These little keto gingerbread cheesecakes make a fabulous low carb holiday dessert. Easy to make and with built in portion control! This post is sponsored by De’Longhi.
Your eyes do not deceive you, my friends. Delicious keto gingerbread cheesecake in miniature – perfect for your holiday dessert table. These adorable little cakes are full of rich gingerbread flavor, and they are quick and easy to make. Made even easier with the new De’Longhi Livenza Digital Compact Convection Oven.
The gingerbread cheesecake recipe is based very much on my Keto Cinnamon Roll Cheesecakes, with a different flavor profile and slightly more delicious cheesecake filling. But I also used this recipe to test out and review this new countertop convection oven by De’Longhi, and I am so glad I did.
I have a very large 36-inch oven in my kitchen, and I hate heating up the whole thing when I need to bake something on the smaller side, or re-heat some leftovers. It wastes energy and time, since it takes at least 10 minutes to pre-heat.
That’s where a small countertop convection oven can come in handy. But not all appliances like this are created equal. I’ve had my share fair of them over the years and I have to say, this one really lives up to the actual promise.
What I love about the De’Longhi convection oven:
- It’s quite small so it saves counter space, but it has a startlingly large oven capacity. It even fits a 12-inch pizza, because the back of the oven is rounded out to accommodate the included pizza pan.
- It preheats in a few short minutes so you can get things into the oven much faster.
- It has 9 cooking functions, including a regular bake setting, convection bake, toast, roast, and broil. It also has pre-set cookie and pizza functions.
- The convection bake setting circulates the air around your food, cooking it more evenly and up to 40% faster.
- It has an interior light that’s on during cooking, so you can keep a close eye on your recipes.
I tested out the oven in a number of ways, to see how all of the functions worked. Besides these little cheesecakes, I also used it to re-heat some chicken wings and to make a few pizzas for dinner.
My pizzas were made with keto friendly cauliflower crusts, which are quite thin, so I did find that they cooked more quickly than expected. But that’s not a bad thing at all, since I was able to get dinner on the table even faster.
The bake and convection bake functions are ideal for baked goods. My mini cheesecakes cooked nice and evenly. Some countertop ovens tend to over-brown delicate cakes like this, but they came out perfectly in De’Longhi Livenza oven.
And because of the large inner capacity, you could easily bake an 8 or 9 inch round cake in it as well. This truly is a great compact convection oven and I know am going to put it to good use over the holidays.
If you are interested in the De’Longhi Livenza Compact Convection Oven, it usually retails for $199, and but is available at Amazon for just $179.95.
Tips for making Keto Gingerbread Cheesecake
You can see here that I used silicone molds set into a muffin pan. You can use parchment paper liners, as long as you are using a muffin pan, since parchment doesn’t have enough structure to stand on its own.
But you can completely dispense with the muffin pan if you’re using silicone. They should be sturdy enough to stand up by themselves. And if you are using the De’Longhi convection oven, you can simply set the silicone liners right on the bake pan that comes with it.
You will notice that I use a bit of cocoa powder in the filling, and that is simply to get a deeper, more gingerbread-like color without using something higher carb like molasses. This small amount of cocoa will not make your cheesecakes taste at all like chocolate.
How much ginger you put in is up to your tastebuds. We like it with a lot of gingery kick. I recommend tasting the batter before you add the egg, to see what you think. The freshness of your ginger also matters, as older spices tend to lose potency.
If I had the time, I might have made a few mini keto gingerbread cookies to garnish the tops of the cakes. Alas, I did not, so I used star anise and a few mini keto snickerdoodles instead. But even just a sprinkle of cinnamon would be lovely.
Ready to make these fun little keto gingerbread cheesecakes? And be sure to check out the De’Longhi Livenza convection oven while you’re at it. It would make a great holiday gift for the avid foodie in your life!
Mini Gingerbread Cheesecakes
Ingredients
Crust
- ½ cup almond flour
- 2 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp butter melted
Filling
- 8 ounce cream cheese softened
- 6 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tbsp heavy cream room temperature
- 1 1/2 to 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1 large egg room temp
Garnish
- Lightly sweetened whipped cream
- Mini keto cookies (optional)
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat the oven to 300F (if using convection, preheat to 275F). Set 6 silicone muffin liners into a 6 cavity muffin pan, or simply set them on a cookie sheet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, ginger, and salt. Whisk in the butter until the mixture begins to clump together.
- Divide evenly among the muffins cups, pressing firmly and evenly into the bottom. Bake 10 minutes, then remove and let cool while preparing the filling.
Filling
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sweetener until smooth and creamy. Beat in the heavy cream, then beat in the ginger, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and cloves.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters, then add the egg and beat until just combined. Do not overbeat.
- Divide the mixture among the muffin cups, filling almost all the way to the top. Bake at 300F (275F for convection) for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sides are set but the centers still wobble slightly when shaken.
- Remove and let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set, before removing the silicone liners.
Garnish
- Top with whipped cream and a mini cookie, if desired.
Lisa K. says
Might be a silly questions, but can you use confectioners swerve instead?
Carolyn says
Yes, that works just fine.
Melissa says
Amazing – delicious and Keto friendly! We’ll loved your recipe!
Tara says
I love treats that are already portioned out like this. So good!
Beth says
These look yummy! If I were to use mini muffin cups for bite-size cheesecakes, how long would they need to bake?
Carolyn says
I didn’t try them that way so you will simply have to experiment yourself. I’d decrease the time by at least 10 minutes and keep checking them.
Roberta says
I’d love to try this recipe…but no dairy for me (can use ghee instead of butter though): cuold coconut cream substitute cream cheese and would full-fat coconut whipped cream work instead of heavy cream? Since I love coconut, it wouldn’t be a problem at all if the taste would result a bit “coconutty” 😉 Thank you!
Carolyn says
No coconut cream would not be thick enough. However you could try a good dairy free cream cheese like Kite Hill.
Matt Taylor says
These keto gingerbread cheesecakes are awesome! Definitely going to share these with my brother who is on the keto diet.
DJ says
Gingerbread is one of my all time favs and I love cheesecake! Can you use just egg white(s) as I cannot have the yolk?
Thank you!
DJ
Carolyn says
I would think so, yes.
Diane says
Hi Carol! I love your website and recipes 🙂 I also had a question..would doubling the recipe work for making it into a pie via a standard pie pan? I really would like to make this and needed some tips and your input before proceeding. Thanks in advance!
Carolyn says
Please look at my Cranberry Cheesecake Pie recipe for amounts. I think you’d need to more than double it if you want the crust to go up the sides. I am not entirely sure of the amounts but that recipe will guide you.
Edith says
These are in the oven, and I can tell just by taste testing the cream cheese filling for gingerness, these mini cheese cakes are going to be a huge hit in my house.
Thanks, Carolyn for making me look like a keto baking wizard!
Carolyn says
Yay, so glad!
Wendy says
These look delicious. Our first Christmas being Keto but love baking during the season. Can’t wait to see what else you make over the coming days.
Nicole Wiwchar says
Im just wondering if these could be made ahead of time and frozen? They look amazing!
Carolyn says
I think that would probably be okay. I froze half of my pumpkin gooey butter cake and it thawed beautifully!