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Rich and creamy, this keto cheesecake is THE cheesecake to make. I promise. The best part is you can save on some of the carbs since my New York cheesecake recipe is entirely crustless! Top with your favourite low carb sauces for the most decadent dessert of all time.
This recipe was originally published on May 12, 2017 and was since republished with better instructions, pictures, video and recipe.
My Keto New York Cheesecake Recipe
My previous New York cheesecake recipe was originally a 6 inch cheesecake, but after reading different comments and requests, I decided to change the recipe to make a 9 inch cheesecake. I made it last week because I was hosting a party and I may have accidentally eaten half of the cake. I have no regrets whatsoever. It's the best cheesecake ever and I just love this recipe so much!
What goes in a New York Cheesecake?
New York cheesecakes are baked cakes that rely heavily on heavy cream or sour cream. The cheesecakes that have sour cream added to them can easily be frozen, which is why I prefer making mine with sour cream. My low carb caramel cheesecake also relies on both sour cream and heavy cream, which makes it extremely creamy, rich and dense.
I live alone and can't possible eat a whole 9 inch cheesecake by myself so I always rely on freezing the baked goods that I make for the blog. I'll usually cut the cheesecake into individual portions and freeze each portions so that I can have a ready-to-be-eaten treat any time of the day.
What Toppings Can I Pour Over my Low Carb Cheesecake?
The greatest thing about this keto cheesecake recipe is that it's totally customizable. Eat it as is, plain, or pour some of the following topping ideas all over it to make the very best of cheesecakes.
- Sugar Free Caramel Sauce
- Sugar Free Strawberry Sauce (or any other fruit)
- Melted Chocolate from Lily's
- Lakanto Chocolate Syrup
- Homemade Nutella
- Strawberry Chia Jam (or any other fruit)
- Fresh Fruit
- Chopped Nuts
- Low Carb Lemon Curd
Instead of a topping, you can also make this classic tiramisu right on top of this cheesecake to make a tall tiramisu cheesecake!
Recommended Cheesecake Sweeteners
My go to keto sweeteners are always a mix of both erythritol and stevia extract powder. I like to mix both sweeteners together to give low carb desserts the perfect sweetness. My keto chocolate cheesecake also uses a mix of both sweeteners and it honestly creates the best cheesecake recipe ever.
However, using too much erythritol can cause a cooling sensation in the mouth, but it does provide the bulk required for baked goods. That's why I use the stevia to come up with the missing sweetness from the erythritol.
Stevia extract powder is 300 times sweeter than sugar and erythritol is just 75% as sweet. Combining both gives you the perfect sweetness for any keto desserts you wish to make. I recommend using pure stevia extra powder and not a blend because we're already using erythritol in this recipe.
I recommend using powdered erythritol in this recipe to ensure that your cheesecake stays smooth and creamy. Granulated erythritol tends to stay grainy or sandy as it cools and it's not a really nice feeling to have in the mouth.
You can easily make homemade powdered erythritol. Simply blitz any amount of granulated erythritol into a powerful blender for about 20-30 seconds, and you'll have powdered erythritol. If you don't want to make your own, you can simply use the ones from either Swerve or SoNourished.
If you would like to use sweeteners other than erythritol and stevia, I recommend the following:
- ½ cup xylitol
- ½ cup Lakanto erythritol
- ½ cup SoNourished Monk Fruit Blend
- 6 tbsp erythritol + 1 tsp monk fruit extract powder
How Many Carbs In This Low Carb Cheesecake?
Since this low carb cheesecake is entirely crust-free, you can save on most of the carbs. The cheesecake makes 10 generous slices and each slices have 2.71g total and net carbs and 296 calories. The entire cheesecake has 27.14 grams of carbohydrates.
Since this keto friendly cheesecake is super low in carbs, you can splurge a little with the toppings you put on it!
How to Make a Crack-Free Cheesecake?
Although cracks in cheesecakes do not affect the flavours of the cheesecake, it can be disappointing to not have a perfect cheesecake come out of the oven after all that baking time! So here are a few tips to follow when making any cheesecake recipe!
- Bake your cheesecake in a water bath.
- Use room temperature cream cheese. Cooled cream cheese is harder to mix and will leave lumps.
