Servings: 8 Prep: 15 mins Cook: 1 hr Total: 24 hrs
I loved this cheesecake. I LOVED this cheesecake!
I’ve never been a big fan of cheesecake. I’m not sure why, but … I just never have. Perhaps it’s the fat bombs that have acclimatized me to the taste of cream cheese. Maybe it’s the fact that this cheesecake isn’t as sweet as many I’ve tried. Maybe I’ve matured. Maybe it’s the fact that it was room temperature, in a hot kitchen, and it was soft and warm and silky smooth when I ate it. Maybe it’s really just that good. Whatever the case, this cheesecake had almost ethereal qualities to it. Needless to say … it was yum.
Note: When I made this, I’d just ordered a pre-made soy based Graham Cracker Crust and used it. I tasted the base and you could taste the soy, which … I didn’t love, but then when I baked it, it was indistinguishable from the real thing. It was outstanding.
Alternate Crust: Wherever possible, I like to give alternatives. I’ve used the pre-made crust mix in my recipe, however, you could use 2 1/2 cups almond, pecan, walnut and/or hazelnut flour (I’d prefer hazelnut/pecan), mixed with 2 tbsp brown sugar equivalent, 1/4 cup melted butter, a dash of cinnamon and a dash of salt. Mix this together. Then press into the base of the pan. This is an excellent alternative, adding about 20 net carbs to the whole thing, or about 2.5 extra net carbs per each of 8 nice big slices. If you subtract the 1 net gram from the existing crust, this leaves a total of roughly 1.5 net carbs above the current recipe’s nutrition information.
The Best Cheesecake I've Ever Had
Print RateIngredients
- 1 pack sugar free graham cracker crust mix
- 2 tbsp fresh whole butter melted
- 1 cup 'Swerve' or other sugar replacement
- 1/4 tsp guar gum
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 lbs full fat cream cheese room temperature
- 1 each vanilla bean split lengthwise (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 4 large whole eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
- Follow the instructions on the bag of crust. Press crust into the base of a greased 9" spring form pan.
- Mix together the dry ingredients, so that they are evenly blended. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, until light and airy. Make sure your cream cheese and eggs are all warm (room temperature). It decreases the chances of lumps in the batter.
- Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean. Add the seeds to the cream cheese.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, while beating. When one is incorporated, add the next.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the cream cheese mixture, while it beats.
- Add the lemon juice and sour cream. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for another moment or two. Make sure everything is very well mixed and that there are no lumps. If there are lumps you can strain the mixture through a fine mesh (optional, but it does increase the silky smooth quality).
- Let the batter sit for a few minutes. Pick the bowl up an inch and drop it on the counter. This encourages any bubbles within the batter to float to the top.
- Pour the batter into the spring form pan.
- Place the pan on the center rack in the oven for 1 hour. Do not open the oven door. Don't do it.
- After 1 hour, turn the oven off. Do not open the oven door. Don't do it.
- After a few hours, open the oven door and leave it open a crack. Leave it open over night and allow the cake to cool in the oven. Moving it can cause it to crack, while it's still somewhat warm and hasn't fully set.
- The next morning, run a knife around the edge and place it in the fridge to cool for a further 8 hours. These steps are all important to give you an unblemished and delicious cheesecake.
- Finally, remove the outer ring of the spring form pan. With a hot knife, slice the cheesecake into wedges.
- Serve!
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* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …
I am so exctied to try this! In the pictures, you have some sort of berry compote on top. What did you use? Is the recipe on your website? Thank you!
Hi Andrea, thanks for the reminder! This is one I need to add to my website … I’ve got the photos and just never added it. I called it "Berry Goo". It was a mixed bag of berries from CostCo (a big handful in a pan). I added sweetener, vanilla and a dash of salt. When it tasted good and was kinda … soft, but not totally broken down, I put a small amount of glucommanan powder (about 1/4 tsp) in about 1 tbsp of cold water and whisked it together, then quickly whisked it into the goo, where I let it simmer over low heat for about 5 more minutes. I chilled it and it thickened up into a LOVELY berry sauce! Like a loose jelly. PERFECT as a dessert topper!
Delicious cheesecake! I think my oven runs a bit hot because it cracked despite following the directions to the letter. Otherwise, absolutely perfect. I used the alternate crust and that turned out so well, too. Thanks for the great recipe!
Oh, Lucy! I’m sorry! At least you enjoyed it, but the obvious goal is a nice smooth "non-cracked" cheesecake. It’s true that all ovens vary in temperature and it could be that your oven runs hotter than mine. Try the same instructions but 25 degrees lower for your next cake. Let’s see if that changes anything!
