MoFo Day 1: Blueberry Bliss

I can't think of a better way to start MoFo than by combining two of my favorite foods - blueberries and cheesecake. Vegan Pie in the Sky was a gift last year and I haven't used it much, mostly out of fear that I will eat an entire pie by myself. I go to my parents' house for dinner most Sundays and thought bringing a dessert would help me use the book and still fit in my pants. An afternoon at Hazen's Farm last month yielded a freezer full of handpicked blueberries (7.5 pounds!), so the Blueberry Bliss Cheesecake was a pretty easy choice.  

I only needed to buy vanilla cookies and tofu, both of which I was pleasantly surprised to find at the new Detroit Meijer. Well, I also had to buy a springform pan because I lost my old one while moving, but it was too small anyway. Even with the pan, I still only spent $10 making this. 

Before:

I made a graham cracker-type crust using vanilla flavored animal crackers. The package, minus the two handfuls I ate, made exactly the right amount of crumbs. While that was in the oven, I hauled out my treasured Vitamix. The filling is made of cashews, blueberries, banana and silken tofu. After years of making fillings in my mini food processor, I still can't get over how fast and easy the Vitamix makes everything.

(Yes, that's a beer bottle propping up the window. I'm classy.) After pouring the filling over the crust, the cheesecake baked for 60 minutes. I pulled it out of the oven and it was perfect: slightly cracked and just browned on the edges. While it was baking, I cooked the topping of blueberries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Then I had to wait 2 1/2 hours for it to cool. And wait for dinner. And wait until everyone was ready for dessert. Finally the moment arrived. Please excuse the photo quality, at this point I was too excited to fuss with lighting.

I've eaten a lot of vegan cheesecakes over the years. Some are just like regular dairy cheesecakes and others taste like a block of sweetened tofu. This one tasted great, but was more like a blueberry custard pie than a cheesecake. I also couldn't get over the hints of banana, but no one else said anything, so maybe that's just me. Don't get me wrong, four people ate half of it and I'll happily devour the leftovers this week (or possibly finish it tomorrow). I think my expectations were just a little too high.

UPDATE: I ate the leftover cheesecake the next day and it was 100 times better. It had that cheesecake tanginess and the texture had improved a lot. My high expectations were definitely met! Also, you can find the recipe here.