I’ve always thought pumpkin cheesecake sounded delicious and considered making it for Thanksgiving, but ended up going with the more traditional pumpkin or pecan pie. This year, it was a no-brainer, given the relative ease of making it low carb. I took a recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book as my guide, although I modified more than just the sweetener. The carb-filled graham cracker crust had to go, so I replaced it with ground pecans and almonds. The filling called for 3 bricks of cream cheese, and I cut this back to 2, and reduced the other ingredients accordingly. I am glad I did, as the final result was big enough and filling enough as it was. But I did use their trick of drying the pumpkin puree between paper towels to reduce moisture and make the whole cake less mushy.
I dressed up the final product with toasted pecans and a caramel bourbon glaze made with erythritol. The thing to know here is that while erythritol will caramelize nicely when hot, it will start to harden back up quickly as it cools. You aren’t going to get a nice, soft caramel sauce here. You need to pour it onto the cake while it is still quite hot, and let it cool and harden. If it hardens while still in the pan, just heat it back up again and add a little more cream or liquid to get it soft again.
My whole Thanksgiving meal was a resounding success, even with my low carb changes. My son asked for seconds of only the stuffing made with my low carb quick bread! And I got some of the lowest post-meal blood sugar readings that I’ve had in a while – after Thanksgiving dinner, the ultimate in over-the-top feasts. Okay, so I ran a 5k turkey trot in the morning, which likely helped, but I know that my planning ahead so that I could indulge played a huge part. With Christmas, my favourite holiday, looming ahead, it’s a relief to know that I can find ways to indulge as much as the next person without going too far off track and putting my health at risk.
Now, if someone can just tell me how to release my cheesecakes from the bottom of the spring-form pan so that I can put them on pretty serving dishes, I would be forever in your debt!
Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake with Spiced Pecan Crust
Crust:
3/4 cup pecans
1/2 cup almonds
1 1/2 tsp granulated erythritol or xylitol
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
4 tbsp butter, melted plus extra for brushing pan
Filling:
1 15oz can pumpkin puree
1 lb cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup erythritol
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
25 drops stevia extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp bourbon
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream
Topping:
24 pecan halves, toasted
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp granulated erythritol
1 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp bourbon
For the crust, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grind pecans and almonds in a food processor until they resemble a coarse meal. Pour into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and stir in sweetener and spices until combined. Pour melted butter over and stir until thoroughly combined, then press mixture firmly and evenly into bottom of pan.
Bake until just beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool until pan isn’t too hot to touch, and then wrap outside of pan with two sheets of heavy duty foil. Set in a large roasting pan. Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
For the filling, line a baking sheet with a tea towel and then two layers of paper towel. Spread pumpkin puree out evenly on paper towel and then top with two more layers of paper towel. Press until top layer is saturated with moisture. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in erythritol and spices until incorporated. Beat in dried pumpkin puree, stevia, vanilla and bourbon. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Beat in heavy cream. Scrape down beaters and sides of bowl as needed.
Brush inside of springform pan with extra melted butter, being careful not to disturb baked crust. Pour filling over crust. Set the whole roasting pan with cheesecake inside on the middle oven rack and pour boiling water into roasting pan until it reaches about halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake cheesecake until set, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Let cheesecake cool in roasting pan for 45 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool further, running a sharp knife round edges of cake every hour or so. Remove sides of pan, cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator about three hours.
For the topping, place toasted pecans around edges of cake. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in erythritol and raise heat to medium. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously, until light amber in colour, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in cream, vanilla and bourbon. Mixture will bubble and froth. Stir vigorously and place back over heat, stirring continuously until all ingredients are combined.
Remove from heat and cool until just beginning to thicken, then pour over chilled cake, allowing it to drip down sides. If it begins to harden up, place back on heat and add a splash of cream and stir, then pour over cake.
Serves 12. 18g total carbs per serving, but only 7g if you subtract erythritol.
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What if I didn’t want to use the sugar substitutes…how would I translate this?
erythritol and 25 drops stevia extract
thank you for your help…..my daughter has an intolerance for Gluten…this looks wonderful but I’m not a fan of using the sugar substitutes….
For the crust, go for about 3 tbsp sugar. For the filling, you want about 1 cup of sugar.
