Keto Brownie Cheesecake is the best of all possible worlds, combining fudgy low carb brownies and sugar-free vanilla cheesecake. It’s my most iconic keto dessert recipe, with good reason!
My famous Keto Brownie Cheesecake gets an update! It’s now easier to make and even lower in carbs. So you can feel free to dig in without concern.
And dig in you should! This recipe has been on my blog since 2013 and it’s adored by readers far and wide. Even folks who don’t follow a keto diet rave about it. I get asked to bring it to all sorts of parties and get togethers. And I’m always happy to oblige!
You really can’t go wrong when you combine fudgy brownies with creamy keto cheesecake. It’s an absolutely mouthwatering combination.
Why you need this recipe
This recipe really is a must make for any keto dessert lover. It starts with a base of my fudgy keto brownies, which is a bit of a departure from the original recipe. But it makes it extra easy and lowers the carb count per serving.
Then it’s topped off with a layer of vanilla cheesecake, and baked to creamy perfection. And the layers look absolutely stunning when you cut it into slices.
While making any cheesecake is a little time consuming, this recipe is quite straightforward and easy. If you’re new to keto baking, brownie cheesecake is a great place to start.
It freezes well, too, so you can practice portion control. And it has only 3.3g net carbs per serving. Yay!!!
Reader Testimonials
The keto brownie cheesecake is the absolute bomb!!!! Love the fudgy brownie base with the cheesecake top….. I think this is my favorite Keto dessert of all time! — Joanne
This was the first keto bakery by recipe I ever made, and it was instrumental in making me realize I really could do the keto lifestyle. Have made it many times since then with no disappointments along the way. My non-keto friends have been served this wonderful brownie cheesecake and loved it. Absolutely the best recipe Carolyn has created… in my humble opinion. Oh, yeah, it freezes well, too. — Marcia
NO DESSERT COULD TOP THIS. By far the BEST cheesecake I have ever had. Its mind-blowingly good. Nothing pairs better than a classic brownie cake with a rich cheesecake. OMG. I want moreeee. What would I do without you Carolyn? Your recipes are always a SUCCESS. Love you and your work. — Mandy
Ingredients you need
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- Butter: Use unsalted butter for best results.
- Almond flour: Make sure you are using finely ground almond flour for a fudgy brownie consistency. To make this nut-free, you can swap out with sunflower seed flour in the same quantity.
- Cocoa powder: I prefer Dutch process cocoa powder as it has a deeper, richer chocolate flavor. I try to use really quality brands like Rodelle or Ghirardelli because it bakes better. I don’t recommend raw cacao powder, as it doesn’t dissolve well into the wet ingredients.
- Eggs: Large eggs are the standard for baking.
- Swerve Sweetener: I recommend Swerve or another erythritol-based sweetener for this recipe. Using another sweetener will change the texture and consistency. Learn more about keto sweeteners here.
- Chopped nuts: This is optional, but I like to add some chopped walnuts or pecans into the brownie layer.
- Cream cheese: Use full fat cream cheese as low-fat contains fillers that high in carbohydrates.
- Heavy cream: A little heavy cream helps thin out the cheesecake layer and make it even creamier. You can also use sour cream.
- Pantry staples: Salt and vanilla extract
Step-by-step directions
1. Make the brownie base: In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sweetener, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well combined. Thin the batter with a little water, if necessary.
2. Bake the brownies: Spread in a greased 9-inch springform pan and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges are set but the center is still a little wet and soft. Let cool.
3. Prepare the cheesecake filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese for two minutes, until very smooth. Beat in the sweetener until well combined. Then add the eggs, cream, and vanilla and beat until just combined.
4. Bake the cheesecake: Pour the filling over crust and spread evenly. Bake until the edges are set and the center still jiggles slightly when shaken, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
5. Let cool completely: Let the cheesecake come to room temperature, then run a knife around edges to loosen and remove the sides of pan.
6. Refrigerate: Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely set, at least 3 hours.
Expert tips and FAQs
Don’t over cook the brownie base: You don’t want the brownie base to be too firm after the first time it is baked, because it will dry out more. It should be semi-cooked, since you will be baking it a second time with the cheesecake filling.
A little jiggle is a good thing. You know your cheesecake is done when it’s mostly set but the center still jiggles slightly when you shake the pan. It will continue to firm up as it cools.
Don’t rush the chill time: Properly chilled cheesecake is worth the wait! It will have much better taste and texture if you allow it to chill the full 3 hours.
Nut-Free Option: Replace the almond flour with sunflower seed flour and skip the chopped nuts.
