Who doesn’t love cheesecake? Year round, it’s a great dessert. Be it poolside or by the christmas tree, cheesecake is always a hot. Now you can have your cake and eat it too with my Protein Packed vegan Chocolate Chip Cheesecake recipe as it is also sugar free, gluten free and packed with 25 grams of protein per slice so it’s also, guilt free!
Crust
- 2 boxes of vegan cookies or graham crackers of choice (I used simple mills brownie thins)
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter of choice, room temperature
Filling
- 2 1/2 cups of vegan cream cheese, room temperature (about 3 8 oz tubs)
- 2 cups vegan greek yogurt, plain or vanilla
- 1/2 cup protein powder (plain or vanilla, I used stevia sweetened Vanilla plant based protein powder by True Nutrition)
- 2/3 cup monk fruit sweetener (I used Lakanto monk fruit maple syrup)
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 bag of chocolate chips (I used Lakanto monk fruit chocolate chips)
To make the crust:
Add cookies into a food processor and pulse until crumby, breaking up all chunks.
Add crumbs to a mixing bowl with the room temperature butter and hand mix until fully incorporated.
Add into a greases 9-inch springform pan and press down firmly into the base to make a flat and compact crust. Place in the fridge to harden up before adding filling.
To0 make the filling:
Preheat your oven to 350 F and fill a baking sheet around two thirds up with water*. Place this pan on the oven’s lower rack.
Beat all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor or with beaters or a blender just until smooth.
Fold the chips into the mixture with a large spoon.
Spread filling into the springform on top of the cooled crust in the springform pan.
Then place cheesecake on the center rack of the oven (above the rack with the water pan). Bake 30 minutes, then turn off the heat without ever opening the oven. Let sit inside the oven an additional five minutes.
Remove and let cool on the counter before placing the still-under baked cheesecake into the fridge for at least six hours, during which time it will firm up nicely.
*The gradual cooling steps (no sudden temperature changes) and water pan step (adding moisture to the oven) are tricks to help the finished cheesecake not crack.