- Cream your cheese properly until there are no more cheese lumps.
- Don't over beat your eggs. Once your cream cheese and sweeteners have been added, mix the eggs in, one at a time, carefully. Don't over mix your batter or else you'll be adding unnecessary air into your cheesecake batter.
Why Use a Water Bath?
A water bath is simply a pan of hot water placed in the oven to add moisture into the air when baking baked goods. It's important to add moisture to an oven because cheesecakes tend to crack under hot temperatures.
Cheesecakes usually have lots of eggs added to their batter. Eggs tend to rise in heat so they need a moist and humid environment to properly rise without cracking. Also, the steam from the hot water will lift the cheesecake up slowly and evenly without cracking it. It's also super important for the cheesecake to not fall in the middle after it has cooled.
If you can spare a few minutes to prepare a water bath for your cheesecake, I promise you won't regret it!
How to prevent your cheesecake water bath to leak
The most important thing is to wrap your springform pan with lots of aluminum foil. I usually use three sheets of aluminum foil. One placed horizontally and one vertically stacked on top of another. Then I usually add the springform pan in the middle and wrap the aluminum foil around the edges of the springform pan.
Once that's done, I usually wrap an extra long sheet of aluminum foil all over the sides and bottom so that no extra water can get in the cheesecake pan.
How to Make a Keto Cheesecake
Before you start making your cheesecake, you'll want to make sure to use room temperature cream cheese and sour cream because when they're fresh out of the fridge, it's much harder to cream without leaving any bumps.
You'll first cream your cream cheese with a hand mixer or a stand mixer. You could also use a food processor if can hold about 11 cups of liquid or more.
Once your cream cheese is soft and creamy, you'll add your erythritol and stevia and mix well together.
Once your sweeteners and cream cheese have been creamed, you'll add your vanilla essence and then the eggs one at a time. It's important you add the eggs one at a time, but don't over beat them. Just mix until they've been incorporated perfectly into the cheese.
The final step will be to add the sour cream and mix it all until there are no more creamy bumps. Make sure to use room temperature sour cream if you have a thick type of sour cream.
Before pouring your cheesecake batter into a springform pan, you'll want to make sure to add a piece of parchment paper at the bottom. Since this cheesecake is crust-less, the parchment paper will help pull it off the pan to put it on a plate.
You don't have to add parchment paper on the sides, as you just need to spray oil all over so that the cheesecake batter doesn't stick to the sides. If you prefer to use parchment paper, that's fine too.
Just make sure to add the cheesecake batter after you have wrapped your springform pan with aluminum foil as it's much harder to do so once the batter is in the pan.
Pour the cheesecake batter into the springform pan and then place it inside a large rectangular cake pan or something similar. Anything that can carry water for the water bath will be good.
Slowly add boiling water to the rectangular cake pan. About 1-2 inches/5cm of water should be enough.
Carefully place the cheesecake into the oven and bake.
How Long Should I Bake My Cheesecake?
Slow and steady wins the race. I prefer to bake all of my cheesecake recipes at a low temperature in a water bath. That way I can avoid making cracks in my cheesecake from the high heat and can ensure that it rises properly and evenly.
I like to bake my keto New York cheesecake for about 70 minutes at 150C/300F. Depending on whether your oven distributes heat evenly, a side of your low carb cheesecake may turn golden brown like mine. But then again, my Japanese oven is tiny, a third of the size of an American one so that may be why too.
What Type of Pan do I Need to Make this Cheesecake?
You absolutely need to use a springform pan with a loose bottom or a cheesecake pan with a loose bottom. If your pan doesn't have a loose bottom, it will be super hard to get your cheesecake out of the pan!
Final Tips & Recaps
Read the following tips before making my keto New York cheesecake and you'll have made the perfect crack-free cheesecake!
- Use room temperature cream cheese and sour cream so that it's easier to cream and you don't get any clumps or bumps in your batter.
- Bake your cheesecake in a water bath to avoid cracks and get an even rise.
- Bake your keto cheesecake at low temperature so that it's not exposed to high heat for a long period of time.
- For sweeteners you have the options to use the following:
- 6 tbsp powdered erythritol + 1 tsp stevia extract powder.
