Keto Chocolate Cheesecake is the ultimate dessert for chocolate lovers. This mouthwatering baked cheesecake has triple the chocolate for triple the fun.
There’s a reason I call this recipe “Death by Chocolate Cheesecake”. Because really, if it’s your time, is there any better way to go than enjoying bite after bite of a luscious, rich dessert?
I always feel so sad for people who say they don’t like cheesecake. As far as I am concerned, they are missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures. Creamy and dense, keto cheesecake is just this side of heaven.
And when you combine it with chocolate, it’s absolutely mind-blowing. No wonder this low carb dessert recipe is one of my most popular! Along with my classic Keto Chocolate Mousse, it’s one of my favorite desserts too.
Why this is recipe is so awesome
This really is the ultimate keto chocolate cheesecake experience. And I tweaked it recently to make it lighter and lower in carbs, without sacrificing that rich, triple chocolate flavor.
This cake features an easy chocolate crust made with nut flour. It resembles the Oreo crust of conventional cheesecakes, but with a fraction of the carbs. Then comes a creamy filling made with both melted chocolate and cocoa powder, so it’s dense and rich. Then you top the whole cake off with a sugar-free chocolate ganache glaze.
Can you say “heaven on a fork”??? I made it for a recent get together with friends, and everyone kept taking extra little slices here and there. It was more than half gone before I knew it. I did manage to rescue a slice to keep for myself!
Baked cheesecakes like this do take some time and effort. But it’s a worthwhile endeavour for chocolate lovers, I promise. And I walk you through the process step by step, and give you added tips to make it come out perfectly.
Reader reviews
“I’ve made this several times and there’s another in the oven now. This is my favorite cheesecake recipe!” — Cathy J.
“Wow. This cheesecake is amazing so creamy and full of chocolate flavor. The crust was superb. Will be making Again. Thank you.” — Linda
“This is da BOMB when it comes to luscious chocolate yumminess! Easy to make — easier to eat! Thank you, Carolyn, for creating such wonderful recipes and sharing them with anyone. You are a one in a million gem.” — Jeanne B.
Ingredient Notes
- Almond flour: You can really use any nut or seed meal for this crust. This time around, I used some pecan flour I had on hand. You can also make your own sunflower seed flour for a nut-free version.
- Sweetener: You will need several different kinds of sweeteners for this recipe. Please see the Sweetener Options section for a detailed discussion of what to use.
- Cocoa powder: Dutch process cocoa imparts a deeper, richer chocolate flavor.
- Unsweetened chocolate: Do note that this is completely unsweetened chocolate, meaning it doesn’t contain any sweeteners at all. I recommend getting a good brand like Guittard or Ghirardelli, as they are less likely to seize.
- Cream cheese: You really can’t make a cheesecake without it!
- Heavy whipping cream: A little heavy cream smooths out the filling and makes the cheesecake even creamier. You also need it to make the ganache.
- Pantry staples: Butter, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt.
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the crust: Whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, and sweetener. Stir in the melted butter until well combined. Press mixture firmly into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 325ºF for 10 to 12 minutes, and then remove and reduce oven temperature to 300ºF.
2. Melt the chocolate: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate. Stir frequently until smooth, then set aside to let cool.
3. Beat the cream cheese: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium for 1 to 2 minutes, until super creamy. Beat in the sweetener and vanilla extract, then beat in the melted chocolate. Scrape down the beaters and the sides of the bowl to make sure no clumps of cream cheese remain.
4. Add the eggs: Beat in the eggs one at a time until just barely incorporated. Then beat in the cocoa powder and heavy whipping cream until the mixture becomes smooth. Do not overbeat.
5. Bake the cheesecake: Pour the filling into the pan and gently shake from side to side to even it out. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the filling is mostly set but still jiggles just a little in the center. Remove and let cool to room temperature, then run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the sides. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
6. Make the ganache: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to just a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes to melt, then add the sweetener and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Pour over the top of the chilled cheesecake, allowing some to drip down the sides.
