Blueberry Lemon Cheesecake

Last night I looked at my ingredients and was inspired to make a dessert.

I had fresh blueberries from the farmer's market and vegan cream cheese (compliments of Follow Your Heart).

I decided vegan blueberry cheesecake was in order and I thought "Hey let's throw in some lemon."

I felt I needed some inspiration and had to look no further than Inspired Taste.  Adam's fantastic photography and Joanne's delicious recipes are enough to make your mouth water. 

I searched around their site and found this recipe.

I made some modifications.

For the crust:

6 Lucy's Ginger Snap cookies
1 Tbsp sugar
1/8 C Earth Balance melted

Crush the cookies, my favorite method is in a ziploc bag and then smash the hell out of it with a meat tenderizer. 

Mix with sugar and Earth Balance then press into your dish.

Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

I have a sidebar here to illustrate just how much fun it is to have kids.

While the crust is cooking I hear a phrase I don't ever want to hear again "Mommy I have a kernel up my nose."

Seriously?  Who thinks it is a good idea to put a popcorn kernel UP your nose?  Well apparently Caroline did.  However after several attempts to get it out (q-tip, tweezers, bulb suringe, and pepper) it fell out due to her nose being a little lubed up from crying.

It was a harrowing 25 minutes and luckily I was able to get my crust out without burning it and allowed it to cool before I moved on to the next step.

Continuing with the recipe...

For the cheesecake

8 oz vegan cream cheese (I recommend Follow Your Heart)
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 "egg" (I used ener-g egg replacer)
1/4 C sugar

I put all of the ingredients in a food processor and whipped it together in no time.

OH MY GOODNESS!

It was good enough to eat straight out of the food processor as a dip (and since it was vegan there was no fear of food issues like salmonella)...I know because me and the boys tried it (several times).

Place the lemon cream mixture in your cooled crust them top with fresh blueberries.

I baked it for 40 minutes at 325 degrees (with a convection oven).  It will take a little longer if you use a conventional oven.

The cheesecake came out a little thin, but the flavor is PHENOMENAL.

The vegan cream cheese reacts and turns out just as regular cream cheese would, and this for me is a big plus, as I am a big cheesecake fan.  Now I can enjoy it vegan and take another step towards less dependance on dairy products.

Next time I make it I will double the recipe so that it will be typical cheesecake size.

I hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday and as a public service announcement "be aware of popcorn kernels you never know what trouble lurks."

If you have kids have they ever put anything up their noses?  Or as a child did you ever?

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