You say it's your birthday

Lemon-Macadamia Cheezecake with Blueberry Topping made last weekend, in celebration of my Dad's birthday, which was actually this Tuesday. I'd been debating posting this, because the cheezecake was my first attempt at a recipe I'd been conceptualizing for awhile, and, while it wasn't a disaster by any means, it also wasn't the success that would warrant posting a recipe.

However! Since I still had almost all the necessary ingredients lying around the kitchen to make another cheezecake, I determined to apply the tweakings I imagined would vastly improve it, and I achieved success yesterday in my second attempt. One of the reasons I'm so pleased, is that this recipe is free from the shackles of processed vegan substitutes. Despite having achieved delicious results using Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese in the Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheezecake I made in the fall, I'd been desiring for some time to create a successful cheezecake recipe that wasn't reliant on such products. And since my dad was a fan of said pumpkin cheezecake but is also fan of anything blueberry, I came up with the recipe contained at the end of this post.

I also made dinner, 'cause, hey you need a preamble to cake, I guess. I went to my old stand-by for special meals, The Voluptuous Vegan and made a Vegetable Stir-Fry containing some of the fresh asparagus from our patch along with bok choy and red pepper, and Thai Peanut Noodles, thin rice noodles coated in a creamy sauce of peanut butter and light coconut milk.



Stir-fry and noodles sprinkled with Indonesian Sambal, also from The Voluptuous Vegan. My dad really liked the stir-fry. I thought the peanut noodles were especially delicious.

Okay, cheezecake recipe!--

Lemon-Macadamia Cheezecake

makes 1 6-inch cake, serves 6-8

for crust:
1 200-g pkg. McVitie's Ginger Nuts OR 1 cup (slightly-heaped) vegan graham cracker crumbs
3 tbsp vegan margine, melted

for cheezecake:
1 6.5-oz. jar macadamia nuts*
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
zest of 2 lemons
1 12.3-oz. pkg. firm silken tofu (Mori-Nu)
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp granulated sugar or evaporated cane juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp powdered agar (don't use flakes or bars!)

for topping:
3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp cold water

Preheat oven to 350 F. Position one rack in the very bottom of oven, and a second rack above it. On the bottom rack, place a baking or casserole dish filled with water, positioning it in the center of the rack.

Prepare crust: Place Ginger Nuts (or graham crackers) in the bowl of a food processor. Process until ground into crumbs. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in melted margarine with a fork, until well-incorporated. Press mixture in the bottom and about an inch up the sides of a 6-inch springform pan. Place in refridgerator while you prepare filling.

To prepare filling: In the jar of a blender, or the cleaned bowl of your food processor, place macadamia nuts. Pulse until nuts are finely ground and starting to form a paste. If sticking too much (this tends to be a problem in the blender more than the food processor, especially if you have a regular cheap-o blender) drizzle in a bit of the lemon juice, and proces, continuing to pour in lemon juice, until you have a very smooth paste--like a nut butter.

When you have a smooth, amalgamated, butter-like mixture of macadamia nuts and lemon juice, scrape down the sides of your bowl and add the silken tofu, breaking it up with your hands as you dump it in. Process this into the nut butter-mixture until well-incorporated and completely smooth. When you have a smooth tofu mixture, you can add the rest of your cheezecake ingredients--lemon zest, sugar, vanilla extract, and agar powder--pulsing a few times to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl one last time, and process one more time to ensure that ingredients are evenly dispersed.

Remove already-prepared crust from refridgerator and pour cheezecake mixture into pan. Smooth out the top with a spatula. Place in oven, on second rack, directly above water-filled pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Avoid opening oven until the last 15 minutes of baking. When cheezecake is set and golden on top, turn off oven and allow cheezecake to sit in oven for at least 1 hour (up to overnight).



After cheezecake has cooled, cover with cling wrap and refridgerate for a few hours. Once cheezecake is chilled, you can proceed to make the blueberry topping.

For the blueberry topping: Stir together cornstarch and cold water, until there are no lumps. Set aside.

Have cheezecake ready and nearby for topping.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, cook frozen blueberries until defrosted. When blueberries have started to cook down a little, lower heat to medium, and add maple syrup. Cook a little longer, until blueberries have cooked down to a kind of liquid. Then stir in cornstarch slurry, and cook about a minute longer until thickened. Pour over top of cheezecake, and refridgerate for another 15 minutes or so. Once set, proceed to spring the cake from its pan.

Consume :-)