- ½ cup xylitol (powdered)
- ½ cup Lakanto erythritol (powdered)
- ½ cup SoNourished Monk Fruit Blend (powdered)
- 6 tbsp powdered erythritol + 1 tsp monk fruit extract powder
- Make sure to wrap your springform pan with lots of aluminum foil so that water doesn't leak in the cheesecake batter.
Recipe Card
Low Carb Keto New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 660 g cream cheese
- 180 ml sour cream
- 6 tbsp powdered erythritol (See Note 1 for sweetener substitutions)
- 1 tsp stevia extract powder (See Note 1 for sweetener substitutions)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 medium eggs
- oil (as needed)
- hot water (as needed)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150C/300F.Spray some oil all over a 9 inch/23cm springform pan and place a round sheet of parchment paper at the bottom.Wrap the outside of the springform pan with 2-3 pieces of aluminum foil. We will be putting the cheesecake in a water bath so this is to prevent the water from leaking in the cheesecake batter.
- In a large bowl, add the cream cheese and cream it with a hand mixer.Add the erythritol, stevia and vanilla and mix everything together until there are no more clumps.
- Add one egg at a time to the cheesecake batter and mix until each egg is evenly mixed in. Do not over beat the batter as you'll be creating unnecessary air from the eggs.
- Finally, add the sour cream and mix together.
- Pour the cheesecake batter into the springform pan. Spread evenly, lift the pan up and tap a couple of times on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles.
- Place the cheesecake pan inside a larger cake pan and pour boiling water in the bigger pan. About 1-2 inches/5cm of water should be enough.
- Add the water watch and cheesecake inside the middle of your oven and bake for 70 minutes.
- When 70minutes have passed, turn off the oven, open the oven door and let the heat escape. Do not take your cheesecake out of the oven. Let it cool down along with the oven for about 1 hour.
- Remove the cheesecake from the oven and remove the cheesecake pan from the water bath. Remove the aluminum foil and place the cheesecake in the fridge for 5+ hours or overnight.
- Once the cheesecake is cooled, you can then remove it from the springform pan and serve with any toppings you wish!
Notes
- ½ cup xylitol
- ½ cup Lakanto erythritol
- ½ cup SoNourished Monk Fruit Blend
- 6 tbsp erythritol + 1 tsp monk fruit extract powder
Nutritional information is provided through calculations made on fatsecret.com. They are approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on mypcoskitchen.com. Sugar alcohols are included in the fiber count. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber (which include sugar alcohols).
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Lisa
Delicious, can I ease have the recipe for the chocolate and nut topping, as shown in the video on Facebook? Your recipes are fantastic and many are favorites for my husband and I. 🙂👩🍳🍰
Mira
Hey Lisa, it was just melted Lily's chocolate with chopped nuts!
Susan G Crane
I clicked on this recipe to get the Keto New York Cheesecake that had a crust and had chocolate on top. Where is that recipe??
Mira
same recipe, just updated pictures like the blog post says.
anna
You used to have a crust with this cheesecake - made with almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, melted butter and erythitol. The recipe has been revised but would you be able to provide the recipe with the crust? That was my husband's favorite part 🙂 Thank you! And ps - I love your recipes! They have been lifesavers for my husband and his low-card diet!
Kathryn
This was very good and my husband really liked it! But I hated the stevia and overall thought it was too sweet (maybe because things taste sweeter to me on Keto). I added some fresh lemon juice to try and cut the sweetness/stevia flavor and it sort of worked. Next time I do this, I'm using only erythirol (however you spell that!). I tried another recipe for mini keto cheesecakes that only used this and it came out really well -- will see how it works with this version.
Also added a sweetened almond flour crust, necessary in my opinion!
Muse
Hi Mira, is cream cheese ok with non-dairy diet?
Mira
Hi Muse, cream cheese is dairy so if you eat dairy-free, then you can't have it.
Charis Craven
Your recipes are the best! I had no problem with the water bath leakage, and the texture of the cake was worth it. I put some chocolate ganache on top and it was delish. Thank you so much!
