Easy Guilt Free Single Serving Sized Chocolate Protein Cheesecakes [Low Carb]

Who wouldn’t want a lightened up, much healthier version of a decadent chocolate cheesecake without sacrificing taste? This here is just that sort of recipe. It’s an egg free, butter free, oil free, refined sugar free sort of recipe! What’s better is that it’s super easy to make and will serve to satisfy your sweet tooth! It’s a mostly clean, low carb, freezer friendly, delicious and secretly healthy dessert that is just begging to be made… so what are you waiting for!?! I even have a step by step photo guide to help you along.

Can I tell you a secret? Or maybe.. make that two secrets. First, when I started this blog back in 2016 (can you believe it’s been that long?! I can’t. No way.) I had more recipes to make than I had time to post. So I still have a ton of un-posted recipes just waiting to see the light of day. Many still from 2016. Hence, there is um a vast difference in photo quality from then to now (although I still need to work on it, I know, sorry haha). I haven’t been saving many of my recipes lately just because of the volume of the ones I already have backlogged. However, this one is just SO good and I’m so excited about it that I just had to share it with you right away! Even better?! I’ll give you a step by step instruction guide with pictures 🙂

I’ve been spending part of my last few months trying to figure out a way to make a much healthier cheesecake. People who know me know that I LOVE cheesecake. However, the average slice can set you wayyyy back. So sad. The average chocolate cheesecake slice is approximately 1200 calories (PER SLICE?!) with 84 g of fat, 122 g of net carbs and 16 g of protein. One serving of mine will set you back (approximately since it depends on the calorie counts of your ingredients) 156 calories, 7.5 g of fat, 12 g of net carbs and 7.5 g of protein. Heck that’s so good you could eat more than one if you wanted, but you’ll be perfectly satisfied with just one.

Now, I overall believe in eating healthy, clean foods and not so much calorie counts etc, but I couldn’t resist trying to compare the two since I know so many people look at various aspects of foods when trying to decide if they should eat them.

What’s even better is that it can be eaten straight out of the freezer (which in my mind is the only way cheesecake can be eaten) without any wait time! It is creamy and smooth and just so tasty.

So, out of the goodness of my heart I spend some of my recent “downtime” testing out ways to give you a lightened up, but similar taste and consistency cheesecake. You’re welcome!!!

I knew the biggest factor to try and eliminate was all that cream cheese and also the butter and sugar laden crust. The crust was easy. Plain old water is vastly underestimated, I have found, when it comes to baking. The cheesecake part, was much harder.

First, I tried to replace most of the cream cheese with plain yogurt. No go. I don’t recommend this. The cheesecake is too icy and it needs time to defrost. Even after defrosting, it still is a bit icy so the consistency isn’t right.

The breakthrough came when I realized what I used to try to replicate creaminess in other recipes and you’ll never guess so I’ll give it away. Pumpkin! Yep, I know, shocker. There is a hidden sneaky vegetable in this recipe and kids would certainly approve. It gives the cheesecakes that creamy consistency and replaces a full block of cream cheese! Even better, you’ll never know it’s there and it really shapes up that nutrition profile.

Now, all of it wasn’t replaced with the pumpkin, yogurt is still in the game. However, now there is only 1 block of cream cheese instead of the usual 3 blocks! Major win.

Now, this recipe is super easy to make and you only need a food processor so there is minimal clean up and should be pretty fool-proof! However, they are time consuming in the sense that they have to go through various cooling stages. From the oven, then once cooled to the fridge and finally to the freezer.

I do have other much quicker protein cheesecakes on my blog if you are looking for something less time consuming. I’ll post the links below in the gallery. They are also all no-bake so perfect for when you don’t want to turn on your oven.

The final step is, of course, to enjoy! These babies should be stored in the freezer in an airtight container. There is no “thaw” time needed and are perfectly portioned delights. I hope you enjoy 🙂

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Easy Guilt Free Single Serving Sized Chocolate Protein Cheesecakes [Low Carb]

Easy Guilt Free Single Serving Sized Chocolate Protein Cheesecakes [Low Carb]

Course Dessert

Keyword 10 ingredients or less, cacao powder, chocolate, cream cheese, easy, graham cracker, healthy dessert, low carb, plain yogurt, protein powder, pumpkin, sugar substitute, xylitol

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Servings 12 individual cheesecakes

Calories 159 kcal

Author AZ@…And A Dash of Cinnamon

Ingredients

For the Crust

• 1 sleeve chocolate graham crackers crush gently in package prior to opening
• 3 T water

For the Cheesecake

• 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1 cup plain yogurt (can use greek)
• 1/4 cup cacao powder (can use cocoa)
• 1/4 cup erythritol (or another sugar sub)
• ~90-100 g chocolate protein powder (likely 2-3 based on scoop size)

Instructions

For the Crust

1. Grind the graham crackers in your food processor finely

   

2. Add the water and then re-process. Stop and scrap at least once down the sides while combining if needed. It should be clumpy.

   

3. Line your cupcake pan with liners

   

4. Divide out your crust between the liners prior to smushing. This will help make each crust equal.

   

5. This step is the most tedious. Smush down the crust as tightly as you can. I use my finger to really get into all of the edges.

   

6. Set aside to make your cheesecake filling.

For the Cheesecake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (I usually do this once I am ready to put the cheesecake filling into the liners)

2. Take your cream cheese that has been brought to room temperature and blend until smooth in your food processor

3. Then add in the yogurt and pumpkin puree and blend until smooth. Scrap down the sides as needed.

4. Add in your protein powder, cacao powder and erythritol and blend until smooth. Scrap down the sides as needed to make sure everything is combined.

   

5. Divide the cheesecake filling between the 12 cupcake liners and smooth the top. (I just use the same spatula that I was using to scrap the sides with for less clean up)

   

6. Place filled cupcake pan in another pan that has enough water in it to cover the bottom of the cupcake pan. Place the combined pans in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

   

7. Remove the cupcake pan from the water pan and let it cool on the stove top (Do not touch the tops, they will be jiggly and underdone)

   

8. Once cool, transfer to the fridge.

9. Once chilled, transfer to the freezer until cheesecakes are firm.

   

10. Once frozen, pull them out and either place in an airtight container back into the freezer, or immediately peel and eat! (You may have to let them thaw for a minute or two to easily get the wrapper off!)

    

I link up with Deborah and Sarah’s, and  the fit foodie mama’s Meatless Monday, What’s for Dinner

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