This cheesecake is so good I’m making it again! I bought 3lb of cream cheese at Costco, so what the heck. My diabetic husband LOVES it, and I’m happy to make him something he really appreciates. PS – he really likes Cheesecake Factory’s low carb cheesecake but he raves about this one. It’s a winner! Thanks again!
Awesome, Lucy! Please report back if your second one is crack free! (P.S. I also like the one from the Cheesecake factory, but … mine is better. It’s always hard to beat homemade! 😉 )
What does xanthan gum & guar gum do in recipes just sounds real chemical to me can you substitute any real ingredient in place of? So glad to see the alternative recipe for crust have been wanting to make other pies but didn’t have a good crust recipe. The cheesecake looks amazing. Thanks
You could try and educate yourself since you clearly have access to the internet. Guar gum and Xantham Gum are both plant based derivatives and there is NOTHING chemical about them other than the chemical reaction that occurs in all cooking! What is odd is that this recipe has eggs, which is disgusting considering you are basically using an ovulated egg, or unfertilised ovum to cook a cheesecake. Xantham Gum and Guar Gum are healthy binding agents thus the eggs are NOT needed!
Hi Nicki, you can ignore those ingredients. They’re really just optional. They’re thickeners. When sugar leaves the equation, it also tends to change the mouthfeel of some dishes. The xanthan and guar gums replace some of that mouth feel. Again, not required, but a lot of low-carbers already have these things on hand and may feel like adding it. I hope this helps!
How’s this turn out with using the tofu cream cheese or have you tried it? I also am planning on doing a no crust style as I’ve already got the correct NY cheese cake pan anyway and I’ve also got to redo the egg and use my cream of tarter and other things like the gar gum to help but I really do think this will work so if you’ve any suggestions sling em back at me! Myself and a son both with Crohn’s and another that survived NEK as a baby so we’re super careful bc he probably does have Crohn’s too but definitely survived it and now cancer called neuroblastoma too not so I do super healthy as often as I physically can! That little one just hit 7 years old so I’m always looking for things I can enjoy that we all love and he and I have severe problems keeping our weight up so I’ve been enjoying reading your blogs! Thank you for writing them. : )
Hi Tanya, I really wish I could weigh in on this one, but I’ve never used Tofu Cream Cheese … ever in my life. It could very well be tasty and work quite well, but having never used it, I really can’t comment. In your experience has it behaved exactly the same? In other recipes where you’ve substituted it, has it worked? I don’t even know I can hazard a guess … I’m sorry, Tanya! I wish I could help, or even instill some confidence, but … seeing as I’ve never even held that product in my hand … I simply have no idea. If you do try it and it works (or if it doesn’t!), please let us know. Thank you for the kind words! 🙂
I made the best cheese cake I’ve ever made! So glad I found this recipe! Just a note about the topping, I did just as u suggested only with strawberries and blueberries. I used chia seeds to thicken the fruit topping and they worked PERFECTLY. May try them instead of xanthan gum next time.
KN, yep … mashing some fruit with a bit of chia seed and sweetener would make a FANTASTIC berry goo. Thanks for the thought!
Hi DJ 🙂 This recipe sounds like a winner to me as I have been searching for a cheesecake recipe while doing THM! I have truvia on hand…do you by chance know the conversion to use truvia instead of the sweetener listed in the original recipe?
Thanks so much!
Hi Heather … it’s been a while, but if memory serves it’s 3/4 tsp is the equivalent of 2 tsp of standard sweetener. So, for a cup of Swerve, you’d want 3/8ths of a cup of spoonable truvia (in the green tub thing … not the packets and not the baking blend). I don’t know which product of theirs you’ve got, so I’m going to assume it’s the "spoonable". In all cases, it should have the strength, related to sugar, printed on it somewhere. I hope this helps! 🙂
Any chance you could re-envision this recipe with fewer eggs? Hating the taste of eggs is just a terrible low-carb handicap for me as so many recipes rely on them. I would probably not taste eggs in this cheesecake if there were only one or two.
Hi Sheryl … I didn’t really taste eggs in it. That said, I’m not hypersensitive to them. Cheesecake is VERY appropriate to low-carbing. My suggestion would be to find a nice looking cheesecake recipe, without the eggs and simply swap the sweetener for it. As long as you use a nice nut-based crust … you should be in good shape. I hope this helps! 🙂
This is NOT low carb. I am not understanding why you are publishing this. I really have enjoyed making your low carb recipes and look forward to your FB posts. This one I just don’t understand.
