So I’m sitting here staring at the screen, trying to start typing something that does this low carb masterpiece justice, and thanks to all of the allergy medication I’m taking this week it’s really hard to get my thoughts together.
That’s about what my brain is capable of right now, and it’s a shame because this cheesecake recipe really is phenomenal. I guess I’ll let the pictures do the talking for me today, and just rally long enough to give you a few highlights about it.
1. It’s delicious (hello, that’s a given.)
2. That drizzly stuff on top? It’s a white chocolate caramel sauce that came about totally by accident. I used cacao butter, HWC, vanilla and Swerve sweetener (don’t know if this will work with other sweeteners) in it and was planning for it to be a ganache – I cooked it too long and it turned into a caramel instead!
3. The cheesecake is flavored with pumpkin (obviously) and typical pumpkin spices, but I also threw some caramel flavored extract in there and BOOM. So good.
4. I hate it when cheesecake sinks in the middle and becomes super dense and ugly. So I experimented with a couple of tablespoons of low carb vanilla flavored protein powder to help it stay put, which worked great. As you can see by the photos, there was no sinkhole in the center, and it had a pleasant, fluffy texture.
5. The crust is based on my maple walnut shortbread crust from last year’s fall ezine issue, but instead of chopped walnuts I used crispy, finely chopped bacon instead. Do I need to tell you that it was amazeballs? I didn’t think so.
You can even eat this stuff by the handful if you make cookies out of it, which I’m totally going to do because it’s awesome. Combined with this cheesecake though? There are no words. Except maybe….
So there you have it, I’m pretty sure I covered all of the really important stuff. Now I know there are some specific ingredients here that may require some planning for you to obtain so you can make this low carb cheesecake recipe – I promise it’s worth the trouble! If you make it please do report back and tell me how good it was so I can say…
Low Carb Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Maple Bacon Crust
A decadent low carb cheesecake recipe that starts with a maple bacon crust, topped with pumpkin caramel cheesecake, and a white chocolate caramel sauce. Whipped cream garnish is optional.
- Yield: 16 servings
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 6 Tbsp butter, melted
- 1/3 cup Swerve sweetener
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 tsp maple flavoring see example
- 1/4 cup finely chopped crispy bacon
- pinch of salt
For the filling:
- 32 oz (4 bars) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup Swerve sweetener
- 3 eggs
- 1 can unsweetened pumpkin puree (or 15oz homemade)
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp caramel flavoring see example
- 2 Tbsp sugar free vanilla protein powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the white chocolate caramel:
- 1/3 cup raw cacao butter see example
- 2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 2 Tbsp Swerve sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Combine the melted butter, Swerve, almond flour, maple flavoring, bacon and pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Mix thoroughly. Press into a 10″ springform pan to a depth of about 1/4 inch along the bottom and 1/3 up the sides. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (F) for 6 minutes to firm up before filling.
To make the cheesecake filling:
- Put a large pot of water on to boil for your water bath. Then, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sweetener with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, pumpkin, and heavy whipping cream and beat for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, caramel, spices, and protein powder and beat until fluffy (about 2 more minutes.) Pour into the springform pan lined with the pre-baked crust and smooth with a spatula. Place the springform pan inside a larger pan and place on the middle rack in your oven. Carefully pour boiling water into the larger pan until it’s about halfway up the sides of your springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for one hour. Then shut off the oven (leave the door shut) and leave it in there for another hour. Remove carefully from the oven and chill for at least four hours, preferably overnight before drizzling with caramel and serving.
To make the white chocolate caramel sauce:
- In a small microwave safe bowl, combine the raw cacao, heavy whipping cream, Swerve, and vanilla extract. Microwave for one minute. Remove and stir. Microwave for another minute. Remove and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. It should be light golden brown at this point, if not microwave for another 30 seconds. Alternatively you could heat this on the stove until golden and bubbling. Let it cool until slightly thickened (3-5 minutes) then drizzle over the cheesecake before serving.
Notes
Approx nutrition info per slice: 381 calories, 36g fat, 4g net carbs, 9g protein
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/16th of the cake
Love cheesecake but hate the work? Try my easy low carb raspberry cheesecake bars or pumpkin cheese pie instead!
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New to the low carb lifestyle and need some help? Try my free 3 day kickstart plan to get into ketosis fast! Then follow it up with any of my 12 free weekly menu plans – complete with shopping and prep lists!
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Hi Mellissa.
I’m thinking of making this for Thanksgiving dessert but have concerns about the maple & caramel flavoring you gave as examples in the recipe. The amounts needed are small, but the products are pretty high priced! The same for the vanilla protein powder… Would it really make that much difference if I use different brands?
Thanks
On those items you can use whatever brand you prefer!
