Low-carb Strawberry Cheesecake

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Low-carb strawberry cheesecake It’s June, berries are in season and strawberries are everywhere. Strawberries are low-carb (around 6g net carbs per 100g), and so are some of their traditional companions like cream. Perfect combination for a low-carb dessert with a seasonal flavour!

I have seen many low-carb strawberry cheesecake recipes (links to some of my favourites are provided below), and I got inspired to create my own version.

I already have a low-carb cheesecake recipe which tends to perform consistently well, so I just had to adapt it to include strawberries instead of my usual chocolate flavor.

Selected cheesecake options

New York style vs Italian style. In this recipe, I am going for the more common New-York style cheesecake, which uses cream cheese for the filling, whereas Italian-style cheesecakes use ricotta or cottage cheese.

Baked rather than no-bake. There are recipes available for no-bake cheesecakes (usually with gelatin as a thickener) but I enjoy a challenge, so I usually go for a baked one.

Almond flour and flax for the crust. There are many ways to create a low-carb cheesecake crust. I use a mixture of almond flour and flax meal. Flax adds fibery crunch to the texture which makes it similar to digestive biscuits used in traditional recipes. if you don’t like flax, substitute with any other ground nuts or seeds.

Strawberries added to the cream cheese mix. I really wanted to mix my strawberries in with the actual cream cheese mixture. This makes it a bit more tricky, as strawberries add extra moisture and acidity to the balance. I counteracted that by adding a little bit of xanthan gum – you can also use guar gum, arrowroot or coconut flour instead. If this seems too complicated, you can always skip this step and add strawberries as a separate layer – just chopped up in thin slices, or mashed into a puree.

Key points to note about making cheesecake

The following factors are important for your cheesecake quality – do not compromise on these.

Use proper full-fat cream cheese – not reduced-fat or reduced-calorie. Hopefully you would do this anyway, but this is really important for the cheesecake texture.
Bring all your ingredients to room temperature before cooking, this is especially important for the cream cheese and eggs.
When preparing the filling, make sure that you blitz everything together into a completely smooth mixture, without any floating lumps. However, take care not to overbeat too much, as this may cause cracks when your cheesecake is baking (although if this happens, you can masquerade cracks with chocolate glazing or other decorations)
Bake the cheesecake slowly on low temperature, let it cool completely and refrigerate for the required time. Don’t be tempted to speed up this process – it won’t be to your cake’s advantage.

Low-carb strawberry cheesecake

10 servings

Calories per serving: 368

Low-carb strawberry cheesecake (sugar-free, gluten-free)

Ingredients

1 cup (90g / 3oz) of almond flour
3/4 cup (90g / 3oz) of ground flaxseeds
100g (3.3oz) butter
1 tbsp Truvia or similar granulated sweetener
1 small pinch of salt
600g (21oz, 3 standard packets) of Philadelphia cream cheese
60g (2oz) sour cream
1 cup of Truvia or equivalent
4 large eggs
1 tsp sugar-free vanilla extract
1/2 tsp xanthan gum or arrowroot
120g (4oz) fresh strawberries (plus several big ones for decorating)

Instructions

Take your ingredients out of the fridge to bring them to room temperature
Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5
Mix together dry ingredients for the crust
Melt butter, add the crust mixture to it and combine well
Grease 9-inch springform cake pan and press your crust mixture to the bottom
Bake for 15-20 minutes
Take out the crust and lower the temperature to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2
Beat cream cheese thoroughly with Truvia until smooth
Add eggs one by one and mix them in thoroughly
Add sour cream and vanilla extract
Put 2-3 tbsps of the mixture into a separate bowl, add xanthan gum, mix into a smooth paste
Add the paste back to the filling mixture and mix well
Chop up or mash strawberries and add to the mix
The mixture will be quite liquidy at this point - don't worry as it will solidify during cooking
Place your springform pan on top of a baking tray and pour the filling into it
Put in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes
Check your cheesecake regularly - when the edges are set and looked puffed up, it's time to let it cool. The center will look soft and caved in, but this will even out.
Switch off the oven and let it cool completely with the cheesecake inside.
Take it out, stick in the fridge for another 3-4 hours, or overnight
Decorate with whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries

Each serving contains 4g net carbs, 4g of fibre, 34g of fat and 10g of protein.

2.5http://low-carb-support.com/lowcarb-strawberry-cheesecake/Recipe by Margarita White (@Carbophobic), for low-carb-support.com

Low-carb strawberry cheesecake, 4g net carbs

Other low-carb strawberry cheesecake recipes

If this recipe isn’t quite what you were looking for, check out these recipes from other low-carb blogs:

No-Bake Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake (5.6g net carbs) via All Day I Dream About Food

Pecan Crust Low-Carb Strawberry Cheesecake (7g net carbs) via Caveman Keto

Low-carb Strawberry Cheesecake (3g net carbs) via SatisfyingEats

Do you want more low-carb berry recipes?

I did a round-up of some further berry-based recipes in the June issue of Low Carb Support Newsletter. Please have a look and subscribe if you would like to receive monthly round-ups of recipes.