Hi Judy, I’m confused by your comment. "Low-Carb" can be interpreted many different ways. If this doesn’t fit your definition, I do apologize, but it definitely falls right square in the middle of my personal definition. Typically, I view a recipe as "low-carb" if it’s below 10 net carbs per serving. This is WELL below that number. My guess is you’re not fully understanding the math on my recipe. I suggest you <a href="https://www.djfoodie.com/Blog/beid/989295">try reading this blog post</a>, which explains the math. I tried to make it a bit of a fun read. Please check it out and let me know if it explains things!
How many packages of cream cheese is this? Sorry not sure.
Also, can i do these in cupcake tins instead of the springform? If so, how long do i cook it? Thanks!
Hi Lauri, there are different sizes of cream cheese packets. I’m pretty sure, however, that they generally come in 3 oz. tubs, 8 oz. bricks and 3 lb. bricks. Assuming I’m correct, I believe it’s 3 of the 8 oz. bricks. To do this in a cupcake pan … <a href="https://www.djfoodie.com/Blackberry-Lemon-Cheesecake">check out this recipe</a> for times and some ideas … it’s basically the same recipe, done in two tones … in a muffin pan. I hope this helps! 🙂
Thanks DJ!!! It sure does help. Cant wait to try this!
Hi DJ! I love your recipes! Seriously, yours are at the top of my list and, trust me, it’s a very long list! For the cheesecake, I don’t have guar gum but I have xanthan. Can I double the xanthan or just leave it at 1/4 tsp and leave out the guar?
To answer Kathy’s question- yes. It should work out the same to use just xanthan gum. 🙂 I’ve had to do the same in other recipes and it has turned out great.
Hi! Can’t wait to make this! Yours is the BEST low-carb site out there!
Question: Can I use Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste instead of the extract/beans? If so, how much is the equivalent? TYIA
Hi Kathy, I’d say … double the xanthan!<br /><br />
Thanks for chiming in Amanda!<br /><br />
Danielle, I love that stuff. Be warned, however, that the pods are floating around a sugar syrup. I’d suggest using 1 tbsp of the paste (to replace the one bean), but … keep in mind it will add about 9 carbs (or about 1 extra carb per slice). Not a huge issue, but I thought I’d point it out. Enjoy it!
How did you make the blue berry topping for the cheesecake !!!
Hi Judy, I threw some mixed berries in a pan with a small amount of water, lemon juice, salt and sweetener. I simmered it and then added a small amount of glucommanan powder, mixed in water and thickened it. A perfect berry goo!
Question about using swerve, I’ve made two cheesecakes with powdered swerve and both times they had a bit of a grainy texture. Has that happened to you?
Hi Anne, did you make THIS recipe, or a different one? I confess to having made this prior to discovering Swerve, so I would be curious to know if it was this specific recipe. I’d be shocked if it was, but … it is possible. In any event, Swerve is an erythritol based sweetener and erythritol, as awesome as it is, crystallizes in high concentrations. This tells me that it was either never fully dissolved in the first place (so, make sure it is) … OR … it tells me that the recipe you’re using has too high a concentration. When the cake cools, the crystals will reform, unless they’re sufficiently diluted with the other ingredients. So … the easy fix is … use less. If you use a bit less and make sure it’s fully dissolved before baking, then … you should be fine. However, if you like your cheesecake to be super sweet (I don’t and don’t consider this particular recipe to be all that sweet … leading to my belief you made a different recipe), you can always use less Swerve and compensate for the missing sweetness with a different sweetener. So, you can use 2/3rds Swerve and then make the rest up with Stevia, Xylitol and/or Tagatose, for example. Does this make sense? I hope this helps! Ah … if it WAS my recipe … I’m sorry! Was it fully dissolved before it baked? If so … then … maybe I need to re-think this one. Let me know. Thanks!
Hi there?Key Lime Cheesecake was one of my great loves, back in my sugar daze. Do you have a suggestion on how to tweak this recipe into a key lime version? The version I used to use called for 24oz cream cheese, 1C white sugar, 1T cornstarch, 3 eggs, 1T grated lime zest, 2/3C key lime juice. We don’t make desserts in our home yet [still very low carb], but the holidays are coming up, so I thought…maybe…I could make a celebratory treat 🙂
Hi Adrienne … I don’t know that I’d tinker with "this" recipe. Instead, I might suggest simply swapping out the sweetener in your own recipe. A cheesecake is mostly fine, by nature. The cornstarch isn’t great, but 1 tbsp spread across an entire cake isn’t the end of the world. Feel free to use arrowroot in its place. It’s roughly the same number of carbs, but … same behavior and … isn’t grain based. That should about do it! Sorry for the delay. A busy few weeks!