This keto brownie cheesecake recipe has 5.2g of carbs and 1.9g of fiber. Thus it has a net carb count of 3.3g
Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap or place it in a resealable container. It can last in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze the entire cake or individual slices. As always, wrap it up tightly to avoid freezer burn. It will be good for at least 2 months.
Coconut flour behaves very differently from almond flour, and several other adjustments must be made to accommodate this. However, you can try using my Coconut Flour Brownies recipe for the base.
Serving suggestions
Keto Brownie Cheesecake tastes delicious as is, but you can also add some tasty toppings. Here are a few fun ideas:
- Keto Chocolate Sauce: You can make my homemade version, or try the new Keto Fudge Sauce from ChocZero. (Use FOODDREAMER for 10% off all ChocZero products).
- Make it a caramel brownie cheesecake by drizzling on some of my delectable Keto Caramel Sauce.
- Top with fresh berries or swirl in some sugar-free raspberry sauce.
- Add some keto-friendly chocolate sprinkles.
Keto Brownie Cheesecake Recipe
Ingredients
Brownie Base:
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter, melted
- 2/3 cup (136.5 g) Swerve Granular
- 2 large (2) eggs
- 1/2 tsp (1/4 tsp) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (56 g) almond flour
- 1/3 cup (21.5 g) cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 to 2 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup (29.25 g) walnuts or pecans, chopped
Cheesecake Filling:
- 12 ounces (453.59 g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup (91 g) Swerve Sweetener
- 2 large (2) eggs
- 1/4 cup (59.5 g) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
For the brownie base:
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and butter a 9-inch springform pan. If your springform pan is prone to leaking, place it on a cookie sheet.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sweetener, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and whisk until well combined.
- Stir in a little water at a time to thin the batter to a thick but pourable consistency. Stir in the chopped nuts, if using.
- Spread evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until set around edges but still soft in the center. Let cool 15 to 20 minutes.
For the filling:
- Reduce the oven temperature to 300F.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese for two minutes, until very smooth. Beat in the sweetener until well combined. Then add the eggs, cream, and vanilla and beat until just combined.
- Pour the filling over crust and spread evenly. Bake until the edges are set and the center still jiggles slightly when shaken, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Run a knife around edges to loosen and then remove the sides of pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I made this last night and had a piece for breakfast this morning (Shh)! I CAN NOT believe I’m eating something THIS good and losing weight!!!!!!!!!! After the first bite I had to override my brain’s alarm bells telling me this has GOT to be messing up my carb count for the day! Is it ok to lick the plate at the end if no one’s watching? Amazing, amazing, amazing!!!!!!!!!!! And it really wasn’t that difficult to make. I was worried about that, I’m a homeschool mom of 4 so I get distracted 50+ times while cooking. Thank you & God bless!
Fantastic, Lisa? And I personally lick the plate even if someone’s watching. Oops!
Thanks for the recipe! It turned out nicely. Just sharing some notes… I melted the butter and chocolate together in a double boiler and adjusted the cheesecake balance to have some sour cream because I enjoy the texture and feel that sour cream cheesecakes whip better in my experience. I tried it with Stevia in the Raw (maltodextrin + stevia extract), and found it was not nearly sweet enough. This has also been the case with my Stevia in the Raw in general, so it might be me. Finally, I didn’t have a springform pan so I used a one-piece and lined the bottom with butter and then parchment paper. I buttered the sides and ended up using a butter knife in conjunction with squishing the sides of the pan to help release it from the side and inverted the pan, heating the base slightly, to get the cake out. Great recipe!
Hi Steven. Others have said that stevia alone doesn’t sweeten this enough so I think it’s not just you!
I’m gluten free and my boyfriend is keto… it’s great to find recipes that work for both of us. Your site is amazing! He says that low carb sweets aren’t worth making or eating but with a few of your recipes, I’ve finally changed his mind!
I made this for a gluten free/keto friendly 4th of July dessert and it is amazing. So amazing that I had to come comment. We couldn’t resist sneaking a tiny piece tonight… but I’m sure our friends and family will love it too!
I thought I messed up for sure – my batter wasn’t smooth, I was nervous to pour the filling on (the base was gooey and moved when I did), and my filling still had some chunks of cream cheese… but it turned out great! I think this is my new go-to dessert for events. Thanks again!
So glad it worked! Yes, the base is still almost not cooked when you add the topping, because otherwise it’s too much cooked after they are baked together.
I am so glad you just mention the base would still be gooey when the topping was added. Mine is in the oven right now and it is a a birthday cake for someone today. I was so worried I did something wrong with the base. Hope it comes out as good as your’s looks.
Do you have the nutritional information for fat and protein as well for this recipe? My wife follows a keto diet for health reasons and I want to make this for her. Thanks!