Expert tips
Baked cheesecake is a labor of love and the process can be utterly enjoyable. The most important thing is to take your time. Don’t rush any of the steps and read my tips for achieving the creamiest keto chocolate cheesecake!
Use room temperature ingredients. That includes the cream cheese, eggs, and heavy cream. You want them to incorporate easily and if they’re cold, you could end up with lumpy cheesecake batter.
Take the time to beat the cream cheese thoroughly before adding any other ingredients. It should be very creamy after beating it for at least a minute, if not more. This really makes a difference to the cheesecake texture.
Unsweetened chocolate can be finicky and prone to seizing so always melt it over low heat. A little butter or coconut oil also helps thin it out so that it combines better with the cheesecake filling. Make sure you let it cool properly before beating it into the filling.
Don’t over-beat the eggs. You want to beat each one in until just barely incorporated. Overbeating cheesecake filling makes it rise and fall during baking, and then crack as it cools.
Don’t overcook it! Cheesecake should always be taken out before it’s cooked through. It will continue to cook once it’s out of the oven so make sure the center still has a little jiggle to it. Check on it frequently in the last 10 to 15 minutes of baking.
Sweetener Options
What sweeteners you use also makes a difference to this Keto Chocolate Cheesecake. If you want the crust to have some crispness to it, you need an erythritol based sweetener with no allulose in it. You can use the new Swerve Monk Fruit blend, which is just erythritol and monk fruit. Or you can use Lakanto or So Nourished.
The filling is a little more forgiving when it comes to sweeteners. You can use erythritol, allulose, BochaSweet, or a combination. I like the combination of Swerve Granular and Swerve allulose, to help inhibit any recrystallization.
I find that a little allulose actually helps the chocolate ganache stay shiny and soft. So I use mostly Swerve Confectioners with tablespoon of Swerve allulose.
Frequently Asked Questions
As long as you use the right ingredients and the right sweeteners, you can enjoy chocolate cheesecake on a low carb or keto diet. This Death by Chocolate Cheesecake uses nut flour and low carb sweeteners for a delicious keto dessert.
This keto chocolate cheesecake recipe has 7.8g of carbs and 3.2g of fiber per serving. That comes to 4.6g net carbs per slice.
Store the cheesecake in the fridge, tightly wrapped, for up to a week. You can also freeze it for several months. If you plan on making it ahead for a party, I recommend leaving the ganache off until a few hours before you serve it, so it stays glossy.
More amazing cheesecake recipes
Keto Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 cup (110 g) almond flour
- 1/4 cup (21.5 g) cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) Swerve Granular
- 1/4 cup (56.75 g) butter, melted
Filling:
- 3 ounces (85.05 g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
- 24 ounces (680.39 g) cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup Swerve Granular, See blog post for more sweetener options
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (21.5 g) cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup (78.86 ml) heavy whipping cream, room temperature
Topping:
- 1/2 cup (118.29 ml) whipping cream
- 3 tbsp Swerve Confectioners
- 1 tbsp allulose, **See recipe notes
- 2 oz (56.7 g) unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF. In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, and sweetener. Stir in the melted butter until well combined.
- Press mixture firmly into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, and then remove and reduce the oven temperature to 300ºF.
Filling
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the unsweetened chocolate with the butter. Stir frequently until smooth, then set aside to let cool.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on medium for 1 to 2 minutes, until super creamy. Beat in the sweetener and vanilla extract, then beat in the melted chocolate. Scrape down the beaters and the sides of the bowl to make sure no clumps of cream cheese remain.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until just barely incorporated. Then beat in the cocoa powder and heavy whipping cream until the mixture becomes smooth. Do not overbeat.
- Pour the filling into the pan and gently shake from side to side to even it out. Tap lightly on the counter to release any air bubbles. Bake in the center of the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the filling is mostly set but still jiggles just a little in the center.
- Remove and let cool to room temperature, then run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan to loosen the sides. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Topping
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to just a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes to melt, then add the sweetener and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth.
