My husband loves cheesecake. As such, that is his ongoing birthday dessert request.
As The Crunchy Coach, however, I feel obligated to make sure even special desserts are as healthy as possible. But a healthy cheesecake? One made without refined sugar and chemical preservatives, and made with organic cheese…is there such a creature?
Photo of cheesecake
I have good news for all you cheesecake lovers that want to have your cake and be healthy too: there is!
Actually, I have two recipes to share with you. The first is an all-raw cheesecake, the kind that I made a couple weeks ago for my husband. The second is a baked low-carb cheesecake recipe I recently found in a book on fat-burning.
The second one is less labor-intensive than the first, and either one is loads healthier than any cheesecake you can find either in the bakery or frozen section of any grocery store (including health food stores!).
All-Raw Cheesecake
from the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
- 1 cup almonds (preferably soaked and dehydrated)
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- 2 cups homemade cream cheese
- 2 eggs, separated, room temperature
- 2/3 cup raw milk
- 1 tablespoon gelatin
- 1/4 cup raw honey or agave nectar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla
- pinch sea salt
To make the cream cheese, pour three quarts of kefir (homemade or organic store-bought) into a cheesecloth-covered strainer. (If you use homemade kefir, culture it for only 12 hours or the resulting cheesecake is too sour.) Let sit for 24 hours. What’s left in the cloth is the cream cheese. The liquid part is the whey, which can be drunk straight (it’s loaded with probiotics), used to make sauerkraut, used as a base in smoothies, or poured onto houseplants.
Now for the pie: In a food processor, process 1/2 cup of date and 1 cup of almonds until they form a sticky mass. Press into a buttered 8X8 inch pan to form a crust.
Put egg yolks and milk in a saucepan, beat lightly, sprinkle with gelatin and warm slightly. In the food processor, combine cream cheese, honey and vanilla and process until smooth. Add yolk mixture and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate while beating eggs in a small bowl. Beat them with the salt until stiff peaks form, then fold into cream cheese mixture and pour into crust. After several hours in the refrigerator, the gelatin will have done its job and you will end up with a delicious, rich and easy-to-cut cheesecake.
Low-Carbohydrate Cheesecake Recipe
from the book The 7 Principles of Fat Burning: Get Healthy, Lose Weight and Keep It Off!
- 2 eight-ounce containers of organic cream cheese
- 1/4 cup raw honey or agave nectar
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, or 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 2 heaping tablespoons nut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-1/3 cups ground pecans or almonds
- 2 eggs
Soften cream cheese, and butter, if using, by setting them out at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the ground nuts, butter or coconut oil, and nut butter in a small bowl. Mix together thoroughly, and press into a pie plate.
In a larger bowl or food processor, mix together the cream cheese, sweetener, vanilla and eggs until smooth. Pour mixture into crust, then bake for 30-40 minutes. (To ensure it’s done, check for a small crack on the top of the cheesecake; or, stick a fork into a center and see if it comes out clean. If so, the dessert is done.)
Let sit at least 10 minutes before eating.
Mmmm. Whoever thought there was such a thing as healthy cheesecake?
Uh, honey, would you like to celebrate your birthday more often?
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