Choc Chip Cheesecake

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{Here’s the big one, topped with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate shavings}

This post comes with a bit of a warning label:

It’s so delicious you might want to eat the entire cake!
{That’s why I only made a small one ;) }
The real evil is that you have to make a batch of my low carb brownies first – for the base ;)
Ok, but seriously now – this IS a low carb dessert, but it is still quite high in carbs… So just have a little slice, I mean, you seriously do need some cake every now and then!

I made a tiny little cake, but will give you the recipe for a regular size {roughly 10 inches}.

The reason for my tiny little cake was that I made a large cheesecake {different flavour altogether} a few days before, and it wasn’t that great.
I had one tub of cream cheese left and a few stale brownies in the freezer…
I thought those might work together nicely for something…
My biggest issue with low carb cheesecakes isn’t the actual cheesecake – I mean it’s already not very sweet and you can just replace the sugar with a low carb alternative – no, it’s the base.
I really don’t like coconut and/or almond flour bases.
It’s just soggy and it doesn’t do any justice to the cake. I’d rather have a crust-less cheesecake then…

Anyways, so I was all set to make a plain vanilla cheesecake with my brownie crust, when I had a stroke of genius to add some chocolate chips {after I saw that last Friday was National Choc Chip Day in the US…}, well let me just give you the recipe already:

[recipe title=”Low Carb Choc Chip Cheesecake” servings=”8-10″ time=”1hr” difficulty=”easy”]

You will need:

12 squares of low carb brownies, frozen and blended into crumbs
2 tbs butter, melted
2 tbs dried cranberries, blitzed into small nibs

600 g plain, full fat cream cheese {I used Kiri cream cheese in 200 g tubs}
1.5 cups of cream
1 tbs vanilla
6 tsp Natvia sweetener {or xylitol or whichever sweetener you prefer – just adjust the quantity}
3 eggs
1.5 cups 70% dark choc chips

Start by mixing the brownie crumbs, melted butter and ground cranberries.
Press this into a springform tin and bake at 180C for 10 minutes.

Next – onto the cheesecake filling:
Beat the cream cheese until soft and add the cream.
Beat these together until it’s smooth and creamy – you don’t want lumps.
Add the vanilla and the sweetener and beat again until smooth.
Slowly beat in the eggs until they’re just incorporated – you don’t want to over-beat the eggs.
Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the mixture onto your baked base.

Bake at 170C for 35-40 minutes.

The cake should still be jiggly in the centre when you take it out of the oven.
Let it cool to room temp, then carefully loosen the sides with a knife.
Don’t remove the sides just yet – else your cake will collapse.
Let it cool properly, then remove the sides and keep it in the fridge.

[/recipe]

I wanted to do a chocolate ganache on top, but that would’ve made it even more sinful, and besides, the brownie base is extremely chocolate-y and it didn’t need anything more.

{Update: top with fresh strawberries and dark choc shavings to make it extra spectacular!}

{I think I need some of this now!! Will have to make it again soon!}