 1/4 inch thickness.
-
Cut the paste into the size of your cake pan (I used an 6 inch diameter springform pan).
-
Line the cake pan with parchment paper and place the crust on the bottom.
-
Place the pan in the freezer while you prepare the filling.
Filling
-
Blend all the filling ingredients in a high speed blender.
-
Take the cake pan out of the freezer and add the filling, place back in the freezer.
Topping
-
When the filling is fully frozen (after at least 4 hours in the freezer), take the cake out of the pan.
-
Pour the melted chocolate over the cake.
-
Add the chocolate chips on top.
Serving
-
Keep the cake in the freezer. Transfer to the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.
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Yum! And what a gorgeous photo!
-Kelsey
Thank you! <3
Yes please! What a great combination of flavours. Can’t go wrong with any of this! Great job:)
Thank you! Simple ingredients came together nicely for this cake. It’s a keeper.
Is the espresso liquid or grounds?
Oh, guess I should have been more clear on that. I used liquid, brewed espresso (2 shots)
Thank you so much (said she who does not cook!)
I’m imoressed! Love desserts and really have discovered, raw desserts are dlicious!!!!!! I love cooking and reallg want to try thus! Thankyou! xx
OMG! This look so delicious. And your photography is STUNNING!
Thanks you! You are so kind <3
I would listen to your wise recommendation and kept it all for myself 😉
Wonderful recipe, and even better photo presentation!
Thank you! I had to share mine but I still managed to hide a few slices away in the freezer 🙂
Hi Maya!
Just wanted to say this recipe looks lovely and I’m so happy I stumbled upon your website. I’m excited to try some recipes!
Cheers:)
Thank you Sarah, I am so glad you said hi. Love you blog.
Do you think I could make this without the coconut oil? We try to live oil free.
Thanks 🙂
Tracy
I understand. There is very little added coconut oil in this recipe, so I believe it will be OK without it. But I haven’t tried.
Thanks Tracy for asking this. We had the same question 😉
YES! so much yes!!
Is this intended to be a frozen dessert? I froze it overnight, took it out of the freezer to pour the chocolate over it, and it just melted. What did I do wrong?
Hi Laura, this is intended to be enjoyed cold, but not frozen. You did the right step by freezing it overnight before pouring the chocolate over. But I don’t quite understand what you mean by it melting. It takes quite a while to for it to thaw. By melt, do you mean thawing or losing form? Did it melt after you poured the chocolate over? Was the chocolate microwaved and too hot? In my case, I took it out of the freezer and immediately poured melted chocolate, which was just hot enough to be melted. Chocolate froze immediately as seen in the picture.
Will this work in a 9″ springform, or am I better off buying a smaller size?
Well, in a 9″ spring form, the cake will have less than half the height. Other than that, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.
I can’t wait to try making this stunning dessert! Thank you <3
Please can you add a PRINT button to your pages? Many thanks.
Sorry just found the PRINT Button! Val
Can i use walnuts instead of pecans?
It should be OK, although pecans are a little sweeter.
I am completely obsessed with mocha flavours at the moment – and this looks unbelievable! I couldn’t think of anything I would want to eat more than this right now! It’s so beautiful!
This looks amazing!! Is there anything I can substitute the coconut oil for? Im highly allergic but want to make this!!
Thank you! You can substitute with cocoa butter, any vegan butter or other nut oils.
Can any other kind of salt substitute for Himalayan pink salt? How about kosher salt, sea salt or ordinary table salt? Please tell us what is so special about Himalayan Pink Salt to make it worth buying a supply just to get one pinch.
Please feel free to use the salt of your choice. The recipe merely documents how I made mine. I find that there are significant taste differences in salts, but overall effect might be subtle for this recipe.
Himalayan pink salt is sea salt.
no its not 🙂
is there a way to replace the cashews? I don’t like them because of the slavery involved, and the toxic nature of the cashew etc.
Great recipe, thanks!
I could not find Pecan nuts so I used Brazil nuts instead, that works perfectly!
https://flic.kr/s/aHskeqefTi
What a delish recipe.
I’m gonna make it for my boyfriends birthday saturday.
