Keto Cheesecake

Today’s recipe is one of my low carb recipes that totally makes me feel like I’m gaming the system or getting away with something.

As I mentioned on my “about me” page, this stint of going on a low-carb diet wasn’t exactly voluntary for me. Losing ⅓ of my pancreas to cancer quickly resulted in full blown diabetes. Woo!

I told my family doctor that I was aiming to not be diabetic in 1 year, and I beat that goal in just 3 months.

(Though if the A1c had dropped 0.1 further, I wouldn’t even be prediabetic anymore! I’m a little salty that I was SO close to really knocking it out of the park!)

The fact that I’d spent those 3 months basically eating “whatever I want, as long as I make it a low carb version has been key to my ability to stick to this.

That I’m 40 lbs down in 4 months, while eating everything on this site? Honestly kind of ridiculous.

Gotta love doing the keto diet dirty - and this delicious keto cheesecake is a great thing!

After all, the most important thing about sticking to a diet is being ABLE to stick to it!

Easy Keto Cheesecake

In the “before time”, cheesecake was a favorite dessert, though one I didn’t make too often. With only 2 of us, we definitely didn’t need a whole 9" cheesecake in the fridge!

Eventually, I bought a 6" springform pan, and re-tooled my best cheesecake recipe to be much smaller - just 4-6 servings.

Now that I’m on a ketogenic diet for the next year, I decided to take that great recipe and retool it again, this time to be suitable for a low carb diet.

This quickly became a favorite recipe: easy to make, great tasting, with a glorious creamy filling.

While there are many no bake cheesecake recipes, I wanted a keto option for a traditional baked cheesecake - and this low carb keto cheesecake recipe definitely filled that desire!

It tastes -and has the same mouth feel - as the real thing, just with a fraction of the carbs - 4 grams of net carbs when served in as ⅙ the recipe, and 6 grams net carbs when served as giant, ¼ cheesecake slices!

(The entire cheesecake has only 24 g net carbs - a wildly low carb count, especially when compared to regular cheesecake!)

Low-carb desserts don’t get much better than this!

Good news: It’s it’s a super easy keto cheesecake recipe to make, too! Let’s get to it ...

Sugar-Free Cheesecake Ingredients

This is a fairly basic recipe with mostly simple ingredients, but I do have some things to let you know about them!

Keto Cheesecake Crust

While many low-carb cheesecake recipes use an almond meal / almond flour crust in place of the traditional graham cracker crust.

For me, I prefer to use a different kind of nut based crust in place of the graham crackers.

Nothing against almond flour, it’s just that it’s very neutral, and I already use it for EVERYTHING. I like to have a bit more fun with the cheesecake, and will vary the nut flours I use.

As pictured in this post, I used a hazelnut flour crust, though I usually default to a pecan crust.

Pecan is a great keto option for crusts - I’ll even do pecan crusted chicken and fish!

In terms of carbs, you’ll want to be careful when choosing your nut meal / nut flour. Comparing ¼ cup measurements of a few types:

Pistachio Flour: 7.7 grams total carbs, 2.9 grams fiber, 4.8 grams net carbs.

Almond Meal: 6 grams total carbs, 2 grams fiber, 4 net carbs.

Hazelnut Meal: 5 grams total carbs, 3 grams fiber, 2 net carbs.

Pecan Meal: 2.7 grams total carbs, 1.3 grams fiber, 1.4 grams net carbs

Walnut Meal: 3.1 grams total carbs, 2.1 grams fiber, 1 gram net carbs.

As you can see, almond flour isn’t even the lowest carb option!

Note: All of these flours / meals (same thing!) are great options for crusting chicken or fish with.

Also, FYI: Peanut flour and Macadamia Flour are more or less keto friendly, but have too much fat to make a good crust.

Additionally, Cashew Meal is available, but WAY higher in carbs.

Making Nut Meal

Don’t have access to a certain nut flour?

Just run some shelled nuts through a food processor until they’re finely ground into an even texture. Don’t go too far, or you’ll end up with nut butter.

Tasty, but not appropriate for making a cheesecake crust!

The Other Ingredients

In addition to the nut flour, you’ll need a granulated sweetener - I use a blend of erythritol and monkfruit - and butter. Just 3 ingredients!

Creamy Cheesecake Batter

The batter ingredients are a lot more basic. You’ll need:

2 blocks of cream cheese. You’ll want to use full fat cream cheese, as it’s lowest in carbs

Note: bring to room temperature before making the cheesecake. Room temperature ingredients blend the easiest and smoothest.

Granulated Sugar Substitute - Again, I like the blend of erythritol and monk fruit sweetener, I find it tastes and behaves the most like regular sugar.

I recommend running it through a mini food processor after measuring it, to powder it. This will give you the smoothest cheesecake!

Sour cream

Large eggs

Vanilla extract

Fresh lemon juice (You can add the lemon zest too, if you like!)

Equipment

Due to the size of the cheesecakes, I recommend mixing the batter up by hand.

Mixing by hand gives you the best finished cheesecake, as using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer risks introducing too many air bubbles into the batter - this can lead to cracking.

Also, it also means needing only the most basic of equipment for mixing it up: a bowl and a whisk.

That said, you’ll want a 6" springform pan for this recipe. Generally speaking, these pans come in 2" tall and 3" tall options.

This keto recipe works well in either - it will basically fill a 2" spring form pan, and leave some headspace in a 3".

