Maybe I’ve been living in a cave, but it wasn’t until I attended Kosherfest, the kosher food industry’s trade fair and specifically chef Avi Roths’ fab cooking demonstration that I discovered the myriad possibilities of Tofutti cream cheese. While I can’t get many hip American ingredients-I have yet to sample farro, ponzu or srichacha sauce (hope I’ve spelled them correctly) Tofutti cream cheese is sold at my local makolet. It’s kept in the the dairy case.-whoever stocks the shelves seems to think that it’s dairy-that white plastic container is deceiving. While Tofutti cream cheese is not something you’d want to spread on a bagel, when it is sweetened up and combined with pareve cream, sugar and eggs it can become the foundation for a yummy desert.
Chef Roth used it to make a heavenly tasting chocolate cookie peanut butter, cream cheese trifle. I wanted to try to recreate it but I was out of chocolate cookies and well stocked with empty Graham cracker crust shells so I took a leap of faith and tried my hand at pareve cheesecake. Most of the time I cook with recipes but for this recipe I winged it, adapting a dairy cheesecake recipe and hoping for the best. To my great surprise, my pareve cheesecake came out so delicious that even my cheesecake maven husband asked me if I was sure that it wasn’t dairy. No kiddin. He felt a bit strange eating it after a chicken meal.
Yes, for those of us who keep kosher, pareve cheesecake can seem strange.I imagine that there are old timers who may even refuse it, on principle, not wanting to pretend to be eating a forbidden combination but for most of the kosher eating public fake treyf is just fine. It’s more than fine. It’s become a mega trend.
On display at Kosherfest I saw displays of fake sea food, fake bacon, even fake bread for Passover (potato starch is a magical ingredient) and of course Tofutti fake cheese products.
Does this trend point to a hidden, or perhaps not so hidden treyf envy? Do we orthodox Jews secretly long to eat cheeseburgers or do these concoctions indicate that we kosher eaters aren’t missing anything at all thereby proving the Talmudical statement that every forbidden flavor has a kosher equivalent? I don’t know
Since the Rabbis declared these things permitted we are free to indulge in these slightly bizarre pleasures. In that spirit here’s my easy and delicious and very fake Tofutti Cream Cheese Pareve Cheesecake recipe.
1 16 oz container of Tofutti cream cheese
1 small pareve whip
2 eggs
1/2 packet of vanilla pudding mix (about 1/2 cup) powder
1-2 T lemon juice (fresh)
1 t vanilla extract
Graham cracker pie crust
Sugar to taste (about 1/3 to 1/2 of a cup)
Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer combine everything into a thick, smooth paste and pour into a prepared Graham cracker crust. This is a very runny filling-mine spilled on the floor and inside my oven. You may want to take precautions such as covering your oven tray with silver foil or resting the pie pan in an aluminum foil case. Don’t say I didnt warn you. (for a thicker batter, you can take the slightly more time consuming step of beating the pareve whip alone until stiff before adding the other ingredients)
Bake at 180 C or 350 F until set (about one hour) Cool and then refrigerate for 12 hours before serving
Freezes very well.
Your recipe for the Tofutti Parve Cheese PIE sounds nice….but i would appreciate some clarification please. *1 small pareve whip (is this a brand name? what size is small in ounces please)…….the vanilla pudding mix is that REGULAR OR INSTANT?….the directions say to “combine everything into a thick, smooth paste” yet in your next sentence you say it ‘is a very runny filling’ and that your spilled on the floor and inside your oven….so do we mix it more to come up with the ‘thick paste’? Thank you in advance for your response
Thanks for reading. Hope this clears up your confusion. The pareve whip is Rich’s or in Israel Chef Halavan, the smallest size. The pudding is Osem or Gefen powder, roughly half an envelop. The filling is thick but overflowing-that is it fills the pie shell completely and there’s a risk that it will spill over—happened to me, which is why I suggest taking precautions.
Let me know how it turns out.
Thank you for getting back to me regarding the one question about the whip,,,but how about “.the vanilla pudding mix is that REGULAR OR INSTANT?”… as to the pudding, the brand means nothing since there are a few kosher ones here but the cooked or instant is the lacking information…thank you in advance.
instant. good luck. thanks for visiting. let me know how it turns out.