Keto Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

This decadent keto chocolate hazelnut cheesecake has all the flavors of your favorite Nutella spread, without the sugar! A great low carb cheesecake for entertaining, or to keep all to yourself – no judgement here! ??

When we were in Europe this summer we ate a LOT of gelato (not keto, I know.)  We had gelato in Madrid, Paris, Santorini, and allll over Italy, with our hand’s down favorite being a place in Rome near the Pantheon called Venchi. They had a wall of cascading melted chocolate behind the counter, and you could smell it from down the street. UH-MAZING.

Anyway, after sampling many flavors of said gelato, my hands down favorite was the Gianduja (pronounced – jahn|DOO|yah) which is a milk chocolate & hazelnut combo that is the signature flavor of the Piedmont region, and what Nutella is basically a commercial version of.

So when we got back to real life (and eating keto) after our trip, I decided that I wanted to create an ode to this chocolate hazelnut gelato in keto Nutella cheesecake form, since not everyone can execute a gelato at home – and pretty much everybody loves cheesecake.

Side point – my second favorite was the pistachio – not sure I can successfully turn that one into a keto cheesecake, but imma try it out soon and report back.

Like all of my favorite low carb cheesecake recipes, this keto chocolate hazelnut cheesecake is made in the blender, so it’s super easy to make and clean up after. You can go the extra mile like I did and pipe some whipped cream onto it for garnish if you’re having it for company, but otherwise the cheesecake is fine on its own.

The pretty chocolate garnish is simply melted dark chocolate swirled on parchment paper and then a hazelnut dropped in the middle with a little extra chocolate on top to “glue” it down. Then chill in the fridge for a few minutes until hardened and peel off to place on the cake. Tasty and beautiful – but again unnecessary if you’re not looking to impress anyone but yourself.

Now let’s talk about this crust. I used a combination of super fine blanched almond flour and whole blanched (no skins) hazelnuts that I ground to a meal in my magic bullet. While you could use all almond flour and just add some hazelnut flavoring to the crust, the ground hazelnuts added an amazingly authentic flavor that is SO. MUCH. BETTER. than simply using the extract.

In fact, if I could have used the hazelnuts in the cheesecake itself without ruining the texture, I would have. Do yourself a favor and source some hazelnuts for this crust – and better yet, omit the almond flour and use only ground hazelnuts for the most amazing flavor.

In Italy, hazelnuts are plentiful and literally grow on trees all over. Unfortunately, living here in Honduras, to get hazelnuts I had to order them in bulk on Amazon and have them delivered to a good friend’s house – who then kindly flew them here in her luggage when she visited us in Roatan last month. It was totally worth the wait!

Here’s a link to the hazelnuts I ordered on Amazon. They are Turkish, not Italian, but the cost was reasonable and the flavor was excellent. If you love hazelnuts and hazelnut flavored everything, I highly recommend ordering some and storing them in the freezer, where they will keep fresh for months and months.

Regarding the hazelnut flavoring in the cheesecake itself, I was using an off brand of hazelnut flavoring, which was the only one I could find here – and frankly the quality wasn’t excellent. So my keto chocolate hazelnut cheesecake, while tasty, didn’t have as much hazel-nuttiness as I would have liked.

If you’re already purchasing hazelnuts from Amazon I recommend also adding a quality hazelnut flavoring like this one to your cart as well. It also makes great keto coffee creamer on the cheap, so it’s handy to keep around. Or if you can get it, McCormick brand found in most grocery stores is usually pretty reliable.

The fact is, this keto chocolate hazelnut cheesecake is going to be delicious either way – but anytime you pony up for quality ingredients, you’re going to get a noticeable difference in flavor. This is also true for the quality of your chocolate and cocoa powder – if it tastes bitter on it’s own, it will taste bitter in your recipe.

Final note – Stevia and chocolate don’t play well together, so I recommend using erythritol (I used Swerve brand) for best results. You can also use xylitol, but it’s toxic to animals – so if you have pets I’d avoid it just to be on the safe side – otherwise it’s a good tasting alternative sweetener.

Keto Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake

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★★★★★

4.7 from 3 reviews

• Author: Mellissa Sevigny
• Total Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
• Yield: 10 inch cheesecake 1x

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Description

A decadent keto chocolate hazelnut cheesecake that is impressive enough for entertaining, but easy enough to make any time!  Low carb, gluten free, Atkins friendly.

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Ingredients

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For the crust:

• 1 cup blanched and roasted whole hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup granulated erythritol sweetener
• 1 cup superfine blanched almond flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons premium unsweetened cocoa powder

For the filling:

• 32 ounces full fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup powdered erythritol sweetener
• 3 tablespoons premium unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 teaspoons liquid hazelnut flavoring/extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Instructions

For the crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the hazelnuts and sweetener in a food processor or Magic Bullet.
3. Pulse until fully granulated, but do not overmix or you’ll have hazelnut butter.
4. Pour into a medium sized bowl.  If there are a few chunky pieces that’s ok, but remove any whole hazelnuts, and blend those again until powdered and add them back in.
5. Add the almond flour, melted butter and cocoa powder to the hazelnut mixture.
6. Blend with a fork until a uniform dough forms.
7. Press into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan.
8. Bake for 8 minutes.
9. Remove and reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.

For the filling:

1. While the crust is pre-baking, combine the softened cream cheese, eggs, sweetener, cocoa powder, hazelnut extract and vanilla extract in a large blender.
2. Blend until smooth.  This may require you to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula a few times until it’s smooth enough to blend easily.
3. Once a uniform batter is reached, set aside until the crust is ready.  Once the crust has been par-baked and cooled for five minutes, pour the batter into the pan over the crust.
4. Return to the oven and bake for 1 hour.
5. Turn off heat and leave in the oven for an additional 30 minutes with the door cracked open about 10 inches – make sure no pets or toddlers can get near it as it will be hot.
6. Remove the cheesecake and chill at least 6 hours, preferably overnight, before cutting and serving with optional whipped cream and chocolate/hazelnut garnish if desired.

Notes

Nutrition info does not include optional garnishes.

Total net carbs per serving = 4g

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 68 minutes
• Category: keto desserts
• Method: baking

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/12th
• Calories: 476
• Fat: 44g
• Carbohydrates: 7g
• Fiber: 3g
• Protein: 12g

Keywords: cheesecake, nutella, hazelnut, chocolate, keto, low carb, gluten free

Can’t get enough delicious keto cheesecake recipes? Try my Keto Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake Bars or Easy Keto Lemon Cheesecake recipes next!