Hi de ho, neighbors! I just made a cheesecake for a good friends’ Dad’s Birthday, but while I was at it, I wanted something fun to share with you, too.
Because I’m a sharer.
And I like cheesecake. Putting sharing with cheesecake and you have caring. And cheesecake.
I especially wanted something to show off fresh raspberries, so I went with this home made, sugar free preserves recipe. I strained it for the syrup and then enjoyed the seedy bits on the side as a garnish. The raspberry preserves are so easy to make with just some sweetener, berries and lemon juice, so don’t be afraid to give it a try, OK?
We know that white chocolate is not low carb by nature (or even sugar free), but as you’ll see, you can have your cake and enjoy it sans the guilt with a couple of easy tricks. First, I processed the white chocolate chips to spread more amenably across the bottom of the crust. While this will be a thinner layer, you still get the delicious flavors.
I also went with a chocolate crust because I really wanted it. And I have what I want, gosh dingle dangle! The result is a gourmet cheesecake that is delicious, fun, and delivers fresh, summer flavors without the worry.
Think cheesecakes are too hard for you? No worries! They’re not. Just make sure to read the notes (below) and ask any questions you have. I’m here to help, you sweet bunnies.
Thinky thoughts and cheesecakey churnings:
- If you just don’t want to make the raspberry syrup, you can thicken DaVincis (or another sugar free syrup) and use. Thickeners that could work include guar gum and arrowroot, but be cautious. These do thicken with very little. You don’t want jelly; you want a liquid.
- You can lower the fat content in this dessert by skipping the crust and going with low-fat cream cheese for the filling. This is the part where I remind you (because I lubs you) that low fat cream cheese tends to up sugar content, so expect that carb count to climb ever so slightly.
- This dessert is not induction friendly, and technically, it’s not sugar free due to the white chocolate chips. It is, however, gluten free, and vegetarian friendly. Not bad for 5.5 net carbs per slice.
- Cheesecakes will crack if not placed in a hot water bath in the oven. Still, I resist the hot water bath. Why? Because I’d rather top my cheesecake and deal with cracks in the top than deal with a floating cheesecake in a hot oven (besides, that’s what toppings are for). OH! Update: My friend Andrea tells me a pan of water in the stove even on the rack under the cheesecake is enough to prevent cracks. Thank you, hotness!
- Cheesecakes are always even better the next day, so make this dessert the day before.
- Cheesecakes freeze remarkably well once baked, so if you have portion control problems or you can’t eat an entire cake in a couple of weeks, slice off individual portions, wrap in saran wrap, and then bag to freeze. To thaw, simply allow to come to fridge temperature, or eat frozen.
- I used Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips, which contain 140 calories and 16 net carbs per 66 chips (about 1/4 cup). It’s worth it.
Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake
Crust:
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
1/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup almonds
4 Tbsp sugar equivalent substitute
4 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
Filling:
1/2 cup raspberry preserves/syrup (strained to remove seeds)
4 8 ounce packages (32 ounces total) cream cheese
1- 1/4 cups sugar equivalent substitute
5 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup white chocolate chips, processed/chopped
Top with:
Fresh, whipped cream
Raspberry preserves/syrup
White chocolate chips (a few here and there)
Making the crust:
Process nuts together until they resemble coarse, crushed graham crackers. Mix with butter, cocoa and sugar substitute. Press in bottom of a 10” spring form pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Place in fridge.
Making the Filling:
Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a mixer, beat cream cheese with sweetener on medium for about one minute. On low, add eggs, one at a time, until just blended. Finally, add sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla and beat just until blended (10-30 seconds).
Process or chop 1/4 white chocolate chips into smaller pieces. Spread over the crust.
Pour cheesecake batter into crust. Drizzle top with 1/2 cup raspberry preserves syrup (if straining the seeds proves difficult, you can leave them in). Use a knife or a toothpick to swirl.
Bake until set, 1 hour 15 minutes-90 minutes. Cool on rack for 15 minutes before moving to chill in the refrigerator.
To serve, top with whipped cream, additional preserves and white chocolate chips.
Makes 12.
Nutritional Information for one serving with optional raspberry syrup, whipped topping and 4 added chips per slice: Calories: 515, Carbohydrates: 7g, Fiber: 1.5g, Net Carbs: 5.5g, Protein: 10.2g, Fat: 60g
YES!!! Looks amazing Jamie! I will have to make this… 😀
Thank you!
This cheesecake is so righteous! I am for realsies. I hope you give it a try! It is what I’ve been totally enjoying the last few days.
FINALLY!!! THANK YOU! TOMORROW’S PROJECT!
Sorry it took so long. Deadlines this week and kicking my patootie.
This sounds so good! Can’t wait to try it!
I hope you love it! We fought over the last slice today… nicely. 😛
Oh dear…..I think I found my birthday dinner….
Hey, life is short, eat first!
I’m with you, Susan! And happy early Birthday!
This is what I’m making tonight. Shaa-zam girl, you’re like Wonder Woman!
I’m also going to try to make my own white chocolate chips, since I found a simple recipe online:
White Chocolate Chips
1 cup cocoa butter
1 cup organic raw sugar (I’m going to use Xylitol)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine cocoa butter, sugar and coconut oil in a medium saucepan.
