Cheesecake with optional whipped cream and sugar free candy
What can I say? I wanted a peanut butter cup in the form of a cheesecake. Hey you. You dropped your cheesecake in my peanut butter cup (how I miss the 70’s)…
This gourmet cheesecake begins with a cocoa nut crust covered with a thin ganache layer, with a peanut butter filling, and finally topped again with ganache, to complete the chocolate finish. Sugar Free Peanut Butter ups and fresh whipped cream can be used as an optional garnish.
Of major importance before we even begin: You are looking at a full-on gourmet cheesecake that took me incredible effort to put together. As such, while it might seem unfair to saddle you with such a multi-step process, it is worth it. This is a special occasion gourmet, rich, decadent cheesecake. I myself have an incredibly difficult time eating more than a small portion at a time due to its richness. So while you might scoff at the serving size or the amount of prep work, ingredients and steps, this recipe is not your average cheesecake recipe. Anything worth doing is worth doing delectably.
My preferred spring form pan for this one is the 12″, since it allows easier slicing and for the 16 servings with greater ease.
Even with peanut butter, at only about 6 net carbs, this is really a wonderful dessert, and a little goes a long way, due to its richness.
Gourmet Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake
For the Chocolate crust:
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
1/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup pecans
2 Tbsp erythritol
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
4 Tbsp butter, melted
For the crust Ganache:
4 ounces 85% Lindt chocolate or 1 cup chocoperfection chocolate chips
2 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp heavy white cream
For the Filling:
4 8 ounce packages cream cheese
1/2 cup erythritol
1 cup xylitol
1 cup creamy natural peanut butter
4 eggs
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the top Ganache:
Leftover ganache from crust
4 ounces 85% chocolate or 1 cup chocoperfection chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy white cream
2 Tbsp butter
Making the Crust:
Process nuts together until they resemble coarse, crushed graham crackers. Mix with butter, cocoa and erythritol. Press in bottom of a 9”-12″ spring form pan. Place in fridge for 30 minutes or until crust is solid.
Prepare ganache in microwave by melting ingredients together, checking every 20 seconds. Stir and smooth thin layer of chocolate over top of nut crust and place in freezer for 30 minutes. Set aside unused ganache for later use.
Making the Filling:
Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a mixer, beat cream cheese with erythritol and xylitol on medium for about one minute. Add peanut butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla and beat just until blended (10-30 seconds).
Pour into crust. Set spring form pan in jelly roll pan to catch any butter drips. Bake until set, 75- 90 minutes (cheesecake should wiggle slightly in the center but be dull and firm). Cool on rack for 15 minutes before moving to chill in the refrigerator. (I don’t remove the sides of the pan until the cheesecake has been in the refrigerator for some time).
For Ganache Topping:
On the stove over medium heat, bring cream and butter to a boil. Pour over remaining ganache and added chocolate and let sit for five minutes. Stir. Place cold cheesecake on baking rack over a cookie sheet to catch drippings. Pour ganache over cooled cheesecake and refrigerate. (see image below) It is absolutely important cheesecake is thoroughly cooled or the ganache will have a dull texture.
Optional: Garnish a slice with a Russel Stover Peanut Butter Cup, chopped.
Makes 16 servings.
Nutritional Information for one serving using Lindt chocolate bar: Calories: 555, Carbohydrates: 29g, Fiber: 2.5g, Sugar A
lcohols: 20g, Net Carbs: 6.5g, Protein: 12.5g, Fat: 50g
Russel Stover Peanut Butter Cup as garnish adds: Calories: 80, Carbohydrates: 8.5g, Fiber: .5g, Sugar Alcohols: 7g, Net Carbs: 1g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 6g
*Both Lindt 85% chocolate and the Chocoperfection chocolate chips yield a beautiful ganache. It is important to note here that you can also make your own ganache chocolate with this substitute.
This looks fab. I will give it a go at the weekend.
I don't know what cheesecake crusts you have tried. For my first ever low carb cheesecake 6 months ago I used crushed mixed nuts set hard with butter and it was "ok" but not exactly cheesecake base. I don't know what you use in the States but here in the UK we use "digestive biscuits" for regular cheesecake base which are mostly wheat flour, sugar and fat which you can buy cheap in a packet in the supermarket. Crush them up into crumbs and drizzle melted butter and some sugar on them for a normal full sugar cheesecake – there is no variation on this: all regular recipes use them for cheesecake.