—Reply posted by Linda Lewis on 6/29/2016
I did make something and didn’t have xanthan gum, so I substituted a packet of glucomannan fiber that I had on hand and it thickened my recipe well. It was a home-made low carb cream of mushroom soup from one of the low carb sites, it turned out really well. It is so pricey to get a whole bag just to use such a tiny bit. I wonder how long the gums would last if frozen?
I really dislike having to buy all these odd ingredients-anything I might have to substitute for both gums?
—Reply posted by DJ on 1/26/2015
They’re completely optional. Simply omit them. You’ll be fine! 🙂
Thanks for your great recipes. I just want you to know how much I appreciate your gracious responses to some comments which could be considered as criticism. Have not seen an impatient or annoyed response from you yet. Keep it up!
—Reply posted by DJ on 1/26/2015
Hi Julia, thank you for the kind words! I love criticism. That is to say, I love feedback, when its sincere. Most of the time, it’s sincere and honest. They’re either right, misinformed or its new to me and I go try and wrap my head around it and the attempt to initiate some banter.
Some of the time the delivery of questions isn’t as spectacularly worded as I may like. Comments can often seem rude, but I try and find the underlying motivation behind whatever the question/comment might be and address what I feel is probably being asked. I believe people are coming from a wide variety of places. They could be an amazing person, having a bad day. I always try and turn comments into something useful. There have been a handful of times where I’ve “bit back”, in an effort to let people know that I’ve got a spine, that I’m here to help but demand a modicum of respect. However, I’d say those are few, far between and … well deserved! 😉
At the very least, I’m here to help and I truly mean it. Thank you so much for noticing! A lot of bloggers don’t respond, or they delete things. I’m a big believer in letting it all hang out there. I’m cool with it. Thanks, again! Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll do what I can! 😀
what can be subbed for guar gum and
xanthan gum?
—Reply posted by DJ on 1/28/2015
Hi Sara, they are both optional. If you leave them out, the recipe will still be quite tasty … It just won’t have quite the same texture. The alternatives would be equally bizarre, from a “weird ingredient” standpoint. They are there to replace some of the texture that sugar provides in a cheesecake. I suppose … technically … the sub would be to remove the sweetener and the two gums and use sugar, but … that really defeats the whole purpose, now doesn’t it? 😉 In any event, just leave them out. The cheesecake will still be quite tasty. I hope this helps! 🙂
Swerve- You can’t have 200 carbs and zero calories.
—Reply posted by DJ on 4/5/2015
Well … you’re both right and wrong. You CAN have carbs that don’t have calories if those calories aren’t absorbed by the body and used as heat energy. If they simply pass through your body, without being used … it’s zero calories. This wouldn’t be true if the body used some of that energy. Now, where you’re correct is … not 100% of the Swerve passes through the body. A very small percentage is absorbed, while most of it simply passes through your urine. Standard sugar has about 4 calories per gram. So, if it’s 200 grams per cup, then … that’s about 800 calories. Swerve is closer to .2 calories per gram. So, 200 grams of Swerve is about 40 calories. Obviously, this isn’t zero, but … for the purposes of labeling … it’s zero enough. Make sense?
Have made this several times. This is definitely a keeper!!!
—Reply posted by DJ on 4/19/2015
Excellent! Thank you for the feedback! 😀
Is there a reason that I couldn’t use egg whites and low fat cream cheese in this recipe
—Reply posted by DJ on 4/28/2015
Mostly the issue comes down to carbs. As you decrease fat, the carbs usually increase. What you’re asking largely flies in the face of what low-carb is all about. My suggestion is that you not do it, because … you need the fat more than you need the carbs (in my opinion). I know that it goes against everything we’ve been taught for the past several decades, but … fat isn’t the enemy everyone makes it out to be. We need the stuff. All this said … if you must use low-fat products and nuke the yolks … it believe it CAN work. I haven’t tried it, but … it should work. For the eggs, for every whole egg in the recipe, use 2 whites (or better yet, 1/4 cup of whites to replace 1 whole egg). Again, I haven’t tried this, but … the logic is sound. It “should” work, but … my suggestion is to simply make the recipe as written. Good luck! 🙂
I made this with the alternate nut crust and everyone LOVED it! One thing I would suggest is not waiting and running a knife down the side of the cheesecake after it finishes baking. I followed the directions and didn’t open the oven at all and ended up with a big crack down the center while it was cooling! The blueberry topping saved me!
To avoid cracking, you can bake the cheesecake in a water bath. Make sure your spring form pan is water tight, if not, wrap the it in tin foil. Place the cheesecake in its spring form pan in a baking tray, one with sides a few inches high. A lasagna pan works great. Put that in the oven on the middle rack, then pour boiling water into the tray, and bake as usual.