Tag Archives: cheesecake

Desserts, Recipes

These mini-cheesecakes are the bomb!

Mini cherry cheesecakes

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends!

I am running late, but it’s not too late to whip together these deliciously sweet Almond Cherry Mini Cheesecakes for the loves of your life! Husband, wife, parents, kids, and best friends will all love them. The low-carb ingredients keep you on track and still taste great.

I used Duncan Hines/Comstock Cherry Pie Filling, with no sugar added. The Lite version also works. Or you can use 1 cup sliced strawberries mixed with 1/4 cup sugar substitute and given time in the ‘fridge to make syrup.

While I used almond extract to add the complimentary flavor, you can use vanilla if you prefer.

Almond Cherry Mini Cheesecakes

Shortbread Cookie Base:
1/2 cup Almond Flour
1/2 cup Low Carb Flour
3 tablespoons Swerve Confectioner’s Sugar
3 tablespoons Butter, softened
1 teaspoon Almond Extract or Vanilla Extract

Cake Batter
1 8 oz package Cream Cheese, well softened
1 cup Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup Sugar Substitute
1 1/2 tablespoon Carb Counters All-purpose Flour or 1 tablespoon Coconut Flour
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Almond Extract
1/4 cup (58g) Sour Cream
1/4 cup Heavy Cream

Cherry Pie Filling, sugar-free or no added sugar
Whipped Cream Topping (Cool Whip or Homemade)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Prepare a 12-well cupcake tin or two 6-well tins with paper or foil cupcake liners—no need to spray or oil the papers.

Whisk flour, almond flour, and confectioners sugar in a small bowl. Add softened butter and almond or vanilla extract. Mix together until a stiff dough forms. Set aside.

Use a small bowl to whisk sugar substitute with flour until blended.
In a large bowl, add cream cheese, cut into pieces, and ricotta cheese, and use a mixer to combine until smooth. Pour the sugar mixture into the bowl and blend together.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure to get all the ingredients blended. Add almond or vanilla extract, sour cream, and heavy cream and mix until they are combined.

Tap the bowl on the counter several times to clear any air bubbles. Let sit.

Take one tablespoon of shortbread dough and flatten it to fit the bottom of the prepared muffin cup. This should be very thin. Press onto the paper liner bottom. Repeat for each muffin cup.

Tap the mixing bowl against the countertop about 30 times to release some air bubbles. Divide the mixture among muffin cups filling each nearly to the top of the cupcake liner.

Bake for about 20 to 23 minutes. Cupcakes will look firm, and the center may jiggle a little. Don’t overbake. Remove and let cool for an hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Copoked mini cheesecakes
The cooled Cheesecakes will make a well in the center for the filling.

The cupcakes will deflate to make a well in the center, perfect for filling. Spoon in fresh fruit, a tablespoon of jam, caramel, or chocolate sauce to suit your fancy.

Makes 12 min cupcakes.

nutrition information estimated

Nutrition information is calculated on a website based on the ingredients I used. They may not be exact but should be close to accurate.

For Valentine’s Day, I topped mine with cherry pie filling.

Cherry Topping

1/2 cup Comstock Lite or No Sugar Added Cherry Pie Filling
6 tablespoons Whipped Cream Topping

Spoon 1/2 tablespoon of the filling into each cupcake well. Top with 1/2 tablespoon whipped cream. You can get valentine’s cupcake liners and heart-topped picks to decorate if you’d like.

Total Net Carbs for each Almond Cherry Mini Cheesecake = 5.3 g

Desserts, Recipes

Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake Tops St. Patrick’s Day

Photo: Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake

Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Oddly, it’s one of those holidays that tons of people celebrate whether they have even an ounce of Irish blood or not. That’s because it’s fun! Irish music can get your toes tapping or move you to tears. Then you toast the Irish and have another beer or an Irish Coffee or whatever floats your boat. The point is, people get together and have a good time.

The same thing applies to eating some great Irish-styled food on March 17th. Sure, lots of it isn’t actually Irish food, but it’s the spirit (sometimes in actuality) that contributes to the festivities.

While I’ve made an Irish Cream Cheesecake before, here’s a different version drawing on the ricotta-style cheesecake.  I adapted this from the basic recipe and used a combination of real Irish Cream and sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup to give it the yummy flavor. You could make it with all Irish Cream (add about 1 net carb per slice) or with all sugar-free Irish Cream syrup (subtract about 1 net carb per slice). While it makes six good-sized slices, I find that one-eighth of the cake is enough to satisfy me, but I’ve given the nutrition information for both size options.

