Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake with Speculoos Crust

Happy (Almost) Thanksgiving to all our American readers! We love you! This recipe is really special and so incredibly delicious. It's something like a phenomenon. A Thanksgiving Phenomenon.

Pumpkin and Speculoos. A match made in heaven. Throw some pecans in there for good measure and you have a cheesecake of epic proportions. Make this for the people you love and they will love you forever. Of course they will already love you forever because you're an awesome person but this cheesecake will seal the deal. Have a wonderful holiday!

Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake with Speculoos Crust 

Filling adapted from Fat Free Vegan Blog & Crust adapted from Tarlet Sweets

Crust Ingredients:

8.5 oz. which is about 1 package of Lotus Biscoff cookies (these are vegan!) 
1/4 cup vegan butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the crust

Preheat oven to 350F. Process cookies in a food processor until you get fine crumbs. Transfer to a medium bowl along with the melted vegan butter and sugar and stir until mixture resembles wet sand. Press evenly into pie pan at the bottom and up the sides. Refrigerate for 15 minutes then bake for 10 minutes. Let cool while you make the filling.

Filling Ingredients:

8 ounces Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
12 ounces extra-firm silken tofu
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned)
3 tablespoons brown sugar or natural sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

For the cheesecake filling

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Put the first set of ingredients (toffuti through vanilla) in a food processor and puree until completely smooth. It should be silky smooth–not chalky or lumpy.

Add the next set of ingredients (pumpkin through nutmeg) to the ingredients remaining in the food processor and process until well blended. Smooth it carefully over the white layer in the crust, heaping it slightly in the middle. Bake until the centre is almost set, about 50-60 minutes. (Insert a toothpick. If it comes out liquidy and cold, give it more time, until the centre is firm.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate until completely chilled, at least 3 hours.