A Great Tasting Lowcarb Raspberry Cheese Cake.

This recipe is a tried and trusted one which was sent in some time ago by a friend who is a lowcarbing diabetic with HbA1c in the fives on zero meds. She is a great cook, her family love her cooking, and I'm sure adore this recipe... I know if you give this a try you'll love it too!

Basic Cheesecake

Base:

150-200g ground almonds

50-75g butter

Filling:

570g cream cheese 

100g zsweet (original recipe I adapted from said 180g caster sugar, you can add more or less according to personal taste)

1 tbsp cornflour 

4 large eggs, beaten 

380ml sour cream (I just add a squirt of lemon juice to double cream)

Method:

1. Cover the outside of the cake tin with a double layer of foil, moulding it to the tin, but being careful not to puncture it so it remains watertight. 

2. Line the base of a 25cm spring-form cake tin with the baking parchment. 

3. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) Gas 4. 

4. Mix almonds with enough melted butter to gently bind – minimum possible, you don’t want a paste, just so you can press it on base of tin to make a crust, almonds have lots of oil, too much butter and it will leech out. Almond amounts loose depends on how thick you like your base, for me I don’t want it too thick.

5. Spoon the base into the prepared tin and press down to form an even layer. Bake in the preheated oven for 5-10 minutes, then let cool. 

6. To make the filling, put the cream cheese and sweetener in a large bowl and beat until smooth. Beat in the cornflour, followed by the eggs in about 4 batches. When smooth, beat in the sour cream. Pour the mixture over the crumb base. Set the cake tin in a roasting tin and pour very hot water into the roasting tin to come just over half-way up the sides of the cake tin. 

7. Transfer the tins to the oven and bake, at the same temperature, for 45-50 minutes or until the cheesecake is just set in the centre, if necessary leave in another few minutes but in my oven 50 minutes is max.

8. Remove the cheesecake from its water bath, let cool on a wire rack, then chill, preferably overnight, before removing the foil and unmolding the cheesecake. You can make early on the day you wish to serve it but it needs several hours to cool and chill. Serve at room temperature.

Variations:

Add 2 teaspoons ground ginger to almonds before adding butter, then serve with rhubarb and ginger compote made with rhubarb stewed with ginger and sweetener, or even better roasted with ginger and sweetener.

Add zest of 2 unwaxed lemons to cheesecake mix when you add sour cream.

Serve topped with berries or a berry compote.

Enjoy with whatever your blood sugars allows!

The cake can be divided into portions and frozen. Do serve at room temperature as it tastes far better. This cheese cake is quick and easy to make with a lovely texture. Don’t forget to adapt to your own taste re. base thickness and amount of sweetener.

Well it is the Bank Holiday Weekend - Why Not Spoil Yourself - It's Your Decision! 

All the best Jan