Which coffee extract and liguor did you use?
And coconut oil? – Can another oil be used?
Kind regards
Sofie
What about the chocolate used, can anyone name a brand of chocolate that doesn’t contain any dairy?
Most dark chocolate with over 70% cacao content is dairy free. I often use Trader Joes brand for cooking.
Thanks for the sharing recipe. Vegan cheesecake tastes the same as regular and you can save the lives of countless cows. I would like to share my recipe to fellow vegans and lactose intolerant people.
http://vegancheesecake.net/pages/healthy-vegan-cheesecake-recipe
I tried the recipe and it was the first vegan cheese cake that really worked fantastic! Although I did replace the crust with cookies, since my boyfriend isn’t to much a fan of the date/nut crusts. You must use a very small cake form though, I doubled the amount of the filling and still came out with a pretty flat cake 🙂 thanks I will try the artichoke dip next!
Thank you! Happy to hear that you enjoyed it. I used a 6 in spring form myself. Wider forms will need a lot more filling. Cookie crust sounds like a really good idea by the way.
Hi Maya!
This looks amazing – do you think the recipe would work divided into small mason jars (~4 oz) for small individual servings? Thanks!
I’m always confused about which coconut oil to use. Do you use refined coconut oil, which has no flavor, or raw, which tastes rich and mildly coconutty?
hi there I made it today and it’s in the freezer. tomorrow I will top with the melted chocolate and add the chocolate chips. The filling tasted great. I couldn’t find Coffee extract so I used powdered espresso instead. I was asked to not use coffee liqueur so I just added 3 extra tbsp of espresso and 3 tsp of coconut sugar since I am missing the sweetened liqueur. The filling tasted yummy so far though. I don’t have a high speed blender so I used my food processor but it came out a tiny bit grainy. I soaked the cashews for 4 hours like the recipe calls for. Hopefully it will be light and fluffy. looking forward to trying it tomorrow.
so we had the cake tonight and it was delish we cooled the chocolate a little to much before putting the chocolate on the frozen cake and the chocolate hardened to quickly so we couldn’t get it to drip down the side just covered the top short an inch from the edge so we melted another cup of chocolate and got it to drip down the side and added the chips and it looked great. now we put in the fridge over an hour before dinner and I used a hot knife to cut it but the chocolate was hard as a rock so it the chocolate kinda broke apart as I tried to cut it but the filling cut nicely so I served it up with pieces of broken chocolate and chips on each serving. It tasted real good. I think it’s because we had to much chocolate on top so it got to thick to cut next time I would add a bit of coconut oil to the melted chocolate so it doesn’t harden as much. It’s a very expensive cake to make but homemade and healther is always better.
Thank you for the great feedback Lorie. I agree about the expensive part but this one isn’t for everyday. I love it for special occasions though. I am so glad you liked it and it ended up working for you. ?
How long will this keep in the freezer for do you know? I’ve made it and it looks so delicious but I’m hoping to save it until the 6th of December – will it last that long in the freezer okay?
Thank you! It should keep in the freezer for that long. Make sure to store in a closed container or wrap it.
Wow! Fantastic! I made this for my daughter’s 18th birthday today. Just a couple of comments : I replaced the pecans with almonds – works well. You need to get the cheesecake out of the freezer well in advance otherwise it’s frozen cheesecake, which is rather nice, but sooo much nicer unfrozen. Last point referring to the choc topping : I melted some chcolate & served it warm separately. Not so good visually but some preferred it without the choc. Voilà, a definate make again. Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experience in detail! I am so glad that it was a success and I love the idea of serving melted chocolate with it. A little frozen vs. fully thawed preference still seems to change from one person to the next but I think it is good either way. Thanks!
Sounds simple, looks amazing, bet its delicious too, will try it sometime. Thanks for sharing!
Hi! Looks delicious! Is there anything that can be substituted for the cashews? I’m allergic to nuts but would love to give this a try!
if I double everything will it work in a 9 inch pan? or is that too much? HELP? I want to make this but I dont think 6 inches is enough.
Hi Sandra, a 9 inch pan should hold more than double the amount a 6 inch pan will. So I believe it should work 🙂