Not offhand, but I can calculate it quickly for you. Hang tight!
Okay, MasterCook gives me this nutritional info when I add in all the ingredients. Per serving: 376 Calories; 37g Fat (84.7% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber;
You’re awesome – Thank you! I will definitely be following your blog now that I’ve found it!
I am going to make this tomorrow(and we don’t have Swerve on the east coast that I could find), and in reading through the comments, I had a question on the sweetener… Can I just use the equivalent (in both base and filling) of liquid stevia? Or should I get/use some granulated sweetener as well (stevia, truvia, splenda etc) ? Thanks!
One reader tried all stevia and found it bitter. Stevia on its own with chocolate tends to produce this result. I’d do at least some truvia, if not the full amount of Truvia subbed in for the Swerve. I really don’t work with sucralose at all so I am not a good resource to say how to sub in Splenda. Hope that helps!
Thanks Carolyn – I picked up the granulated Truvia so I will go with that!
I made this Friday night and its gone now… I will definitely be making it again and making more of your recipes… it was really good!
So glad you liked it!
I made this again today with the following modifications:
In place of the Swerve in the brownie base, I used 20 drops of the concentrated EZ Sweetz (where one drop = 1 packet of Splenda). In place of the Swerve in the cheesecake top, I used 12 drops of the concentrated EZ Sweetz. I also baked it in an 8×8 square pan and lined the pan with Reynolds pan lining paper (foil on one side and parchment on the other) so I was able to lift the whole cake out of the pan and cut it into 16 squares of about 2-3 carbs each.
I found that the brownie base was a little bitter, but that the cheesecake was perfectly sweet. In the future, I might try springing for the Swerve in the brownie portion, but going with the EZ Sweetz for the cheesecake.
Hello Diane,
The base was bitter because you cannot use sucralose alone to sweeten things that are bitter or sour (if you want a good result). You need to add a bit of another sweetener along with it. The reason why Swerve works is that it contains both erythritol and oligosaccharides. As you have observed, sucralose does fine alone when the ingredients are neither bitter nor sour.
Those sound like good modifications. I think sometimes things like EZ Sweetz don’t combine well with chocolate (stevia doesn’t either).
This looks AMAZING! Love it (and love the 12 sticks of butter title – that is so true of America’s Test Kitchen!!!)
This was delicious! It was surprisingly easy to make. The results are very rich, though… I definitely couldn’t over-eat this… which is a good thing! Tasty/filling
Made this for a friend’s birthday this weekend! No one could tell it was low carb! Thanks for the great recipes.
I finally tried this, and it’s amazing! The bottom of the brownie turned almost black, but it doesn’t taste burnt. I think I just need to shorten the baking time of the brownie part. Since I don’t have Swerve, I followed your advice to combine different sweeteners (I always do now). Here I used 2 Tbsp of xylitol, 4 drops of liquid Splenda, two Splenda packets and 3 tsp of stevia. The cake is plenty sweet. I just love the thought that I’m just eating cream cheese, eggs, nuts, butter and chocolate. This is going to be my breakfast this week!
Sounds like a great breakfast to me! Sorry the brownie base darkened so much…I wonder if your oven runs a bit hot?
It’s not the most consistent oven, and I still have to get the rack setting right. I’ve been baking on the middle rack, but probably have to go higher up for some things. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Oh my goodness! I made this in my mini cheesecake pan (I have a 6 well USA Pan) with a few substitutions. I used half erythritol and half Splenda in place of the erythritol and I added a little bit of lemon juice to the cheesecake batter. I also made cherry topping out of a can of red tart cherries in water, about 1/4 cup of half erythritol and half Splenda, and enough xanthan gum to thicken it. I find that when you combine sweeteners there’s less of an aftertaste and my sweeteners of choice are erythritol, Splenda, and sweet n low brown in that order. 🙂
Hi, this really looks amazing! I do still have one question about the Stevia instead of Swerve issue (sorry if this is answered already, i’m fairly new to baking without sugar and couldn’t make an answer out of the previous comments).. Is this recipe also possible with Stevia powder (without also the use of xylitol)? I know that one cup of Stevia has the equivalent taste of once cup of sugar.. And if I were to use sugar, how should I replace the Swerve? (This is kind of a mean question, I’m sorry.. It’s my father who is not allowed to eat sugar, I want to make this for him, but if it were impossible to find the right ingredients, I still want to try and taste this delicious-looking cake!)
Hi Jolien…
You said one cup of Stevia equals one cup of sugar? What kind of stevia are you using? If Stevia in the Raw, which is supposed to measure cup for cup like sugar, I would normally say do the exact same amount as Swerve but another reader found that it wasn’t sweet enough when she did so. So you may actually have to increase it.