- Pour over the top of the chilled cheesecake, allowing some to drip down the sides. You can also use an offset spatula to cover the sides with some of the ganache.
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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Amazing! This will be a new Valentine’s tradition for us for sure! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
I made a half recipe for our New Year’s Eve treat. It made two mini springform pans and a 4ounce ramekin. A whole recipe was too much for us; and 6 bars of unsweetened chocolate
I told my husband that I didn’t know if I woukd get the timing right, but hubby felt you can’t do anything wrong with chocolate!! It was great to have a mini cheesecake for each of us.
We wish it had been much sweeter. If I Doubled the Swerve, would that cause a cooling effect? Or was the sweet taste off because I halved the recipe?
Hi Carolyn, this looks delicious and every recipe I’ve made of yours has been a hit (the latest being the Coconut Poke Cake, holy moly it disappeared FAST and I was the only low carber there!!). My mother is giving me the honor of making the Christmas dessert, keto!! She has requested 1 of 2 things for Christmas. Red Velvet Cake or Amaretto Cheesecake. I was thinking adding Amaretto to this would be delicious… do you have thoughts on this? Could I just add amaretto extract and how much would you recommend? Or would it be better to take a small hit on the carbs and use Amaretto Liquor? Is there another one of your cheesecakes this might work better with? I’m thinking I could top it with toasted sliced almonds. Thanks for any suggestions you can offer!!!
I’ve never used Amaretto extract to be honest, but I am sure it works like any extract and you could add it to any cheesecake, including this one. Its flavor may get more lost in a chocolate cheesecake than a vanilla one. You could always do my New York cheesecake with the extract and the almonds on top.
Thanks so much Carolyn! I did end up using that recipe, adding a dram of Amaretto flavor as well as almond extract. I used the crust from this recipe and the combination of flavors was amazing. The complete silence as my non-keto family ate it, said it all. The only issue I had, and I wrapped the pan REALLY good, but still had water leak in and there it was, soggy crust. Ugh. (I’ve had this happen before even when I try to be so careful using a lot of heavy duty foil). So I released the pan but let it just sit to cool, inverted it onto a flat plate and put it in the fridge. The next morning the crust was completely perfect. Doing this also sealed the slight crack on top of the cheesecake. Your recipes keep me going and are slowly converting my family at the same time! Thank you SOOO much!
33 weeks pregnant and looking for goodies I can make now to stash for after baby’s arrival. What changes would you suggest to make these as single-serve muffin tin size, and do you think they would freeze well?
They will freeze well without the chocolate ganache but it won’t do that well in the freezer so add it after. I have several mini cheesecake recipes so I advise looking at those to get an idea of amounts. This is a LOT of crust and filling for mini cheesecakes. Search for my Gingerbread cheesecakes (very recent) and that will guide you.
My husband has begged me to make a low carb chocolate cheesecake for a while now and I finally found this recipe and tried it for Thanksgiving. I cannot tell you how much everyone LOVED it! It is very rich and delicious. I feel like I could get more than 16 servings out of this recipe due to how filling and richly chocolatey it is. The only question I had is: how long will this last in the fridge/freezer? Thank you so much for this recipe!
Hi Rhonda, in the fridge it should be good for up to 5 days (wrapped tightly). In the freezer, up to several months (again, wrapped up tightly). For freezing, I always recommend flash freezing it first by placing it on a cookie sheet uncovered. Once it’s solid, you can wrap it tightly. Do know that the ganache may go a bit grey in the freezer but it should return to normal at room temp.
Caroline ,
I love all your recipes But lately there has been videos popping up on every page in addition to the advertisements .. and I’m getting quite frustrated, it’s hard to get to the actual recipe :(:( Is there any way to disable them ??
There is a little x on the top right side of the video. It comes up a few seconds after the video loads. Just click that.
Do you have this recipe in grams? I want to make a smaller test batch for the County Fair in a few weeks.
I would like to make a 1/3 recipe to fit in my Small springform pans. I’m finding it hard to figure that out with these measurements.
