It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I decided to put the jar of almond milk leftovers to good use and develop a paleo cheesecake recipe.
Since I was making up the recipe, I tried two different recipes for the base and two different recipes for the topping. This week, I will compare the recipes for the bases. Next week I’ll compare the two toppings.
Dairy-free cheesecake base
Dairy-free cheesecake base
Ingredients:
100g almond meal
200g almond butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp honey
Directions:
- Place the ingredients into a bowl and mix together thoroughly.
- Grease the sides of a cake tin with a 6 inch diameter and line the bottom with a piece of greaseproof paper. If at all possible, use a tin with a loose bottom or a spring-sided tin to make it easier to turn out the cheesecake.
- Press the mix tightly into the cake tin and set aside for the topping.
This cheesecake base holds together very well but tastes very strongly of almonds. I found the almond flavour too overpowering for the cheesecake topping we used but Chris really liked the base.
It’s very much personal preference but I would recommend using this base for cheesecakes where the topping is either very plain (so that the almond base becomes the feature flavour) or where the topping flavour is very strong and will be complimented by the nutty base.
Traditional cheesecake base
Traditional cheesecake base (we turned it out too soon, so it collapsed)
Ingredients:
3 oz butter
100g almond meal
2 tsp honey
Directions:
- Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat.
- Pour the melted butter over the almond meal, add the honey and mix together thoroughly.
- Grease the sides of a cake tin with a 6 inch diameter and line the bottom with a piece of greaseproof paper. If at all possible, use a tin with a loose bottom or a spring-sided tin to make it easier to turn out the cheesecake.
- Press the mix tightly into the cake tin and set aside for the topping.
This cheesecake base is much more traditional and, unlike the dairy-free base, doesn’t have any particularly strong flavour making it perfect for cheesecakes with more delicate flavours. It was certainly my preferred base.
We used this base for the baked cheesecake and made the error of turning it out too soon (it didn’t help that the tin didn’t have a loose bottom). The base needs to be refrigerated for several hours before turning it out to stop it from crumbling. Once we had kept it in the fridge for a day or two we found that it was holding together well on each individual slice.
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I had wanted to experiment with nut bases, and hadn’t thought about the almond flavor overwhelming, but now that I think about it, that does seem likely. I will have to do some dairy-free, grain-free crust experimenting!
The leftover almond meal wasn’t in itself too strong in nut flavour so the traditional base wasn’t at all nutty and worked fine. It was only a very small bit of butter to hold it all together but I guess it depends how non-dairy you are. My mind is a bit blank though on what else you could use to hold it all together instead of butter. Perhaps lard, though that could introduce a whole new flavour into the base!
I know I’m a bit late to the party.
I’ve been looking up cheesecake recipes and this one sounds quite excellent. I know that the pie crust you buy at the store contains (partially-hydrogenated) lard, so I’m thinking the flavor wouldn’t be too strong for a pie, but again the flavor might be a tad too strong for a cheesecake. I’m all in favor of butter, and I’ll probably be using your second idea for a crust.