Let’s face it, adulting is hard. And sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Like choosing between keto cheesecake or keto chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Really, it’s quite heart-wrenching stuff!
Thank goodness there are delicious mashup desserts like these Keto Cheesecake Bars. This way, you can enjoy all the creamy deliciousness of cheesecake with the buttery sweet flavor of your favorite cookies. This is one of my most popular keto desserts, with good reason!
I got it into my head that I needed to make them again for a party, and while I was at it, I took some new photos. To be honest, I had forgotten just how much I liked them. And they got rave reviews from everyone.
If you like to maximize your sweet treats, check out other mashup recipes like Keto Coffee Cake Cookies or my delectable Keto Brookies. So many wonderful ways to bring two recipes together!
Why we love this recipe
- Easy to make: Cheesecake Bars like these are also wonderful because they’re easier than full scale cakes. And they don’t require a water bath!
- Great flavor: You really do get to get to enjoy two desserts in one!
- Great for parties: This recipe makes 16 delicious bars so you can share with family and friends.
- Freezable: Want to keep them all to yourself? Store them in a covered container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Macros: They look and taste like a high carb dessert but have only 6.1g total carbs per serving!
Reader’s Thoughts
“Hello and thank you from Australia! My husband became a type 1 diabetic in his late 20’s, and when he got the diagnosis it was such a struggle to try and find ways for him to still enjoy desserts safely. This recipe and all the other incredible recipes on your website have been an absolute godsend. Keep up the fantastic work!” — Gin
Ingredient Notes
- Almond flour: This keto shortbread crust is made with almond flour. You could use sunflower seed flour for a nut free option, but you will need to add a little lemon juice to offset the green reaction.
- Sweetener: You will want a brown sugar substitute in the cookie portion and a powdered sweetener in the cheesecake portion.
- Cream cheese: Make sure your cream cheese is properly softened.
- Sour cream: This helps make the filling extra creamy. You could also use heavy cream.
- Sugar-free chocolate chips: I like to use Lily’s or ChocZero dark chocolate chips. If you can find them, mini keto chocolate chips are great too.
- Kitchen staples: Eggs, butter, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt.
Step by Step Directions
- Prepare the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, and salt. Add the egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract and beat until the dough comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Bake the crust: Press about two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of a greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 325ºF for 12 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown, then remove from the oven and let cool (it will not be fully baked at this point).
- Make the cheesecake filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until completely smooth, about 1 minutes. Add the powdered sweetener, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Finally beat in the egg until just combined.
- Assemble the bars: Pour the filling over the cooled crust. Take the remaining cookie crust mixture and crumble over the top of the filling, pressing lightly to adhere.
- Bake, then chill: Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top crust is golden and the filling is just a little jiggly in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool, then refrigerate for 1 hour until set.
Tips for Success
I cannot stress how important it is to have your cream cheese properly softened before beating. In cooler climes, this means warming it up a tiny bit. I always zap mine in the microwave for 5 to 10 seconds.
Bake the bottom crust until it’s just golden brown. You don’t want it fully baked but you want it to bake enough to be firm under the cheesecake filling.
Sweetener Options: I recommend using an erythritol-based brown sugar sweetener for the crust. Allulose will cause it to brown too much and it will also be overly soft, so the bars won’t have enough structure.
You do want a powdered sweetener for the cheesecake filling but it can be whatever kind you like best. I used a combination of erythritol and allulose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Good news! Cheesecake is a wonderful dessert that is easy to make without sugar or flour. You can enjoy many wonderful flavors and styles of keto friendly cheesecake! I advise making your own rather than trying to purchase it, so you know exactly what it contains and how many carbs it has.
Keto dessert bars like this refrigerate and freeze really well. Make sure to let them cool properly before wrapping them up tightly to store. You can freeze them in the pan, if you like, but I recommend pressing plastic wrap to the surface of the cooled bars, to avoid freezer burn. Then wrap the whole pan tightly in foil or additional plastic. You could also cut them into individual servings and store in a covered container between sheets of waxed paper, so that you can enjoy them anytime the craving strikes.
This keto chocolate chip cheesecake bar recipe has 6.1g of carbs and 3.2g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.9g net carbs per bar.
More Delicious Keto Cheesecake Bars
Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Cookies Crust:
- 2 1/2 cups (280 g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar replacement
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (60 g) sugar-free chocolate chips
Cheesecake Filling:
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup (60.67 g) powdered sweetener
- 2 tbsp sour cream, or heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325ºF and grease a 9-inch square pan well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract and beat until the dough comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Press about two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown, then remove from the oven and let cool (it will not be fully baked at this point).
Filling
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until completely smooth, about 1 minutes. Add the powdered sweetener, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Finally beat in the egg until just combined.
- Pour the filling over the cooled crust. Take the remaining cookie crust mixture and crumble over the top of the filling, pressing lightly to adhere.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the top crust is golden and the filling is just a little jiggly in the center. Remove from the oven and let cool, then refrigerate for 1 hour until set.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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THREE LUSCIOUS INGREDIENT ALL IN ONE. OMG.
