Finally! I’ve been here long enough to post in Recipes! Yay!
Sorry - I forgot to take a picture when it was done. Here’s the one I took through the oven door. Note the 12" pan inside the 14" pan, for the water bath.
So I mentioned my cheesecake in another thread. I’m going to give you the how-to as well as some of the science. Be advised, this was my first time adapting my cheesecake recipe to Keto, and there are some changes I’m going to make next time. The biggest thing I will have to experiment with is the replacement of the bag of white chocolate chips that normally would go into it. I used the recipe I found here:
I found that it didn’t turn out quite right. It could be that it just wasn’t a large enough batch, but I don’t think that’s all. Also, normally the crust is butter and 'Nilla Wafers, but I made it with butter and walnuts this time. I didn’t really care for that, so more experimenting will be done the next time around. I’m thinking macadamia, and maybe some almond flour.
So here goes. First of all, I don’t use a springform pan. I use regular cake pans, of the aluminum variety. I’m using a 12" pan, and it needs to be lined with parchment paper, as Alton Brown does in this video:
Let’s just say that my recipe has evolved over the years, thanks to Alton, but it’s always been a winner (made $235 at a church cake auction once where no other cake topped $50. Pastor preached about that cheesecake from the pulpit for ten minutes after that.
). Line the pan with parchment paper, and crush up whatever you plan to use as a crust. This time I used about 2 cups of walnuts and 2 Tbsp butter, mixed in the food processor, but next time I’ll go with something else, as mentioned above. Put the crust mixture into the pan, press it down, and bake it at 350F for 10 minutes. When you take it out, turn the oven down to 250F.
Here’s the filling:
- 3 eight-ounce packages cream cheese, softened (or sometimes I even go with four)
- 1/2 cup erythritol
- 3 eggs (increase to four if using four pkg cream cheese)
- 1/4 tsp stevia powder (the concentrated stuff, not the packet stuff)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup (25 grams) cocoa butter (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DYX7MFQ)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
These last two ingredients come from the White Chocolate Fat Bomb recipe above. I didn’t feel the need to add extra sweetener for them, since there was plenty in the mixture already. I also may leave out the coconut oil next time - I’m not sure yet.
Put the cream cheese and Erythritol into the mixer (I wouldn’t make a cheesecake without a stand mixer). Start it out on low, and work it up to medium to high. This is the phase that I call, “beating the cream cheese into submission.” The crystals of the Erythritol help to beat up the cream cheese as it also dissolves. While doing that, I melt the white chocolate chips, or in this case the cocoa butter and coconut oil. Stop after about five minutes and scrape down the mixing bowl. This is important.
Add the stevia powder (sprinkle it so it is spread evenly - you don’t want super-sweet lumps), and the vanilla extract, and mix some more. After about 3-5 minutes (you can’t beat it too much here), stop and scrape the bowl again, and add the heavy cream. Mix some more. About 3-5 minutes again.
Now stop and scrape the bowl again, and add the cocoa butter mixture. Mix some more. By now I think we’ve added everything except the eggs. Scrape the bowl and add the eggs. Did I mention scraping the bowl? This is a key in making sure your custard is nice and smooth. Now that you’ve added the eggs, mix for just a couple more minutes. I don’t like to beat it too much once the eggs are added.
Pour the mixture into the pan with the crust, lined with parchment paper. Enjoy licking the paddle and the rubber spatula when you’re done. 
Place a thin towel into the larger of two pans, and then place the pan with the cheesecake into that pan (see my picture above). Now fill the space between pans with hot water (I run it through the coffee pot to heat the water). Put in just enough that the inner pan is just about to start floating.
Put it into that 250F oven (You did turn it down as directed above, didn’t you??). Here’s where I need to do some more experimenting. I normally do my cheesecake for 90 minutes, but this one was a bit drier than normal. That could be because there wasn’t enough cocoa butter/coconut oil. I’ll have to play with that and the time. The reason you cook it at 250F instead of the standard 350F is that this is not a cake. It is a custard. If you cook a custard too hot, it will rise up really tall, and then when cooled it will collapse. It will also get dried on top, and while I do like that myself, not everyone does, and the object of a cheesecake is to get it as smooth and creamy as possible, and cooking it too hot defeats that purpose.
After the 90 minutes (or less, as experimentation determines), turn the oven off. Don’t open the door. Just leave the cheesecake to sit in there for another 90 minutes. After that second 90 minutes is up, take it out, remove it from the water bath, cover the cheesecake with wax paper pressed down enough to touch the top of the cheesecake (to prevent it from forming a skin on top), and stick it into the fridge for about 6 hours.
When you’re ready to take it out of the pan, fill the sink partly with hot water, and stick the pan into the water. let it sit in the water for 20-30 seconds, and then turn it out onto another flat surface (I use the larger pan as that flat surface), and then turn it over onto the serving platter. If you need visual aids, look near the end of the video link that I posted above. Whoever posted Alton Brown’s video did a poor job with video quality, but you can tell what is going on.
Cut it up and enjoy. For reference, the normal recipe uses a bag (11 oz) of white chocolate chips instead of the cocoa butter and coconut oil listed above, and 1/2 cup sugar instead of the Erythritol and stevia. Like I said, I made it this way, and it came up just a shade dry compared to my normal cheesecake, and I’d chalk that up to inadequate melted white chocolate chip substitution. If anyone has any suggestions, especially for the crust, I’d appreciate them. I’ve even thought about Fathead crust, and I’m thinking that might work, too. I don’t make this cheesecake often, so I’m not sure when the next time will be, but when I do, I’ll post whatever changes I decide to try.
Enjoy!
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