Sunday, August 30, 2009

Vegan Mexican 'Cheesecake' Sopapilla Bars

  • Quite possibly the most crazy-good, embarrassing, bad-for-you, crowd pleasing, yet actually VEGAN potluck dessert EVER. But no apologies!
  • I dare you to make these and share them with your skeptical friends. They may convert to veganism on the spot just to convince you to make more...

  • They do not resemble Mexican food, sopapillas OR cheesecake in any way, but that's what the 'original' recipe is called, so I'm sticking with the title. And it really doesn't matter what you call them, they are inhaled in about ten seconds flat. Before you even have a CHANCE to warn everyone away from the freaky vegan food - heehee! (I veganized the approximate recipe from a friend's version of NOT vegan, but still yummy, bars, she's not sure where it originated from either... thanks Julianna!!)
  • Many of you know I'm not a fan of cinnamon, but I've made an exception here because these things are SO freakin'good, and they don't use a lot, you might add more if you're a fan...
Vegan Mexican 'Cheesecake' Sopapilla Bars
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 tsp. good quality real vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 2 (8 ounce) packages Tofutti Better-than-cream-cheese
  • 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls (yes, many varieties are actually vegan! Yes, they do have weird ingredients and yes, some trans fat and yes some artificial crap, so deal with it or go make granola bars!! Or use puff pastry for a slightly different texture but still yummy!!)
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup Earth Balance, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup honey, agave nectar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or fruit syrup

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly(!!) oil a 9x13 inch baking dish with canola oil.

Mix cornstarch into 1 cup sugar. Beat together the Tofutti cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar/cornstarch, vanilla extract and lemon juice, in a bowl, until smooth.
Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. (Or use pc. of puff pastry)

Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.

Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the pastry.

Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 - 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey or syrup of choice.

Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...this is not something I would normally make, but with that review?! I guess I am going to have to make it for the next potluck/food event I go to. I never know what to make anyway! You really think these'll be a hit?!

Thanks!

Courtney

VeganView said...

Mmmm does that look good or what?! I think you should change the top of your blog from "don't tell Paula Deen" but to "Move Over Paula Dean" ;) Awesome food as always from you.

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Courtney, it depends on the crowd of course. They are perfect for those sorts of potlucks where there's a bunch of little kids or where no one's interested in "healthy" or "vegan" or "fat-free" or "sugar-free" type stuff. I haven't actually tried them at one of my Vegan Meet-up Potlucks, I'd probably recommend something SLIGHTLY more "healthy" for one of those, hahaha!

Clarissa Mansfield said...

These look dangerously good. Who says vegan food can't be decadent? :)

The Voracious Vegan said...

WOW! I am going to make these as soon as I can get my hands on tofutti cream cheese (we have to leave the country and head across the border to find vegan cream cheese, actually!) but it will be SO worth it!

You can't be a super health food vegan every day and I think the best foods for shocking doubting omnis is this kind of food, too delicious to be believed.

The recipe looks really easy, too, thank you so much for sharing!

Bianca said...

Ha! I love the "deal with it or go make granola bars" line. Sometimes, especially for potlucks, you just gotta use the bad stuff. I made fried donuts for a potluck this weekend and used white flour cause hell, if you're frying something, why use whole wheat, right? These look sinfully delicious!

Anonymous said...

Thanks! There is a work event coming up where I am thinking these will go over well...I am excited to see what people think!

Courtney

Jen said...

um, you had me at mexican.
um, no--you had me at cheezcake.
oops, no-- you had me at bars.

sweet food in bar form makes for a very happy jewbacca. i'm a vegan for animal and environmental reasons. i still pretty much am in love with my share of junk food and refuse to apologize for it.

will try at next potluck!

bazu said...

god, these sound good! and I love your attitude- "deal with it or go make granola bars!!" exactly- you've got to splurge every now and again!

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

agreed, sometimes you just gotta cook something that'll make your arse expand! These sound disgustingly awesome!

JENNA said...

I'm really looking forward to trying this recipe! I love eating bad for you stuff once in a while.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vegan Triangle said...

Tofu Mom already saw my blog post, but in case anyone wanted to see how my version turned out with puff pastry, here's the link! <a href="http://lavidavegana.blogspot.com/2011/07/vegan-sopapilla-cheesecake-bars.html>http://lavidavegana.blogspot.com/2011/07/vegan-sopapilla-cheesecake-bars.html</a>

<i>Hint: They were amazingly delicious!!</i>

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

They look great!! Not sure your link posted correctly, so here it is again...

http://lavidavegana.blogspot.com/2011/07/vegan-sopapilla-cheesecake-bars.html