I had to lock my fridge!! These are fabulous. These are fantastic! I added more coconut (cause I’m a huge fan of anything coconuty), and my sisters were fighting to get more. I couldn’t resist them myself! Will be making these again and again and agaaaain! You rock Carolyn! Im a hugeee fan of your work.
Thank you!
If I double this, will it be too much for a 9×13 pan? Im making a dessert for a larger gathering and need more than a 9×9… plus, I want more lol…
Thanks and I do always love your recipes!!!!!!
Yes, but if you triple the recipe, it should be just right for two pans. ????
Hi Carolyn, always love your recipes but I have to say, I am not a fan of this one. Although I don’t dislike the taste of coconut usually, I found the taste overpowering in this recipe. I made it exactly as written and had no problems – it looked and smelled absolutely delicious! All I could taste was coconut, though. Not the chocolate chips and not the cheesecake! I used Vitacost brand medium flake unsweetened shredded coconut.
Sorry to hear it. If you’re not a coconut fan, try using more almond flour instead.
I had a hard time with the filling. Any suggestions for the chunky consistency? Thanks
Was your cream cheese properly softened and beaten before you added anything else? That’s usually the issue.
This was the first low carb dessert I’ve made since we altered our diets. I’m so impressed at the results! I could never have imagined that replacing sugar and flour would ever yield anything worth eating, but these bars were super yummy. Thank you for posting this recipe. I definitely have faith in baking again.
Yes, because of the creamcheese.
I made these tonight and was just wondering if they need to be kept refrigerated or room temp is okay? They turned out great. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Anything cheesecake-y like this should probably be refrigerated, but a few hours at room temp is going to be okay.
Does swerve sweetner affect the bowels? This recipe sounds amazing.
Erythritol is the one sugar alcohol that (for most people) does NOT cause GI distress!
These are seriously the best low carb dessert I’ve ever made. They don’t taste low carb/sugar free at all. I didn’t use coconut sugar or swerve I just used the artificial sweetener I had at home but these still came out amazing. I put half in the freezer and half in the fridge so I could snack on them throughout the week and omgoodness they are even more delicious from the fridge. Even my kids liked them. The only problem I had with these was not eating them all at one time…..so good!
Glad you like them! They are a popular one. 🙂
These were great. I made them a few times. Once as is. Once mixing in cocoa to the cheesecake for a chocolate chip cookie+chocolate cheesecake bar (I’m going to trademark CCCCCBar). For the most recent event, I skipped the chips and added toasted pecans then dipped the whole (cooked) bar into melted dark chocolate and froze them. After thawing in the fridge, I cut them large – really large – served with whipped cream and ice cream for those who like it, and had it for dessert.
Next time I might add toasted coconut and a chocolate drizzle.
For the last event, I attempted to see if these can also be formed. They can! I made “meatballs” with the dough, injected the filling and refrigerated a bit after cooking. Then I stabbed with the appropriate lollipop stick before they were too cool and chilled further. Voilá CAKE BALLS!
These are soo good! I have made these twice now, but each time, I don’t have enough of the almond flour/ chocolate chip mixture to cover the top of the cream cheese mixture completely. What am I doing wrong?
It’s not supposed to be covered completely. The instructions say to sprinkle it over so that some of the cheesecake peeks through.
These are SO good! One of my favorite low carb desserts ever. I added nuts to them. Delicious!
They are awesome.
Its so good I could just eat the crust. Thank you for the recipe.
Making this today for a after dinner snack. I put truvia baking blend in instead of swerve. Let you know how everyone likes them. Thank you for the recipe.
Maria
I made these for my birthday along with the scotcheroos. Both did not disappoint! Now I am going to chip a tooth eating a frozen chocolate chip cheese bar because I can’t wait for it to defrost. The scotcheroos are perfect frozen 🙂
These are awesome! Thank you for this recipe! I didn’t use the coconut sugar I just used more Swerve and I added 1/2 cup chopped pecans to go along with that coconut. Yummy!
I made these yesterday for Mother’s Day and the cookie texture on the bottom and top completely fell apart and did not stay together. Where did I go wrong? I used all the ingredients you used and the baking times as well. I find this to be true in most almond flour recipes I attempt. I am using a high quality highly sifted almond flour and I used Swerve as well. Any ideas?
It has to be your almond flour, then. I’ve never had any other reader with this issue. Try Bob’s.
BEST EVER!! Girl you nailed it with this low carb dessert. I made this today with truvia (spoonable) instead of swerve and coconut sugar — used total of 3 1/2 TBSP + 2 tsp for cookie and 2 TBSP powdered truvia (measure this after you grind it in coffee grinder) for the cheesecake part. Great job, this helps me stick to low carb much easier!
Thanks!
These look amazing, but I don’t like coconut. What would be a good substitute?
Just use more almond flour.
Thanks, I was wondering if that would work 🙂
What is the reason for using coconut sugar….I’ve seen it called for in some low carb recipes and wondering why? Thanks….love the recipes!
Brown sugar taste and appearance.