Irish Cream Ricotta Cheesecake

Adapted by Rene Averett

8 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 cup whole milk Ricotta Cheese
3/4 cup Sugar Substitute
2 Eggs
2 tablespoons Irish Cream
2 tablespoons sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup
2 tablespoons Low Carb Flour, Almond Flour, or Soy flour,
or 1 tablespoon Coconut Flour
3 tablespoons Butter, softened
1/4 cup Heavy Cream or Sour Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F.) Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit a 6″x6″ spring-form pan and spray with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and ricotta cheese until well mixed. Add the sugar, eggs, lemon mix, vanilla, flour, and butter. Mix until smooth and creamy. Stir in the heavy cream or sour cream last.

Pour the mixture in the cake pan and smooth.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave for another 30 minutes. Let sit to cool about 10 minutes. Remove from spring-form pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to cool before serving.

Makes six to eight servings.

Irish Cream Chocolate Sauce

2 tablespoons Sugar-free Irish Cream Syrup
2 tablespoons Sugar-free Chocolate Topping (Walden Farms)

Mix together and drizzle over the top of each slice as you serve it. Top with a dollop of whipped cream.

To make your own sugar-free chocolate syrup, add 2 tablespoons unsweetened chocolate, 2 tablespoons sugar substitute, and 2 tablespoons hot water together, add a bit of vanilla extract and stir until you have a syrup. To thicken it a little, cook in microwave for about 30 seconds, then stir again and let cool.

Here are more recipes on this site for more St. Patrick’s Day dining options:

Not Quite Traditional Corned Beef Hash

 

 

Photo: Corned Beef Pie Corned Beef Cottage Pie

 

 

Photo: Irish Benedict Irish Benedict Brunch

 

 

Photo: Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Corned Beef and Cabbage

 

 

Photo: Irish Soda Bread Irish Soda Bread – low carb

 

 

Photo: Irish Apple Cake Irish Apple Cake

 

 

For even more foods for St. Patrick’s, type in Irish in the search box to get more recipes. Erin go Bragh to you all!

Desserts, Recipes

Happy Thanksgiving and a Dessert Recipe

As those of us in the U.S. sit down on Thursday to give thanks for the blessings of the past year, we expect to enjoy a wonderful feast with family and friends. Sadly, there are many people who won’t be in the same position. With the disasters, fighting, and other acts of violence around the world, some people are not so fortunate as others. Please remember them in your prayers and thoughts this holiday.

From a low carb stand point, you can have a lovely holiday dinner without exceeding your carb max too much. This blog has many suggestions for side dishes, main course, soups, and, of course dessert.

For starters, try these dessert options:

Traditional Pumpkin PIe

 

 

  Traditional Pumpkin Pie

 

 

Pumpkin and Cranberry Nut Muffins

 

Pumpkin and Cranberry Muffins

 

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake – makes about 12 servings.

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

 

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

 

 Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

 

 

 

And here’s one I just whipped together yesterday that is light, delicious, and just hits the spot after a heavy meal. You can make the crumble with almond flour or with the even lower carb’d mix from LC Foods for their Granola & Cookie Bites. Either way, it’s a winner!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Parfait

Pumpkin Cheesecake Parfait

1/4 cup Almond Flour or 1/4 cup LC Foods Granola & Cookie Mix
2 tablespoons Butter, melted
1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute *
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup Pumpkin Puree
1/ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Crystallized Ginger, chopped or sliced into small pieces (optional)
1/2 cup Heavy Cream, whipped
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar Substitute

• If using Granola mix, this isn’t needed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F.)

In a small bowl, mix the almond flour or granola mix with butter. If you’re using almond flour, add 1 tablespoon sugar substitute. Mix together well and press out onto a pie tin or other small baking sheet. It should be about 3/8ths inch thick. Bake for about 10 minutes, check at 7 minutes, until lightly toasted. Let cool and break apart with a wooden spoon or spatula into small crumbs. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, add the heavy cream and beat with electric mixer until it thickens. Add 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract and 1/4 cup powdered sugar substitute, then continue mixing until stiff peaks form. Cover and refrigerate.