There’s only two of us. Do you think if the recipe is cut in half it would fit in a 6″ spring form pan? Thanks for the help.
I can’t decide between this one or the chocolate swirled one! They both look amazing!!!
★★★★★
I made this – it waz GOOD! Seriously though, I found this recipe and made it to take to a birthday party and everyone LOVED it! Your recipes always hit the mark thank you!!!
★★★★★
I’m getting ready to make this cheesecake for Christmas this year! I just recently started LCHF and this is the first low carb cheesecake that I will be making for my family. I can’t wait to try it. It looks amazingly delicious, and, who can say no to bacon?!
★★★★★
I am eating this right now and finding it hard to believe that this is KETO…omg every bite is heavenly! I am not even a baker and wow, I made the best dessert of my life. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a dessert I made until this. I have actually made 2 Keto cheesecakes before this one and they weren’t anywhere near the deliciousness. So creamy and light, this is the kind of cheesecake I look for even when I am not on the Keto diet, and I rarely find it. Now I know I can make it myself…dangerous. I omitted the powder b/c I couldn’t find locally, the cake didn’t sink, but it did crack a little…who cares though! btw, love your pancakes too, make them frequently!
★★★★★
I baked this cheesecake yesterday, and it is heavenly. I had to omit the protein powder as the kind I have uses stevia and the person for whom I baked this told me she is allergic to it. Even without the protein powder, this is easily the most beautiful, evenly baked cheesecake I have ever made, with no cracking or sinking in the middle.. Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★
I made the pumpkin cheesecake and it was delicious! But, when I went to log it I’m getting 17 net carbs a slice! Am I missing somethjng?! Did I do something wrong?
You must have miscalculated Annie – I’m confident in my numbers because I do them all ingredient by ingredient, so it’s possible you are including sugar alcohols or that one of your ingredients has added carbs that mine didn’t!
Was get made it for thanksgiving and everyone loved it
My husband (the baker in our family) made this last night. The crust was fabulous. And the flavor of the cake is good, but was more the texture of mousse than cheesecake, it is extremely light, fluffy and creamy instead of the more dense firm texture of cheesecake.
Hi Mellissa, this cheesecake looks absolutely incredible. It looks so pretty and has the most wonderful selection of spices in the recipe. I have included it in my recipe roundup – Top 20 Low Carb Thanksgiving recipes from my favourite low carb websites. Love your recipes. Libby
★★★★★
Thanks so much Libby! :)
i made this yesterday using the pie recipe instead of the whole cheesecake production. I used pecans instead of almond flour and only half of the ingredients for the crust. It was delightful! Even my son who usually stays away from my artificial sugar treats enjoyed it! Pretty sure I will make this again over the holidays. Yum!
So glad you liked it Amy!!!
It didn’t turn out very well. Tasted great, but fell apart when I tried to cut it. I did use the whisk attachment instead of the beater, maybe that’s the problem. I also couldn’t use the white chocolate caramel, the cocoa butter separated from the rest of the ingredients. Very weird. But whipped cream worked just fine.
That’s weird, thanks for reporting back Lorraine – not sure why your caramel didn’t work, I’m going to make it again to be sure that I have all the proportions right in the recipe. I’m also going to add a note about not over-blending the cheesecake batter, or to use the paddle attachment if you have one. Thanks!
Looks amazing and the batter tastes great! A couple of things though. Even though I used my 10″ springform, the batter filled it all the way to the top so that it actually went over the sides a bit while cooking. It also filled my mixer bowl to the top and I’ve never had that happen before.
I had to add an extra hour of baking time and an extra 30 minutes sitting in the oven while it was off, it was still liquid after the original amount of time, and I’m still not sure if it’s done. I had to cover the edges with foil to keep them browning too much. I’m hoping it will firm up some as it cools.
Maybe my altitude here in the Denver area is affecting my results? I don’t usually have any issues with cheesecakes.
Thanks for letting me know! I had plenty of room left in my pan so I’m totally stumped as to what happened! Maybe more air got into the batter and gave it more volume than mine – I used the paddle attachment, not the whisk one so maybe that was it. But even if that accounted for the more volume, it shouldn’t have affected the cooking time. Strange! Let me know how it tasted once you got it chilled overnight!
I’m confused. I just read on another post from a couple years ago that diatomaceous earth cured all your food intolerances and allergies. Did it stop working? Or did it make things worse over time?