Thank you…so how much for the “frosting” or topping?
For that, just replace the erythritol with sugar in the same amount.
Here is a good informative chart
http://sneakykitchen.com/Glossary/sweetener-equivalents.htm
I agree. we also prefer real sugar.
I’m sure you’ve been asked this numerous times, but could I use granulated Splenda in the recipe instead of the erythritol and stevia extract? I figure I could just use enough Splenda to make the batter taste sweet enough and I will be good. Would this substitute change the outcome much?
For the cheesecake, I don’t think it will be an issue. But you can’t caramelize Splenda so the sauce will be a no-go!
I made this last night for my friend for her birthday. It was fantastic!! Everyone loved it. My only problem was that some of the water got into the foil around the pan and into the pan. I was so worried that my crust would be so soggy, but to my surprise it wasn’t! Thanks so much for a GREAT recipe!!!
It’s really hard to wrap it up tightly enough to keep the water out. Glad it worked out!
This cake was not a huge success for me, but I think the reason is almost completely my fault. I was thrown by the instructions to bake the cheesecake 1 *to* 1 1/2 hrs. I don't think I've ever baked a cheesecake under 1 1/2 hrs, but I started to second-guess myself and eventually pulled it from the oven at about an hour, because it passed the wiggle test–not the most reliable test, as I now know! I also do not like the bourbon flavor (whiskey in a dessert being a first for me) but I wonder if the flavor might have tamed a bit with a longer cooking time. In any case, a gorgeous cake ruined by my own mistake. I loved the crust, the nuts on top, and the bourbon-caramel topping, however! Next time I get around to making this, I'll just be more careful.
I was telling Barb that we might just need to start a group called "pumpkin bourbon anonymous" since we seem to love those two flavors together! Glad that I am in such great company!!
Such a great looking cheesecake for the holidays!
I never knew gluten free and low carb anything could look this delicious. You are amazing! You have literally created a healthier version of EVERYTHING! I will definitely be back often (daily).
Mercy, what I wouldn't do for a slice of that heavenly wonderfulness right now. Pumpkin. Cheesecake. YUM! Can never get enough pumpkin . . . Cheers, Michelle
Oh, I want this so bad. Since I only eat pumpkin around now, I NEVER get sick of it and I love it. And you know me and cheesecake. Bourbon? Holy cow I'm in love with this thing.
oh gosh…that is just…yeah, I'm speechless:)
this looks amazing! but might I ask… what is 'erythritol or xylitol'… and '25 drops stevia extract'??
i looked it up they are both sugar substitutes
HUmm… i love this!!!
I don't care how sick of pumpkin I am, I could always find it in me to eat this! Wow…amazing cheesecake. The spiced crust and spike of bourbon just sound heavenly! Lucky eaters who got this one.
I started drooling at first sight! This looks decadent and simply wonderful. Yay for the 5k!
This is the time of the year where I gain weight just by surfing the net and seeing such amazing desserts like yours! Beautiful! Have you tried lining the bottom of your spring form pan with parchment paper? I've been doing this more often for my cakes and breads, especially ones with fruit in it as it gets sticky, even if you do grease the whole thing.
I love the idea of healthifying cheesecake! Bravo!
This cheesecake sounds amazing! I love pumpkin cheesecakes, but the addition of bourbon puts this one over the top :)! Thanks for sharing!
Oh.my.God…. this looks insane! I was so busy last week I didn't see this in time for Thanksgiving!! Shoot! I'll definitely be bookmarking it for next year! Looks great!
so happy to hear there are more Christmas lovers 🙂 it's my fav time of the year.
how to get the cheesecake out of the spring-form is a little hard and requires lots of practice, I have to agree, i ruined a couple till I got it right. There are two ways : one, put some parchment paper over greased bottom and when the cheesecake is done and cooled it easily slides to the serving plate and carefully you pull the paper.
the second one is using a big spatula, like those used to spread buttercream over cake and carefully loosen the bottom of cooled cheesecake then it easily slides on the serving plate.
I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, if not, let me know and at my next cheesecake I'll take pictures to show how I do it.
Hope you'll have a wonderful week
What a divine, very stylish & festive pumpkin cheesecake this is!!
This one looks just FABULOUS!!!!
MMMMMMM,..!!!