In a larger bowl, add the cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup powdered sugar substitute, vanilla, and spices. Beat until completely mixed together, then mix in three-fourths of the whipped cream. Put the rest back in the refrigerator for the topping.

Cover the bowl of pumpkin cream mixture and refrigerate at least two hours.

To serve, put about 1-1/2 tablespoons in the bottom of four to six small serving glasses or juice glasses. Press the almond or granola crumbs into the bottom to form a shallow crust. Spoon in the pumpkin mixture, about 4 tablespoons in each glass, until it is almost full. Top with a sprinkling of the crumb mix, a dollop of whipped cream then a few more sprinkles of the crumbs and a little chopped ginger.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Made with LC-Granola & Cookie Mix
Nutrition Information per serving (4 servings):
Calories: 311.5 Fat: 28.3g Net Carbs: 5.7 g Protein: 4.4 g

Nutrition Information per serving (6 servings):
Calories: 207.7 Fat: 18.9 g Net Carbs: 3.9 g Protein: 0.9 g

Made with Almond Flour
Nutrition Information per serving (4 servings):
Calories: 317 Fat: 30.3 g Net Carbs: 6.3 g Protein: 5.1 g

Nutrition Information per serving (6 servings):
Calories: 211.3 Fat: 20.2 g Net Carbs: 4.2 g Protein: 3.4 g

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Beef, Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Healthy Life, Main Dish, Vegetables & Salads

Induction Eating Plan Day 9

Today was a slow start day, so I took a short cut or two.  First, I skipped breakfast and just opted for an Atkins Lemon Bar. It’s 3 nc and I think it is safe for Induction. I couldn’t find any information on the box saying differently.  Then lunch was a leftover from earlier in the week as I finished off my fajita salad. It was less than what I had eaten at the restaurant, so I reduced the carbs accordingly, Therefore, the only new entrees were in the dinner and dessert.

Here’s the menu for the day:

Food NC
breakfast Atkins Lemon Bar 3
Coffee 1/2 tsp creamer 0.5
B12 Gummie 1
Lunch Fajita Salad leftover 6
Tea 0
dinner Steak 0
1.3 cup GG mashed cauli/bacon 3
sauteed zucchini 2.6
mini-cheesecake 1.6
Raspberry sauce 0.5
18.2

 

For an alternate breakfast option, try these Egg Puffs, little cupcake sized baked eggs. For induction, omit the tortilla pieces in it. They make great snacks as well.

 

A nice brunch alternative is this tasty Skillet Italian Frittata that has more sticking powder to it. It uses either turnips or kohlrabi or Daikon radish as a substitute for potatoes.

 

Now for the dinner options.  The main course is really simple as I used a bacon wrapped filet for the meat. You can purchase these ready to go at the grocery. Season with a 0 carb rubbing mix and toss them on the grill to cook or put them under the broiler. The problem I often have with bacon-wrapped items is getting the bacon done without over-cooking the meat. This is a particular problem when someone likes very rare meat. I cooked this on my broiled at 485 degrees (F) to try to slow the cooking a little and give the bacon a chance to crisp.

I paired this with Green Giant Mashed Cauliflower with bacon and cheese. This is a fairly new product from the Jolly GG and it is very good. The package contains about 4 servings, but I usually get 6 out of it by serving 1/3 cup of the potato substitute instead of 1/2 cup. The flavor and texture of the cauliflower mash is excellent.

The other side dish is a quick and easy saute of zucchini and tomatoes.

Zucchini with Tomatoes

1/2 cup Zucchini, sliced
6 Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoons Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet and add the garlic. Cook for about 30 seconds, then add the sliced zucchini and stir fry it until it is lightly browned on both sides. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute.

Serves 2

Nutrition Information per serving:
Calories: 58 Fat: 4.6 g Net Carbs: 2.6 g Protein: 0.8 g

Finally, for dessert, I went back to one of my favorites, cheesecake! Unlike the one I made earlier in this induction experiment, this cheesecake is baked so it is rich and creamy. I made it into 6 cupcakes for small, easy servings. At only 1.6 net carbs per cake, have two if you have the available carbs for the day.

Mini Creamy Cheesecakes

6 oz. Cream Cheese
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3 tablespoons Sour Cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Xylitol or liquid sucralose

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F.)