It’s complicated Marcia! The DE made a huge difference initially, but the longer I live here in SC the worse my allergies seem to get. I had stopped taking the DE in the Spring and just started again hoping that it will make a difference in the severity of my fall allergies, but the DE alone doesn’t seem to help all of my symptoms anymore. It helps with the food intolerance part, but I have other issues now that it doesn’t resolve. I’ve started a new regimen of probiotics and supplements to help my gut flora because that seems to make a difference for some people and long term keto eating can reduce your beneficial bacteria (or so I’ve read.) I’m adding back certain carbs (sweet potatoes and squash) in controlled amounts to help the beneficial bacteria thrive. Also, now that I’m in my early forties (yikes), I’ve read that some women can experience new allergies as a result of hormonal changes as they approach menopause age, so I’m looking into that too. Hopefully moving out of this climate where I’m allergic to everything will make the biggest difference though!
The coating tastes great but i couldn’t get it to be thickened. Stayed liquidish; what can I do, or what did I do oddly. Used a microwave and ramekin.
Also since we can’t figure out how you do 16 pieces without destroying the pie, we switched to a square spring form :)
Thanks
Hi Stephen, once the coating cooled a bit, it should have thickened to a caramel texture if you used the swerve. Other sweeteners might not have worked the same so that could have been why it didn’t thicken. To get 16 pieces I cut it into quarters, and then cut each quarter into 4 slices. A hot knife helps to keep it from sticking! Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks. Did you use the confectioner’s style because I’m pretty certain that I used the normal swerve. Also you said “caramel” but there isn’t any in the topping so I got a little confused.
As a side note, I’ve been making your stuff now for around 2 years and I’ve not had a problem like this before as I’ve been able to use other sweeteners in other recipes. I just figured you did that for advertising purposes. If it is important that we use that _exact_ sweetener to get the effect then it should be noted. I mean, I didn’t use the exact cacao butter that you did and the taste was good. So I’m sure that it will taste awesome, just won’t look as pretty as yours.
Thanks for the hot-knife tip. I still get some pull-up on the cheesecake though. Do you have it frozen or in the fridge for 24 hours before cutting?
Thanks.
Hey Stephen, I used the regular Swerve for this recipe, not the confectioner’s style. I did mention in the post that I didn’t know if it would brown the same with other sweeteners – I’ve only recently started experimenting with Swerve, and I know that erythritol has different properties from other sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda). In most of my recipes it wouldn’t matter which kind you use, but when baking they all have different properties. If your cacoa butter was in a hardened form it shouldn’t matter what brand you use, it should have started browning if heated long enough, and also should have hardened up like a caramel consistency as it cooled. I’m not sure why it didn’t, but I’m glad it at least tasted good! I had my cheesecake in the fridge before cutting, and it was a challenge to keep the slices neat, even with the hot knife. You could also try coating the knife with a little butter and see if that helps. Thanks for the feedback on the recipe!
Hi love your recipes this looks so good I can not wait to eat it all up…lol
quick question why the protein powder can I sub for it or leave it out?
The protein powder helps stabilize it so it stays fluffy and light and doesn’t sink in the middle – you can try an extra egg or just leave it out, but I can’t be sure how it will turn out as I haven’t tried it that way! Let me know if you try it and how it comes out!
This looks awesome. I’m taking this to our family gathering on Thursday!! Thanks so much for posting. I’ve seen Swerve at Whole Foods (not the confectioners variety, but maybe they’ve added it since I’ve been back).
This recipe looks like the perfect sweet Thanksgiving treat (that even my carb-loving relatives will enjoy). Is there a substitute for the Swerve (erythritol) sweetener? How easy is this to find in local stores? I have stevia, would that do? Thanks!
I’m not sure if you can find swerve in stores yet, I ordered mine online because they don’t sell it where I am. If you can’t get it, ideal would work well, possibly Splenda granulated. Not sure about stevia as it tends to leave a strong aftertaste. Hope it’s a hit!
I. Am. Dying to make this for my birthday tomorrow, but I can’t find any local sugar free vanilla protein powder that isn’t like… $45. That’s pretty expensive when I only need 2 Tbsp! Do you have any suggestions for a replacement??
You can omit it Chantelle, but it may result in some shrinkage as it cools – it will still taste fine though!
Can I just use unflavored protein powder? I’m so excited to make this by the way!
★★★★★
I think this will be my thanksgiving dessert. Sounds divine.
Hi, I’m wondering if there is a substitute for the cocoa butter?
Thanks!
Not really, but if you can get sugar free white chocolate chips that would work, or just melt a small amount of regular white chocolate chips with some heavy cream and drizzle it over, just be sure to add the carbs to your total!
The cheesecake turned out amazing but the white chocolate carmel sauce not so much. It separted and sort of curdled in the microwave. So I ended up with what looked like butter with curdled milk solids. I am wondering if it is too much microwave and the butter came out of the cocoa never to return to the sauce. I did use Swerve. My whipping cream and cocoa butter were both fresh. I remade the sauce thinking I must have measured something wrong, but same result. Any ideas?