If you want to use sugar, just go ahead and add in the same amount as Swerve.
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! The brand is called ‘Pure Via’ (I live in Belgium, no idea if it’s know anyplace else), it is actually Stevia mixed with cut maltodextrine and natural aromas. One tsp of sugar should be equivalent with one tsp of this commercial Stevia (so in quantity, not in weight: sugar is 10 times heavier)
Ok, I am going to try it like that and use the same amount =) Thanks for the recipe and the respond! =) great website!
Great thanks for all your help. I can’t wait to try it again!
Okay ignore my last comment to you…I meant to be responding to someone who had trouble with a different recipe. Sorry!
Hi Carolyn. I have a couple of questions. Is the butter unsalted? I used stevia for baking and neither the crust or filling was sweet. Should I have used more sweetener?
I almost always use salted butter but I don’t think it would matter for this. And I can see stevia alone not being enough sweetener. Do you have anything else at hand?
Not currently. I looked for the swerve at our local Kroger and they did not have it or erithritol. I may check the health food store today. What can I add with the stevia though. It was not cheap! Hate to wast it::)
Do they have Truvia? That’s erythritol with a little stevia in it.
They do! Should I mix the two or use ALL TRUVIA?
I’d mix the two…Truvia is expensive and stevia is less so. I’d do 1/4 cup Truvia in the cheesecake part and then make it more sweet with stevia (do you have the liquid or the powder? If the liquid, I’d go with 1/4 tsp). For the base, I think you could go as low as 1/4 cup Truvia, and make up the difference with Stevia but you want it to be sweeter so the stevia would have to be more. Maybe 1/2 a tsp?
Carolyn I bought stevia in the raw in the baking form. So I used it “apples to apples” and that didn’t work. Do you know how 1/2 tsp of liquid would compare to “ounce measurements”?
Okay, I’ve had the stevia in the raw before. I’d go half stevia, half truvia for the recipe, but maybe you like things a bit sweeter than me so throw in an extra tablespoon of Truvia for good measure.
Oh my! Wickedly good and totally decadent. ! I made this for Easter dinner with extended family. It was a huge hit! No one had any idea it was sugar and wheat free. Thanks for a great recipe!
Love that brownie bottom!
Hi Carolyn! So excited to try this! Can you tell me where you get your powdered erythritol? I live in Canada, and I’d like to get some to experiment with, but I don’t want to pay through the roof for shipping.
Do you order yours?
I’ve read that you can take granulated erythritol, and place it in a food processor to make powdered erythritol.
I’ve heard that too. it will inevitably be somewhat grittier but it’s worth a shot!
I used granular and it wasn’t gritty although I’ve had that happen in other recipes.
Hi Carolyn,
I love your website and appreciate all the yummy recipes. I have question about the Brownie Cheesecake recipe. I used granulated erythritol (Emerald Forest) in both the brownie and cheesecake part of the recipe. The texture of my brownie was like dry fudge and my cheesecake was quite dense. Also, you could feel the texture of the erythritol between your teeth in the finish product. Overall it is a nice recipe but is this the typical texture for this recipe? Thank you for your help.
No, it’s not typical at all, it should all be VERY creamy and smooth. I have heard some suspect things about Emerald Forest and so I think it’s the erythritol you used. I know it’s among the cheapest but I don’t recommend it at all.
Just made these today- hands down my favorite keto dessert. A bit of effort but totally worth it. Just to note, I did cut the sugar in half for the cheesecake part, and feel like when I make these again I’ll cut the sugar in half for the brownie part as well. I can’t stress enough though how delicious these are- the slices are big enough where you feel like you’re actually eating a dessert. Thanks again for posting this, it will stay in my go-to dessert making file!
I read through all the comments – and got a ton of tips! I have everything on hand – and therefore will be making this TONIGHT! I’ve always hesitated on ordering some Swerve because of the price – I can get NOW Erythritol at my local health food store, but I wondering if the taste and texture is the same? Anyone know? And Carolyn – what brand of Almond Flour do you use? I know it’s different from Almond Meal, but with all my low carb cooking, most people only use Honeyville. Thoughts?
Quick question- would it be possible to sub coconut flour for almond flour? I have used almond flour before, but not coconut. Wondering if the consistency would be any different, and if I would have to use more/less of it. The reason I ask is that I actually have coconut on hand, but not almond! Thanks for the recipe, looks delicious!
I think you probably could, but you will only need about 2 tablespoons of coconut flour, maybe even less. It absorbs a lot of liquid. If you put it in and find your batter too thick to spread, add a tablespoon or two of liquid, then add a little more until it’s thick but still spreadable.