hot, Hot, HOT!

We're having "severe weather" and it has forced me out of the yard and back inside.  I can't sit still though so during the heat wave I made my long over due move out of a storage unit and when I was inside, I decided to bake.  We've been cutting out the dairy at home.  For the boyfriend it's an ethical issue, for me it's an allergy problem and the less dairy I eat, the less my body can process it.  So I made my very first vegan cheese cake.  I used this recipe, but I made a few small changes and I just realized that I left out 1 ingredient.  I put the juice from 2 lemons in it, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, a half block of firm tofu, and I forgot to add the water... oops.  Anyway, next time, I would increase the vanilla and decrease the lemon, but that's just a personal preference.  I used firm tofu as opposed to extra firm tofu because that was all they had at the store.  It turned out really great.  I was surprised that the texture so was so close to that of dairy cheesecake.

Naked and oven fresh...

All dressed up...

I had extra filling that I couldn't fit into the pie crust (probably because of the extra tofu) so I decided to get experimental.  I lined the bottom of a small pan with wafer crisps.  The brand I used was not vegan, but I'm sure there is a vegan alternative available some where.  Then I put a thin layer of filling over them and sprinkled chocolate chips (once again, the ones I had were not vegan).  They came out like cheese cake bars and they were super great.

Yum...

The most important thing to take away from this:  Waffle crust is where it's at.  I suggest you try it.

xoxo,

B