So anyway I wasn't loving the mixed nut substitute.
Meanwhile I discovered Linda's Low Carb buttery sesame crackers:
https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/buttery_sesame_crackers.html
I didn't use a "baking soda can" for mine, I just pressed them flat as far as I could and they are crispier and great with cheese!
So anyway on with my story… I took the recipe and missed out the sesame seeds, added almond essence and sweetener and it made sweet biscuits. Then it dawned on me that I could use them as a cheesecake base! So to avoid baking the biscuits and then crushing them to crumbs all I di was mix 100g almond meal with 50g unsalted butter and an egg white (some may add sweetner and almond essence but I don't as the almond is sweet enough), push the mix down thin in an 8inch round spring load caketin then back for 15mins until it looks golden. Then I let it cool before putting my cheeecake mix on top. I find this base it the closest to the normal "digestive biscuit" base used in all UK cheesecake recipes. If you haven't tried it I recommend it. The biscuits/crackers taste bitter when overbaked but I find the cheesecake base it better it is baked a little more, to a darker colour (orangey golden).
Anyway just wondered if you had tried something like this as it revolutionised my cheesecake-making. LOL
P.S. (Why Do I always have a P.S.? LOL I think too much!) Linda's Buttery Sesame Crackers https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/buttery_sesame_crackers.html are down on her site as 0.5g per cracker. That is because she uses calorie-counting software which rounds up when the amounts are small. Almond meal is only 6-7% carb so in my mind you get a whole batch of her crackers for just a couple of grams of carb. Therefore if you only use 100g of almond meal in a small thin crust it is only 6.5g of carb and even if you use more it is still negligable.
I use soft cheese (like Philadelphia but supermakret own brand) for many of my cheesecakes but the carb count is a problem because it is 3.8% carb so my cheesecake often ends up with 50g of carb in the whole thing. Very bad if I can't resist downing half of it (fortunately I always used the fattiest cream and cheese I can find for such things so that the high fat content fills me up before I eat too much LOL I'm a big believer in appetite control!).
That looks yummy… but will consume too many calories on my diet plan. -sigh-
Some of the amazing gourmet recipes out there are slightly higher in caloric counts due to fat content. This means you want to definitely budget for the amount and rest easy, knowing a very small slice goes a very long way!
You can also make these in small muffin cups for easily double the servings at half of the calories, or nix the crust for some calorie savings.
Silly question….I see you use both Xylitol and Erythritol in your recipes. I looked both of these products up and they seem similar only xylitol and some calories….what is the reason you use both?
I am making this today! I am about to put it in the oven and it looks fabulous. Thanks for such a great recipe. I will definitely have to put this into portion-control servings but it's nice to know that I can have something so delectable once in a while. Jamie, you are a genius!
Quick question. Why does this cheesecake use 4 pkgs of cream cheese versus 5, like the Key Lime and your Ultimate? Just curious. I’ve made this once and it was delicious!! Thanks!
I cut back the cream cheese because of the addition of the peanut butter. It’s so dense in terms of calories and carbs, I didn’t want to up that ante further. You could add in that 5th block if you’d like to. I just chose to try and keep nutritional values more reasonable.
Hi! Making this right now:) need it for tomorrows party. My question is could I male it ready to day and keep cool or should I wait with the last ganasche till tomorrow ?
Cant wait to taste it:)
Hi there! You can make it totally today, ganache and all. Just, as you said, keep it cool. 🙂
Thanks
I was wondering if you could substitute stevia or another sweetener for the Xylitol and Erythritol? Also why do you use both?
I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone know the answer????
I made this today for my hubby’s 40th birthday tomorrow (definitely an event worthy of this cheesecake, I think ;-)) and I’m confused about the carb count. I used the Lindt 85% chocolate version and have come you with 9 carbs for 1/16 not 6.5 carbs. Am I making a mistake in my computation? Or (since I’m new to this) is there something I don’t know about figuring nutritional values? Thanks! Can’t wait to dive into this. Looks so delicious.