High Protein Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

This High Protein Triple Chocolate Cheesecake is one of my favorite recipes! It’s a very confusing this to eat, because it feels like just a normal dessert, but it has quite a bit of protein. It’s great for a protein snack, dessert, or to be totally honest, I have eaten it for breakfast 🙂

The filling is made from silken tofu, which means it’s very creamy! If you haven’t used silken tofu in a cheesecake or desserts, in general, you have got to try it! Silken tofu is soy-based which means it doesn’t have a lot of its own flavor and will take on any flavor you give it.

The crust is weirdly made out of TVP. Typically TVP is used in savory recipes, but I started using it in sweets/baked goods a couple of years ago on a whim and fell in love with it. TVP is just de-fatted soy flour so it doesn’t have much of it’s own flavor, adds a lot of protein and texture-wise, is reminiscent of oats. If this still sounds too unusual to you, feel free to use a cookie crust instead!

If you don’t like the sound of this one, but still want to try a high protein cheesecake, I have a few other recipes as well, like peanut butter chocolate, strawberry, etc.!

Ingredients

Cheesecake Filling

• Extra Firm Silken Tofu – if you haven’t used silken tofu in a cheesecake before, you’re in for a treat! I really like to use Extra Firm Silken Tofu because it has a little better macros. This is a shelf-stable ingredient that you can typically find in the International Cuisine isle of the grocery store (at least in the States). You can also order it online. I really like the brand Mori-Nu.
• Powdered Sugar – I think powdered sugar is a must for this recipe, but understand that a lot of people are trying to reduce their sugar intake. I think you could probably swap the powdered sugar for a sugar alternative or just sweetened/flavored protein powder.
• Vanilla Extra – a must.
• Flour – we don’t use much flour for this, but I usually use all-purpose. If you’re gluten-free, you could definitely swap this for a gluten-free flour.
• Baking Powder – *for the texture*
• Salt – adjust to taste
• Cocoa Powder – we definitely need cocoa powder for the filling; it’s where most of the chocolatey flavor comes from!
• Chocolate Chips – I prefer using mini chocolate chips for this, because you’re more likely to get chocolate chips in every bite. I like the brand Enjoy Life because I can find it at my grocery store, but feel free to use your favorite!

Crust

• TVP – Textured Vegetable Protein is a cheap, shelf-stable, vegan protein source that’s typically used in savory recipes. It’s just de-fatted soy protein so it doesn’t have much of it’s own flavor so I like to use it in baking as well. I’ve heard it called soy mince, textured soy protein, and a few other variations depending on location. There are a lot of good brands for TVP, so it doesn’t really matter which brand you use, though it is important that you get the right size – these should be very small granules. I use Bob’s Red Mill for reference.
• Ground Flax Seed – this is my go-to egg replacement in baking. If you have another preference, feel free to swap. Ground flax is a shelf-stable, and fairly cheap ingredient. It’s easy to use – you just add water, mix and allow to sit for a few minutes and you end up with a gooey egg alternative.
• Brown Sugar – if you’re trying to cut back on sugar, you might be able to swap this with sweetened/flavored protein powder or a sugar substitution.
• Cocoa Powder – this is a must, as it’s adding a subtle, chocolatey flavor to our crust.
• Salt – adjust to taste if needed.
• Flour – you could definitely sub in a gluten-free flour option here, but I typically just use all-purpose.

Instructions

• Pre-heat oven to 350F.
• In a small bowl, mix the ground flax seed and water together. Allow to sit for at least five minutes until they become a gooey little egg replacement mixture! We will be using this in the crust.

Making the Filling

• In a high powered blender, blend the tofu until smooth and creamy. Because we are not adding any liquids to this, you’ll probably need a couple spatula interventions to completely blend it.
• In a large bowl, pour of the blended tofu and stir in the vanilla extract. I use a whisk.
• Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in the bowl. If you don’t have a sifter, this isn’t a required step, but I don’t think it make the texture creamier and smoother so I do it this way. Whisk everything together.
• Add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well mixed and creamy. There should be no lumps at this point.
• Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

Making the Crust

• In a medium sized bowl, mix all of the ingredients together that are listed under the crust section. I just use a fork for this part. The “dough” should be wet and pliable.

Assembly

• In a deep pie pan, dump the crust “dough”. Evenly smooth it out on the bottom of the pan and up the sides. I just use the back of a spoon for this. This should be very easy and the dough should stay in place.
• Pour the cheesecake filling on top of the crust and smooth out evenly.
• Bake in the oven for 40 – 50 minutes.
• The cheesecake should be pretty firm when it’s done, but it should still have a slight wiggle left in the middle (this is normal).
• Let it cool at room temperature for 2 hours. If you immediately put it in the fridge, it tends to crack a bunch (idk why – science I guess).
• You can move it to the fridge to continue cooling if you want or just eat it at room temp!

Silly Little Haiku

Triple chocolate

Never too much chocolate

I love chocolate