Place softened cream cheese and egg in a medium bowl and beat with a mixer until they are blended and creamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat until blended and smooth.

Put cupcake papers in a 6-well cupcake pan and spray with baking spray. Put two tablespoons of batter into each well, then distribute the remainder evenly over the wells.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cakes are fully set.

While they are baking, prepare the topping. Put three tablespoons of sour cream in a bowl, add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 tablespoons sugar substitute. Mix well. When the cupcakes are set, spoon onto the top of each cake, then bake for another 10 minutes to cook the topping.

Chill for at least two hours in the refrigerator before serving. Serve as is or top with a teaspoon of sugar-free jam or jelly and/or a teaspoon of Cool Whip.

Makes 6 mini-cheesecakes.

Nutrition information without jam or whip cream per serving:
Calories: 124 Fat: 11.9 g Net Carbs: 1.6 g Protein: 3.3 g

Desserts, Recipes

Layered Chocolate Vanilla Cheesecake

For Valentine’s Day, I wanted to put out something a little special and heart-shaped that is delicious.  I ran across a recipe for Marbled Cheesecake Hearts in an old Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk recipe booklet and thought about how I would adapt it to a low carb recipe.  Right off, the sweetened milk is a problem, but one you can work around.  LC Foods offers a substitute version mix and although I’ve got one on hand, I haven’t tried it yet. But I wanted to try making this just using extra sugar substitute and heavy cream instead.

I followed the original recipe instructions (see them here), but cut them in half to make a smaller cake.  It came out more like a layer of chocolate and vanilla than a marble swirl. I concluded a few things while doing this:

  1. The recipe says to use half the cream cheese mixture as vanilla and add the chocolate to the rest and swirl it in. It’s too much chocolate, which is why mine came out with an almost solid chocolate top. I didn’t have enough vanilla to pull through. So I’ve changed it to 1/3 mixed with the chocolate to swirl through.
  2. The top got a little dry in the oven, which gave it a flaky appearance. Adding a pan of water underneath will help to keep it moist and prevent the drying out.
  3. Using heart cookie cutters results in a quite a few small pieces of your cheesecake being left over and not so pretty.
    So I suggest making it in heart-shaped molds or cutting it into bars and putting a sugar-free candy heart on top. You can also cut a strawberry down the middle and place it face down on the top to make a strawberry heart if you can to use it for a special occasion. When you do this, you’ll have less mess, less work, and eight servings.
  4. You also don’t need to put it in the foil liner. Just put a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of your pan and spray the sides with baking spray so it will come out easily.

Layered Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake

1 Chocolate Shortbread batch (recipe below)
12 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 1/2 cup Sugar Substitute
1 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 oz Unsweetened Chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F.) Line a 6″ x 9  1/2″ (or close to it) deep-sided baking pan with heavy foil (see note 4 above), cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom, and set aside.

Make the chocolate shortbread crust as described below.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy. In a small bowl, combine the cream and sugar substitute and mix together. Beat into the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until blended. Pour 2/3 of the batter over the crust and smooth with a rubber spatula.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until it is smooth. Stir the melted chocolate into the remaining batter until it is mixed in. Spoon this in six mounds over the vanilla batter in the pan. Use a table knife or spatula to gently swirl the chocolate batter through the vanilla batter so it looks marbled.  Put a pan of hot water under the rack in the oven, then put the cake above it.

Hearts cut out with a cookie cutter. They can be decorated with icing, whipped cream, or berries.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the cake is set. Cool for about 10 minutes, then put into the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour. Lift out of the pan using the foil to slide onto a cutting board. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut hearts. Or you can just cut into bars. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

This makes 6 heart-shaped cakes and the rest is pieces that you can cut into pieces and mix with whipping cream in a bowl for a not so special-looking dessert for two more servings.  (See note 3 above.)

Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition Information (Filling Only)1 serving
Calories: 428.4 Fat: 43.4 g Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 7.9 g

Chocolate Shortbread Crust

3/4 cup low carb flour
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Sugar Substitute
2 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Pinch Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix the baking mix, almond flour, whey powder, sugar substitute, and salt together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until you have a soft dough.

Press into the bottom of your prepared baking pan.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Nutrition Information (Crust Only) 1/8 recipe
Calories:150.6 Fat: 15.1 g Net Carbs: 1.2 g Protein:2.8 g