All lovers of peanut butter need to try this creamy and luscious vegan peanut butter cheesecake at some point in their lives. It is so easy to make, fully no-bake and totally delectable.
This dessert consists of a crunchy and buttery Digestive cookie crust, a silky smooth peanut butter filling, as well as an optional chocolate topping too if you wish to spice the recipe up a little.
I love to make this peanut flavored treat in the fall time every year and it's always a hit in our household. It also tastes amazing with dairy-free single cream. I highly recommend serving it with the cheesecake, as it elevates it even higher.
Be sure to check out my vegan chocolate cheesecake, vegan peach cobbler cheesecake and vegan black forest cheesecake recipes for more popular cheesecake inspiration.
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Why You Will Love This Cheesecake
- Delicious Texture - Just like any non-vegan cheesecake, the texture on this treat has such a wonderful consistency. It's thick, velvety and crumbly just like a good vegan cheesecake should be. Some others that you should try are my vegan strawberry shortcake white chocolate cheesecake and vegan brownie cheesecake.
- Strong Flavors - If you love nut butters, I have no doubt that you'll love this cheesecake. I used a high ratio regular peanut butter in contrast the other ingredients for this recipe and it really paid off with strong flavors which are similar to what you will find in my eggless vanilla peanut butter cake loaf.
- Easy to Make - Assembling this peanut butter cheesecake is so easy. Make the crust and press it into the tin. Next, prepare the filling and pour it over the crust. Refrigerate the cheesecake and enjoy.
- Allergy Friendly & Plant Based - This vegan peanut butter cheesecake recipe is completely vegan and dairy free.
Ingredient Notes
- Digestive biscuits or vegan Graham crackers - One of these options will be used for the crust of the cheesecake. The great thing about these kinds of cookies is that they're both accidentally vegan most of the time. You can also use other types of cookies if you can find either of them.
- Vegan butter block - I love to use dairy-free butter blocks such as, the vegan Flora for this recipe.
- Vegan cream cheese - Although it has a slightly different texture to dairy cream cheese, many alternatives like the vegan Philadelphia work fantastically in recipes like this. When I add it to my cheesecakes, it helps to create an authentic consistency.
- Peanut Butter - Of course, this is the main ingredient. Smooth peanut butter is the best kind of peanut butter for this dessert.
- Lemon juice - This is such an underrated and important ingredient. If you want to replicate the 'cheesecakey' taste that most dairy cheesecakes have, you can't skip the lemon juice. I also used this trick in my vegan blueberry cheesecake bars and vegan oreo cheesecake with great success.
- Agar-agar powder - This is a plant-based alternative to gelatine and it really helps and contributes towards the final texture.
See recipe card for full information on individual ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- For people who prefer it you can certainly use crunchy peanut butter in this recipe, as opposed to smooth peanut butter. I personally like my cheesecakes to be smooth all the way through. If you're more of the adventurous type, you may want to use crunch peanut butter to give the filling a bit more crunch and pizazz.
- I've made adding a chocolate topping optional in this recipe. You can also add a different topping of you choice if you wish. This can be anything from, melted peanut butter, to melted Biscoff spread like I did in my vegan biscoff cheesecake, to vegan white chocolate. Make sure that you refrigerate the dessert after you add the topping so that it can set.
How To Make Vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake
For the full method, please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
1: Line a round, springform cake tin with parchment paper.
2: Blitz the crust ingredients inside a high-speed blender.
3: Press the crust into the lined cake tin. Place in the freezer while you make the filling.
4: Add the filling ingredients to the blender and pulse until smooth.
5: Mix the agar-agar powder into water until it dissolves.
6: Bring the agar mixture to a boil, then simmer until it thickens.
7: Add the agar-agar to the filling mixture and pulse again until combined.
8: Pour the peanut butter filling into the cake tin. Place in the fridge to chill.
9: Remove the chilled vegan peanut butter cheesecake from the fridge and serve.
Expert Tips
Thicken the agar first - Before adding the agar-agar to the cheesecake filling make sure that you thicken it first or else it won't work. Dissolve the powder into water and bring it to the boil. Then simmer until it thickens into a jello.
Measure your ingredients properly - It is super important that you measure out your ingredients accurately. Use weighing scales so that the amounts are correct. Small mistakes can make big differences in this recipe. The ratios have to be right.
Recipe FAQs
There are plenty of vegan cream cheese alternatives in grocery stores these days.
Traditional they're made from a cookie crust, cream cheese, heavy cream and sugar. My vegan versions are often made from Digestives, silken tofu, vegan cream cheese, coconut cream, lemon juice and sugar.
Store this cheesecake inside the fridge for up to four days. Don't store at room temperature.
More Vegan Cheesecake Recipes
If you tried this Vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
Easy No Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the base:
- 270 g Digestive biscuits or vegan Graham crackers
- 90 g vegan butter block
- Pinch of salt
For the filling:
- 120 g vegan cream cheese
- 400 g silken tofu
- 100 g coconut cream
- 100 g smooth peanut butter
- 1 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 120 g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 teaspoons agar-agar powder
- 75 ml cold water
For the topping:
- 180 g vegan chocolate chips melted (optional)
Instructions
Make the crust:
- Line the bottom of an 8-inch springform cake tin with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a high-speed blender or a food processor, add your Digestive biscuits or Graham crackers and blitz them for about 30-40 seconds so that fine crumbs form.
- In a saucepan, melt the vegan butter over a low heat then pour it to the blitzed cookie crumbs along with the salt and pulse again until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand.
- Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the lined baking tin with the bottom of a glass. This makes it compact.
- Place the crust into the freezer while you make the peanut butter filling.
Make the filling:
- To the high-speed blender add all the ingredients apart from the agar-agar powder and the cold water. Blend it until completely smooth.
- Next, grab a medium-sized saucepan and pour in the water. Stir the agar-agar powder into the water until it dissolves completely.
- Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir constantly for 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened a little.
- Immediately add the agar-agar mixture to the peanut butter filling mixture and blend again until combined.
- Pour the peanut butter filling into the prepared springform tin. Place the cheesecake into the fridge for at least 7 hours to set. Overnight is better.
- Remove the cheesecake from the fridge. This step is optional but if you wish, melt vegan chocolate chips. Once they’ve cooled a little, pour the melted chocolate onto the top of the cheesecake. Let it set.
- Remove the cheesecake from the tin carefully.
Video
Notes
- Before adding the agar-agar to the cheesecake filling make sure that you thicken it first or else it won't work. Dissolve the powder into water and bring it to the boil. Then simmer until it thickens into a jello.
- It is super important that you measure out your ingredients accurately. Use weighing scales so that the amounts are correct. Small mistakes can make big differences in this recipe. The ratios have to be right.
Anonymous says
🤤🤤🤤
Sam F says
This cheesecake was very very delicious 🤤