Plus, I cook by weight and that way is so much easier!!
Thank you!!!
No, I do not. You can use the tool in the servings to scale the recipe (click on the blue 16 servings)
Thank you so much. That will be a big help.
This cheesecake is amazing! I first made it for Mother’s Day, and it was such a hit that my keto teen asked for it for his 17th birthday today! He said it tastes just like the Godiva cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, that is quite a complement! Thanks for another great recipe, you definitely make our celebrations more delicious!
I am so happy to hear that!
It’s chilling in the fridge right now and I am getting ready to make the topping and whipped cream too because ha why not!? But I wanted to start my review by saying Holy cow this thing is beautiful and it’s not finished yet. I had to make a couple adjustments: I used truvia brown sugar, 2 tbsp in the crust, 2/3c for the cake and well I havent made the topping yet but I’m using it there too. I also added the cocoa powder to 1/3 cup room temp sour cream then whisked it into the cream cheese (tasted it and it was freaking incredible!) then added the eggs. I used my kitchenaid, so then I gave it all a good scrape and soft stir before pouring it into the crust, allowed itbto cool in the oven with the door propped open for about an hour. It looks so good!!! I cannot wait! But I have to because it’s for my loves birthday get together later tonight. I hope she loves it! I hope all of our sugar eating friends enjoy it too. (I am making whipped cream with regular powdered sugar tho).
I am so mad I discovered your recipes lol bc now I will be baking more often! After reading more comments I can say these desserts will replace breakfasts dang it!
Thanks so much! Keep posting amazing recipes!
Hope she loves it too!
This looks delicious!!
Thank you for this amazing recipe <3
I made this delicious cheesecake for my guests yesterday and they adored it.
So happy to hear it!
Have you tried preparing this two days in advance? Does it refrigerate ok?
I would advise refrigerating it without the chocolate glaze and doing that part fresh
If I wanted to make this dbc cheesecake a day before serving, will it keep well in the fridge? How long will the leftovers (assuming there are any!) keep?
Yes, it’s fine for up to 5 days as long as your ingredients are fresh.
Holy Moly! Even though I overbaked by a touch I cannot believe how good this is. Unfortunately I also broke my ganache (let it get to hot – there was a theme to this bake ????) so I put a dollop of slightly sweetened (with monkfruit sugar) sour cream on the side. It add a soft creamy tang that worked very well with the dark chocolate A wonderful decadent chocolate fat bomb! Thank you for the recipe!!
Hey if your chocolate ever breaks again and you need a quick fix, try blending it. It may not be right for a ganache or glaze anymore but it comes back together and you can use it for fat bombs or some such thing.
Thank you so much for all the work you do formulating and testing recipes for the low-carb/diabetic people! It definitely takes some special ingredients to pull off these desserts. I made this wonderful cheesecake for a party with my husband’s co-workers. It was my first time meeting them, so, no pressure, haha. Everyone was amazed: it looked good and it tasted good too! Most importantly these desserts you make help my husband who is diabetic stay on his eating plan without feeling deprived of the occasional treat.
That’s wonderful to hear!
Please take the keto label off of this. I initially made this recile as an alternative dessert for Thanksgiving, saying to myself “Oh, 9 net carbs, what the heck, why not” before making the whole thing and then, by random accident of finding the link again, found the disclaimer under then nutrition facts. Even though this may be an excellent recipe and definitely low carb, the estimated carb count is off by nearly half because of your own personal experience. I highly recommend moving this disclaimer to be above the nutrition facts and only marking this to be low carb, possibly Paleo if you decide to list alternatives for the ingredients.
I am sorry, O. Spencer, but it is not simply “My personal experience”. Anyone who has any understanding of low carb and keto ingredients comes to know that erythritol has zero impact on blood glucose for almost everyone. It’s been tested over and over, including in major clinical studies. Although erythritol has “carbs” they are excreted unchanged in the urine and do not act as typical carbs. They shouldn’t even be considered carbs. So the carb count remains as is and this is indeed a low carb/keto recipe.