This is the second in a series of posts focusing on Leangains friendly recipes. Enjoy!
If you’re not a cheesecake person, just skip this. I know a couple of you in person, and let’s just say we aren’t besties. It’s hard for me to trust someone who doesn’t love the creamy and sweet deliciousness that is cheesecake.
When developing this, I was searching for something sweet that was high in protein and fat, and low in carbs for my non-training days. On Leangains, you swing from crazy high carb and lowish fat on training days, to terrifyingly low carb and higher fat on non-training days, meaning you literally cannot just eat the same thing, and just less of it. I’ve tried. Half a sandwich put me over my carb allowances for a low carb day. If your macros are such that you can, well then, I’m a tiny bit jelly. Just a tad.
I have a favorite individual cheesecake that I still love, but trying to fit it into my macros is hard due to the fat and carbs both being pretty high. Unless I’m super focused on food decisions that day, it’ll put me over fat macros on high carb days, or over carb macros on low carb days. It’s truly heart breaking. I need cheesecake back in my life, so I came up with this. My goal with this recipe was to keep the fat high to provide the familiar decadence and richness that a cheesecake absolutely must have, but drop the carbs. This makes it perfect for low carb days!
Macros for the individual cheesecake I’m mildly obsessed with. Still love it, but don’t love trying to work it into Leangains macros.
I also wanted to add in some protein because I’m not the best at getting in enough. You might say just eat chicken, I say I’d rather eat cheesecake and protein ice cream, thanks. Why suffer through a diet you hate?
Ingredients used
Ingredients for the filling:
- 133 grams ricotta cheese (1/2 cup)
- 307 grams full fat plain greek yogurt (1 and 1/4 cup)
- 228 grams fat free cream cheese (3/4 cup and 2 tbs)
- 117 grams egg whites (1/2 cup)
- 42 grams strawberry whey protein powder (1/2 cup)
- 113 grams granulated erythritol (1/2 cup)
- 2 grams artificial maple flavoring (1/2 tsp)
- 2 grams vanilla stevia drops (1/2 tsp)
Ingredients for the base:
- 80 grams ground almonds (3/4 cup)
- 52 grams crunchy chocolate toffee peanut butter (1/4 cup)*
*You can sub out whatever nut butter you want instead of this if you can’t find it.
Macros for one cheesecake, which is 1/8th of the recipe.
Directions:
Set oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grind almonds up in food processor. Add in peanut butter and blend until it’s still a bit crumbly but with large clumps. This is the base of the cheesecake. Spoon an equal amount of the base into 8 individual sized ramekins, and pat down with the back of a spoon or your fingers.
The base isn’t going to be super thick. There should be just enough to cover the bottom of 8 ramekins.
Mix all ingredients together for the filling in a bowl, and stir well. Spoon out an equal amount of the filling into the 8 ramekins. If you want, you could definitely add in berries, chocolate chips, or a swirl of strawberry jam on the top to make them fancier before baking.
One cheesecake, ready to go into the oven!
Fill up a baking pan halfway with water and place on the lower rack in your oven. This is going to help keep the cheesecake from drying out while baking. Place all 8 ramekins on a cookie sheet to make them easier to get in and out of the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes on the center or top rack—just make sure it’s above the rack with the pan of water. Mine were perfect at 23 minutes. You want to pull them out of the oven before the center of the filling has set completely, since the goal here is not a gross, dry, block of what could have been an amazing and moist cheesecake. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow them to set before serving. These do really well in the freezer as well. I highly recommend getting a set of ramekins that come with lids for easy storage! I decked my cheesecake out with some whipped black cherry flavored greek yogurt and some sugar free chocolate chips. Go to town, folks. Or just enjoy it as is. Make it yours!
This is truly a game changer, folks. It’s so good.
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Sarah handles all things marketing for Gravitus. An avid baker, she enjoys developing macro friendly recipes. She's been lifting heavy since 2013, and loves the barbell like she loves cute puppies.