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. 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 flavour.

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

Low-carb cheesecake with alond flour and flax crust, cream cheese filling and juicy ripe strawberries

Yield: 10 slices

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 1 cup (90g / 3oz) of ground almonds
• 3/4 cup (90g / 3oz) of ground flaxseeds
• 100g (3.3oz) butter
• 1 tbsp 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 in advance to bring them to room temperature

Make the crust first

• 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

Make the filling

• 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 centre 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

Decorating (optional)

• Decorate with whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries

Nutritional information

Serving size: 1 slice (assuming 10 slices are made from the amounts listed above) Per slice: 368 calories, 4g net carbs, 34g fat, 10g protein

Recipe by Margarita White (@Carbophobic), published on 19 June 2014

Cookbooks for low-carb baking and desserts

Do you need more low-carb baking and dessert recipes?
Check out these great cookbooks:

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.