Stir with a whisk and heat until all the ingredients are melted and mixed thoroughly. This takes several minutes.
Remove mixture from heat and add vanilla extract. Pour it into a parchment paper lined baking dish (I used my 9×9 inch pyrex).
Refrigerate for several hours until hardened. The mixture may separate while it’s cooling, but that’s okay!
Break the hardened mixture into little chunks. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
That recipe I just stated did not work for me. Just sayin’
Bummer! I am glad you told me about your efforts to create white chocolate chips, though. I wonder…
I did not have the wafer chips, and maybe that would have made a difference. Maybe using powdered sugar would have worked better too. Here’s the link:
https://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-white-chocolate-chips
In the oven as I type. I was licking the bowl and if that is any indication of the flavor I may have to hide this! Just kidding, sharing it with my girls for tomorrow, Mother’s Day. Beautiful, thank you! I loved your Ultimate Cheesecake so I am sure this will equal if not surpass that one.
I am so glad you’re already liking the flavor! I hope you loved this dessert. I know we politely fought over the last slice… Happy Belated Mother’s Day!
Ok. Now I want the recipe for the Ultimate Cheesecake. Didn’t see it in the recipe list. How do I find it?
Hi, Lorraine! Here it is! Omit the ThicknThin/Not sugar and if you don’t have erythritol/xylitol, just sub the equivalent in of 1.5 cups sugar.
I read at another recipe I use a lot (cheesecake) that also calls for 5 eggs, that if you want a less cakey texture to just use three. Do you think that would apply to this recipe as well Jamie? Thank you for your hard work, I really wish I lived close to you so I could help you test all these recipes lol! 😀 Happy Mother’s day btw!
Hi, Ivonne! I think upping the eggs could be interesting, but I haven’t tried it! It would be fun if you lived closer, too!
This looks delicious! I’m a bit confused, though…when I put both this and your Ultimate Cheesecake in MFP’s recipe calculator, I came up with some odd results. For the Ultimate, the nutrition info came out very close to what you have listed on that entry (other than fat content), but for this, even assuming zero calorie sweetener, the nutrition info I come up with is COMPLETELY different from what you have–around 450 calories per serving if split into 12 servings, and over 300 calories assuming 16 servings.
Are you using light cream cheese or something else that would throw it off? Or did one of us just miscalculate?
Thank you for the amazing recipes! 🙂
I re-ran the numbers, and you are right: The numbers were off. I was, on a good note, able to bring the carb count down, but the calories did come up. I came up closer to 515 calories, but the carb amount came down to less than even a slice of the Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake! To cut the calories, dieters can use low fat cream cheese and skip the whipped topping, and it should come back down.
This sounds fantastic. I’m just wondering if you could substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream, dark chocolate instead of white, and stevia as the sweetener?
Absolutely, on all of those. Now, the stevia makes me nervous, because I have never had good results in a cheesecake with stvia. That sai, maybe I;m just not the biggest stevia fan in the world, either. I do like Truvia, however. It combines stevia and erythritol.
That looks divine! I tried the water under the cheesecake but it didn’t work. Maybe because I had the top rack lined with aluminum foil (keep down on the spills and leaks). I’ll have to remove it next time. I’m going to do another cheesecake this weekend with the Ideal sweetener.
If you peel back the aluminum foil just enough to let the steam through you’ll be perfect! That steam keeps the cheesecake moist. Even still. Yummy cheesecake… Cracks just add character.
HOLY COW! I’m in love with this cheesecake! Thank you so much for the fab recipe! I’m headed to my kitchen now, literally lol!
I hope you love it as much as I have!
made this last night for todays family Christmas, heres to hoping it isnt to sweet for everyone, I have that problem every time I cook with splenda 🙁 put less in then you suggested so fingers crossed people like it I took a bit, its me approved 🙂
In that case, I hope people like it but allow you to have some more! Merry Christmas!
this cheesecake recipe looks so good!
It is positively one of my favorites! I hope you give it a try!
I made this for a Mother’s Day celebration dinner out of town. I made all the components at home, packaged separately and baked it when we got to my Mom’s. I used my food processor to make the crust and cake parts (less cleaning of tools). The chocolate crust is delicious. Instead of fresh raspeberries I used a frozen triple berry mix to make the “syrup”, I may have used too much tickener as the texture was more like a fruit curd but still delicious. I have some white chocolate connoisseurs in the family and they could not really taste it. I’m wondering if I could have melted the white chips and blended into the cake mixture? No one could believe it was low-carb. My cousin a consummate baker asked for the recipe. Many thanks Jamie, for such a wonderful site. I had to adopt a low-carb way of eating at the first of the year and your advice has been invaluable as I am learning to eat, cook and especially bake differently. (By the way my husband loves the cauliflower pizza crust!)
For your sugar substitute, do you need the bulk, so I should use splenda or xylitol, or just the sweetness, so I can use liquid sucralose?
Thanks!
just wondering how I could adapt this recipe for individual portions in muffin cups??
My husband made this for me for Mother’s Day with strawberries instead of raspberries. Amazing!