Smiling This Morn',
Hi Mira! I made this recipe last night and am having a slice for breakfast -- I LOVE this recipe!! I love too that you bake with stevia and erythritol as the resulting flavor is the closest to sugar I've ever tasted. Wonderful job! Thanks so much for your efforts and sharing all these recipes. You're a big part of helping me stay healthy..... Monica in NH
Lisa
Just a hint for you and your readers; I never put my cheesecake pan inside a waterbath, I just put the pan of water on the lower oven rack and it accomplishes the same desired result.
Cheryl Steins
This looks so good and I LOVE cheesecake! I wish I could tolerate artificial sweeteners though. Can't seem to use any of them.
🙁
Mira
If you eat sugar, you can use that. Or else just stevia.
Tom
Hi, I want to make this for my mum's 50th as a surprise upon her return from holiday. Instead of using Erythritol, can I replace this with a blend. Secondly, is it necessary to use both Stevia and Erythritol or can I use the blend for both ingredients in this instance?
Mira
You can use a blend and it should work the same. You can always taste test with your finger to see if it's sweet enough.
Cindi Savage
Where can I find the Lily’s chocolate chips?
Mira
Amazon or iherb for online. Whole Foods and Trader Joes also has them.
Thuy Nguyen
I made this cheesecake yesterday and its so so so good i love love it Thank u for sharing i love it so much
Chelsea
Is it possible to skip the erythritol? I need to make this like, tonight. And I would have to order the erythritol. Can I just use a tiny bit more stevia?
Mira
I would taste test it with your fingers to see if it's sweet enough. It may crack a little without the erythritol, but other than that should be fine.
Sarah
Even though I'm usually not a big fan of cheesecake, this one is really good !
Elaine
I have tried this recipe twice now and just love it. I'm new to gluten free cooking so sort of re-learning to cook. Just wondering if there is a variation for the crust to be chocolate (I'm trying to modify an old recipe and not sure on this).
Mira
Hi Elaine! Thanks so much!
You could add cocoa powder or melted chocolate to some almond butter to make it like a sort of sticky chocolate crust? Or even add chocolate chips to the crust.
Kristina
How long would you bake these in a 12 serving muffin tin?
Mira
I'd do about 25-30 minutes until golden brown on the top.
Will
Will it work if I double the recipe and put in a larger springform pan?
Mira
Yes, but make sure to bake it a bit longer!
Will G.
I cooked it for 55 min and it came out perfect. Thank you.
Will G
Ha! I meant 80 minutes for double the recipe. Not sure what I was thinking. Thanks for the recipe.
Barb
Can I use more erythritol instead of Stevia powder? I have Natvia here in Australia but can't find a powdered version.
Mira
You could try, but it you'd need to a quite a bit more because stevia is 300% sweeter than sugar. The combination of the two gave the perfect sweeteness.
Simona
Hi Barb,
I use Nativia too, I found that you can add just about a half tablespoon more of that and the Sweetness will be perfect! Taste it before you add in the eggs!
Simona
I tried this and the cheese tasted lovely, but the entire pan seemed to flood! I was careful to not let any water into the Springform... I'm assuming this is not normal 🙁
Mira
Did you wrap the pan in aluminum foil?
Simona
I did! As tight as possible. It wouldn't be moist and leak water from the inside would it?
Mira
No, not at all! There must have been a leak somewhere because a cheesecake just doesn't get wet. Try doing it without the water bath.
Liz
I put my spring forms inside a crockpot liner. Works perfectly every single time.
Frances Kiely
Can it be stored if so how?
Mira
Yes, in the fridge or freezer!
Deborah Waddell
Is the erythotel granulated or powdered? Thank you!
Mira
It's the granulated one!
Chrystal
Could I use Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream?
Mira
I haven't tried, but I imagined it'd be just as yummy!
Dee
Can I substitute stevia powder with swerve or another sweetener? If so, what would you recommend?
Mira
Yeah, just make sure the sweetener is sweet enough and that there's enough in it. Any one you like should be fine. We just have erythritol and stevia in Japan so I can't really recommend one to you that you would have in your country as I'm not familiar with other ones.
Sherri Burgan
Can you tell me in how many cream cheese and a cup measurement of sour cream to use?
Mira
According to google, 300g of cream cheese is 1 1/3 cup and 90g of sour cream is 0.4 cups.