I don’t like buying more kitchen stuff than I need, though, so I use a 3" tall, 6" Springform Pan. I can get the functionality of both, in just one piece of equipment!

How to Make The Best Keto Cheesecake

The full recipe is at the bottom of this post, in the recipe card. This is the pictorial overview - with added tips and information - to not clog up that card for those who want to print it!

Make the Crust

Preheat oven to 350F.

For best results, carefully wrap the outside of a 6" Springform pan with aluminum foil, making sure it’s completely sealed off.

In a small bowl, mix crust ingredients: Pecan flour, melted butter, and sugar substitute.

Dump the crust mixture into the bottom of the pan. Carefully distribute and press the mixture into the bottom and part way and up the sides of the pan.

Bake crust for 15 minutes. Remove the cheesecake pan from oven, turn oven temp down to 325 F.

Make the Cheesecake Batter

In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened cream cheese and sugar substitute together until smooth.

*****

Note: This is an important thing - IF you’re going to use a electric mixture for this, it should only be for this step - and it’s highly unnecessary!

If your cream cheese is properly softened, I definitely recommend whisking it by hand, to avoid introducing too much air into the cheesecake filling. For the best texture, I skip the hand mixer completely, TBH.

For such a small amount of cream cheese, it’s not worth the risk to the finished cheesecake.

*****

Pour cheesecake batter into the prepared crust.

Place prepared cheesecake in a larger pan - 8x8 or 9x13.

Carefully pour hot water into the larger pan, aiming for it to come halfway up the height of the springform pan.

This hot water bath is key to even cooking, and preventing cracking.

Carefully transfer the whole thing to the 325 F oven.

Bake keto cheesecake for 60 - 65 minutes, or until the center of the cheesecake is mostly set - it’ll wiggle a little if shaken, but shouldn’t be liquid.

Once the cake is fully cooked, remove from the oven, and remove the springform pan from the water bath.

Run a butter knife along the inside of the pan to loosen the crust from the pan, then let the cheesecake cool to room temperature.

Cover with plastic wrap and transfer cheesecake to fridge, chill for at least 6 hours - ideally overnight - before removing the outer ring of the pan.

Cheesecake will keep for about 5 days in the fridge, if stored in an airtight container.

To serve, slice with a sharp knife, top with your choice of keto cheesecake toppings.

Low Carb Cheesecake Toppings

While this is fantastic as a plain cheesecake, it really sings when you add ~stuff~ to the top of the cheesecake.

I’ll usually leave the cheesecake unadorned while in the fridge, and top the individual slices as they’re served. Here are a few ideas:

Fresh Fruit

The easiest option - just top it with fresh berries! Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries are all keto friendly in small amounts!

I’ll usually chop up a bit of fresh mint for good measure, and a bit of colour. Strawberry + mint on cheesecake? Heaven.

Add a little unsweetened whipped cream, if you like!

Berry Sauce

I’ll often whip up really easy berry sauces to serve with this cheesecake, and don’t even really measure anything.

This time around, it was raspberry... but they all basically work the same:

Put some berries in a small sauce pan - ½ pint works fine for this amount of cheesecake, but you can do 1 pint if you want a lot of sauce per serving.

If you’re doing raspberries or blackberries, just toss them in as-is and mash them about as they cook. Strawberries should be chopped up, blueberries could go either way.

If you’re starting with frozen fruit, just be sure it doesn’t have added sugar - strawberries are especially notorious for being sold with sugar added.

Add a bit of sugar-free sweetener of choice - more if you have a sweet tooth, sour berries, or both, a bit less if you have very sweet berries or don’t want a sweet sauce.

I just eyeball it at a couple tablespoons or so per ½ pint of berries, plus or minus from there. Add a bit of vanilla, a pinch of salt, and/or a bit of citrus zest if you like.

Simmer it until the berries are broken down and the sauce thickens a bit.

If you’re using raspberries or blackberries, you can scrape the sauce through a fine wire mesh sieve to strain the seeds out, if you’d like - it’s entirely optional. We did for these photos, though.

Spoon a bit over a slice of cheesecake and serve!

Note: If your sugar substitute crystallizes after chilling, just heat it up in the microwave and stir. The crystals will break down into a smooth sauce again.

Sugar Free Caramel Sauce

Whether store bought or homemade, this makes a great topping for sugar free cheesecake. It’s another thing I eyeball - a bit of brown Swerve, butter, and heavy cream / heavy whipping cream - some day I’ll do up an actual recipe for it.

Bonus points for doing this with a pecan crust, and/or using sugar free chocolate chips or sugar free chocolate sauce with it, for a keto turtle cheesecake!

Melted Peanut Butter

Stick some sugar free, keto friendly peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds, until liquid.

Drizzle over cheesecake slices, optionally top with some sugar free chocolate.

More Low Carb Dessert Recipes

Looking to indulge your sweet tooth in a way that won’t spike your blood sugar? Here are some keto recipes to try!

Biscotti
Carrot Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Truffles
Cream Cheese Mints
Creme Brulee
Lemon Tart
Easy Keto Lemon Curd
Fudgy Brownies
Key Lime Cheesecake
Ladyfingers
Lemon Bars
Low Carb Holiday Desserts
Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
Protein Chocolate Cookies
Raspberry Coconut Bars
Raspberry Truffle Tart
Tiramisu
Traditional Chocolate Mousse

... but wait, there's more! We have a whole Low Carb Dessert Recipe section! Check it out!

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