Twice-Baked Chocolate Tofu Cheesecake- vegan, gluten free

This cheesecake is great decorated with fresh fruit and more chocolate!

We love the idea of making vegan and gluten free versions of popular dishes- if you follow this diet because of allergies rather than by choice, then you will doubtless miss treats like cheesecake, and that is how this recipe came to be invented. Last year we posted a delicious chocolate pecan cheesecake that our kids made, based on a Nigella recipe. It contained a ton of full-fat cream cheese and Nutella, and was a chloresterol and sugar-laden hit! Then a little later I made a vegan, gluten free and sugar free strawberry tofu cheesecake, which gets lots of views, but I think it's just a bit too healthy to be really indulgent. This cheesecake, then, is somewhere in between. It could be sugar free if you use xylitol chocolate, as the base and filling contain date and maple syrup, but we loved the velvety sweetness of the dark chocolate. It is twice-baked because the base is cooked first, then the filling added and the whole thing baked again. As cheesecakes go, it is not a difficult recipe to make, but it does take some time because of the three stages (base, filling, decoration). We used a 26cm  (10 1/4") shallow springform cake tin, but if you want a deeper layer of filling, you could use an 8" one- or just double the filling ingredients ;)

Base:

1 1/2 cups (1 cup =250ml) millet flour (aka bajri/ ragi)

1 cup ground almonds (grind your own if you can, coarser than the bought ones, and with the skins on)

1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal 

2 tabs date syrup

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

• Mix all the ingredients together and press evenly into an oiled springform tin.
• Bake for 190-15 mins in an oven preheated to 150C. Take care not to over-brown the edges.

Filling:

200g medium-firm tofu (if you make your own like we did, use one litre of soya milk and press for about half an hour)

150g vegan dark chocolate, melted

2 large bananas

2 tabs tahini

1 tab maple syrup

• Melt the chocolate. (Use a microwave or Bain Marie)
• Blitz everything in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. (Alternatively, you could mash and blend by hand.)
• Pile it on top of the base and gently smooth the top with a spatula.
• Bake for about 20 minutes at 150C.

Decoration:

2 kiwi fruits

 a handful of fresh strawberries

 and/ or more dark chocolate

• When the cheesecake is completely cool, decorate with a pattern of sliced fresh fruit.
• You can also sprinkle on grated chocolate.
• For an extra-special look, you could make chocolate curls or chocolate leaves (paint melted chocolate onto fresh rose leaves then peel off).