Vegan Holiday Kitchen- Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Hint of Chocolate!

Good Morning friends! How is everyone? How many of you feel a little anxiety when we approach the holidays? What to make? How to prep and plan a holiday menu? Great vegan dishes to serve that the crowd will love? It can be a fun challenge and I get many emails asking me for suggestions and menu ideas. So I'm here today with a review/recipe for you that I am totally excited about! First let me just say that I really don't review things on here too often. I will however happily review things that I personally love and enjoy and actually use myself. And this book is definitely one of my new favorites. I wanted to make sure I got this review up in time for the holidays because it is a must buy in my opinion! I actually rarely cook out of cookbooks (this is the inner chef in me!) and I  am always brainstorming and testing my own new creations. But I have several staple books that I love and I think they are a must in any vegan (or not!) cookbook collection.

Vegan Holiday Kitchen

 The book is called Vegan Holiday Kitchen written by Nava Atlas. This book is a beautiful hardbound book that is organized so well. It has tons of beautiful food photos, and the recipes all look very good! The books chapters are divided by Holidays and events to help you plan from which include...

• Thanksgiving
• Christmas and The Holiday Season
• Jewish Holidays: Passover, Rosh Hashana, and Hanukkah
• Easter
• Independence Day and Summer Entertaining
• Brunches, Appetizers, and Potluck Dishes

For each of these chapters are tons of menu and meal ideas. I love this idea and I think it would be such a helpful tool for so many of you! I definitely recommend this book! Of Course, I can't leave you without a recipe from the book. They have generously let me share one of the recipes with you.  So naturally I chose something perfectly fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. This looks so good, and I myself have added this pie to my menu for Thanksgiving. I am really excited to try it out! The recipe is the picture below of the pumpkin cheesecake in the picture collage. How good does that look? Enjoy everyone!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Hint of Chocolate

recipe from Vegan Holiday Kitchen

makes 1 9-inch pie feeds 6-8
printable recipe

What you need:

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/4 cup walnuts

1 9-inch good quality natural pastry crust, vegan, and preferably whole grain

1 12.3-ounce container extra-firm silken tofu

1/2 cup vegan cream cheese

2/3 cup natural granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups of well baked, coarsely mashed sugar pumpkin or butternut squash

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or more to taste

1/2 cup chocolate chips for optional chocolate drizzle

vegan whipped cream for garnish, optional

How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine 1/4 cup chocolate chips and walnuts in a food processor and pulse on and off until finely chopped.

3. Scatter the chocolate chip and walnut mixture evenly over the bottom of the pie crust and then set aside.

4. Combine half the tofu, half the cream cheese, and half the sugar in a food processor and process until smoothly pureed. Pour into the pie crust and smooth down with a cake spatula.

5. Combine the pumpkin or squash pulp in the food processor with the remaining tofu, cream cheese, and sugar, along with the cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Process until smoothly pureed and pour into the pie crust over the plain tofu layer and smooth down with a cake spatula.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the mixture is set and the crust is golden brown. Let the pie cool to room temperature. Cut into 6-8 slices to serve.

7. If you would like to garnish each slice of pie with chocolate drizzle, melt the chocolate chips in a double broiler on the stove top. Transfer the melted chocolate to a pastry bag, or less fancy but almost as effective, a ziploc bag.  If using the Ziploc, snip a tiny hole in one of the corners and gently squeeze the chocolate over each slice of pie in an attractive zig-zag pattern. You can also garnish with a vegan whipped cream..