Low Carb Chocolate Cheesecake

After reading how some of my fellow low carbing friends eat cheesecake for breakfast, I was determined to find a recipe for a low carb chocolate cheesecake that would serve as dessert for Valentine's Day and as breakfast, too. Debbie, who I met from FamilyCorner.com, posted this low carb cheesecake recipe for me. It sounded great so I decided to add some cocoa to it to see if the chocolate taste would come through enough to satisfy my cravings.

It worked just fine.

Here is the original recipe with my changes printed below it:

Low Carb Cheesecake
3 packages (1 and 1/2 lbs) cream cheese, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/3 cups worth of artificial sweetener
1/4 cup sour cream

Crust
1 cup almond meal
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp artificial sweetener


Heat oven to 375 F.Combine ingredients for crust, and press into the bottom of a springform pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes, till fragrant and beginning to brown. Raise oven heat to 400 degrees, or lower to 350 degrees if you're using a water bath (see below).Put cream cheese in mixing bowl, and beat till fluffy. Add other ingredients, scraping the bowl and beaters each time (this is very important), fully incorporating each ingredient. When all ingredients are combine, scrap one more time, beat one more minute, and pour mixture into pan over crust.

Instructions for water bath: Wrap the bottom and sides of the springform pan in foil, put it in a baking pan and pour boiling water around the sides. Bake at 350 for 60 to 90 minutes, checking often. When the cake is firm to touch but slightly soft in the center, or the center reaches 155 degress, remove from oven.

Instructions for non water bath: For this method, you start the cake at a high temperature, and it slowly drops. If you have stoneware, bricks, etc, this allows it to happen at a slower rate, and I get better results in less time. Put the cheesecake on a sheet pan in case of drippage. After putting the cheesecake in the oven at 400 degrees, turn the oven down to 200. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, checking often after an hour. When the cake is firm to touch but slightly soft in the center, or the center reaches 155 degrees, remove from oven.
Chill completely. Top with fruit.Makes 16 servings.

With regular cream cheese, each servings has 1.5 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams protein, and 174 calories.

My changes/additions: 

I added 4 TBSP cocoa to it to make it chocolate.

I made it in a 10" spring form pan to make the slices bigger but not as tall. For a regular cheesecake, you would probably want to use an 8" pan.

I used the non-water bake method to bake this. It took just 60 minutes to bake.

Also, this cheesecake is not really sweet, especially with the cocoa added to it. I like it this way but if you like it on the sweeter side, I would suggest adding another 1/3 c. of sugar substitute to it. The texture is firm, yet creamy. The almond crust is a nice treat but I bet that this could be made without it if you chill the cheesecake really well before slicing it.

Make sure to keep scraping the bow (including the bottom of the bowl), as suggested. After a lot of beating, I still had a few white spots in my cheesecake -- I didn't mind it at all. The next time I will add the cocoa in 1 TBSP at a time and then mix it well afterward.

I sliced it into 8 pieces instead of 16 because I'm going to eat most of it for breakfast and with the low carb count (you have to add in the carb count for the cocoa), I figured that it was ok for the bigger pieces. lol! (Don't you just love my reasoning?)

 

 

My husband liked this, too. He had some Cool Whip on his.

I stored the slices in a plastic container in-between layers of waxed paper. Make sure to use a lid that will seal tightly. Cheesecake can also be frozen.

Enjoy!