I'm Diabetic but I Still Want Dessert!

I did good for the first year of the diabetes diagnosis, but then all hell broke loose and I was consumed with finding and creating desserts that I could safely eat without raising my blood sugar.

Enter my dear friend Kay, who has lived with type 2 for many years. She recommended I start exploring cheesecakes made with artificial sweeteners. Cheesecakes are full of protein and you can create them with very little sweetener and still have them turn out scrumptious. Plus because it's not actually a cake you're not dependent upon flour and sugar to create the texture you're looking for.

In addition, I have recently discovered the joys of erythritol, a powdered substitute for sugar which I found in the pharmaceutical department of my grocery store. I have been safely using erythritol to sweeten things without compromising my glucose levels. If you haven't already, I highly recommend you look into it for your baking needs. It is one of the sugar alcohols and it does not have the aftertaste of other artificial or natural sweeteners. 

So here's my recipe for cranberry cheesecake. I know the holiday season is long gone, but cranberries are so good for you and I love their tartness. 

This cheesecake is made in a 7 inch springform pan, smaller than the standard 9 inch. Prepare the crust according to my recipe A Berry Fraiche Tart, but use only 3/4 cup of almonds, 3 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup of flour (use a high fiber flour like almond flour, oat flour, or even coconut flour).

Crazy Cranberry Cheesecake

A Low GI Dream

2 pckgs cream cheese

¼ cup erythritol

¼ cup splenda

2 tbsp stevia blend

1 tbsp coconut flour

2 eggs

1 egg white (leftover from making crust)

1 ½ cup fresh cranberries

¼ cup triple sec

splash of water

¼ cup erythritol

Put cranberries in a small sauce pan with triple sec water and erythritol. Simmer until all the cranberries have bursted and it has thickened a little bit. Set aside to cool or put it in subzero freezer for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 or 325 if you have convection.

Combine room temperature cream cheese with sugars and flour in a stand mixer. Blend till creamy. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla on low-speed. Blend until very smooth.

Pour the mixture into a prepared springform pan over your parcooked crust.  Scoop the cranberries over the top of the cheesecake and swirl with a knife.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until the center is still moist looking and the outside is set. I bake it with a broiler pan full of water underneath to create steam and keep it from cracking. This also keeps me from having to do a water bath.

You can use this recipe for a 9 inch springform pan by adding another package of cream cheese, increasing the sweetener to your liking, adding one egg, and another tablespoon of butter.