Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust

Cheesecake….

No, you’re not in the bad place. You CAN have cheesecake while living the Keto life.

Gather around my friends, i’m going to tell you a little story of how Keto cheesecake was born.

Remember when we talked about macros, and how everything is balance? My obsessive analytical mind was determined to find a way to make this dream dessert fit in to the formula.

Here’s how it began… I knew that cream cheese was a main ingredient many keto recipes and that the issue of carbs in my old cheesecake days arose from sugar and the crust. Enter mad scientist experimentation.

But how could I make something that still tastes good without my old carby ways? The struggle is real.

Food for thought, this is the grams of carbs per slice from some popular cheesecakes:

• Walmart Cheesecake: 34g
• Ruby Tuesday Cheesecake: 90g
• Cheesecake Factory Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake: 117g

Giiiirrrllll, I keep my carbs below 20 net per day!

I have made crustless cheesecakes and they’re good, but I want the kind of dessert where you take a bite and say OMG with a mouth full.

Last week I made a Gluten-free chocolate Keto biscotti, you know, the kind that make angels sing.

That’s when it it me. With a mouth full of biscotti, I mumbled to Mike:

icun mke sh cr li bucti!

(I can make the crust like biscotti)

I used almond flour, cocoa with butter and Nutiva coconut oil as my crust. Can you hear that??? Angels, my friends. Angels.

My filling was basic. (No, not Starbucks  PSL basic)

I used cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and PB. I meant to add heavy cream but I got distracted tasting the batter (true story) and it still turned out fine. This is not a light, fluffy cheesecake.

This is bite a block of cream cheese dense kind of cheesecake… pronounced AWESOME.

This is an instant pot recipe which means trial and error. I’ve made a
hundred few instant pot cheese cakes and have had some that have been over cooked, some under.

For this one, 36 minutes with a no-pressure release is perfect. I probably could have gone with 34 minutes. You will need a spring-form pan (I use a 7 inch for my 6 qt IP). I actually have 2 pans because I make a lot if cheesecake (they also have to rest in the fridge for 24 hours).

I use a tin foil sling to lower it onto my trivet, cook for 36 min (could have been a bit less).

The Macros were not bad and could have been better if :

1. I used a different brand of PB but when I experiment, I use the cheap stuff.
2. Cut into smaller pieces since it so rich, but I didn’t and i’m not sorry.
3. If I hadn’t topped it with Reese’s whipped cream. Again, not sorry. We hard core up in here.

What I would do differently?

I would add the heavy cream or almond milk and even some cocoa to the filling. Crazytalk, I know.

So there you have it. A bouncing baby cheesecake that Mike and I enjoyed together on St. Valentine’s Day!