Recipe for Low-Sugar Raspberry Cheesecake with Pecan Crust
Why I Love This Recipe
Ingredients You'll Need
1 cup pecans, ground in food processor
1/2 stick butter or margarine, to rub pie plate (you will not use it all)
2 pkg. (8 oz. each ) light cream cheese, at room temperature (do not use fat free cream cheese)
1/2 cup Splenda (or a bit more if you want a sweeter cheesecake)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 10 oz. pkg. frozen raspberries without added sugar (Check the label to see that it says only rasberries, nothing else. Could also use fresh fruit.)
Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. Put pecans into bowl of food processor or mini-chopper and pulse until ground but still a bit chunky. Rub pie plate with a thick layer of butter or margarine, then sprinkle in pecans and spread around with your fingers so the bottom and sides of the pie plate are evenly covered.
Thaw raspberries overnight in the refrigerator or use microwave to thaw. Drain raspberries and discard the juice. Put cream cheese, Splenda, and vanilla in a medium sized bowl, and use electric beaters to combine, then add eggs one at a time, and beat until mixture is smooth. (It's important that the cream cheese is at room temperature or this will be very difficult.) Gently fold in raspberries, being careful not to overmix or the mixture will turn completely pink. Spoon batter over the nut crust and spread around evenly with rubber scraper.
Bake cheesecake 35-45 minutes, or until center feels firm to the touch. Allow to cool, then chill several hours or overnight before serving.
South Beach Suggestions:
This is not a sugar-free dessert because there's some natural sugar in the rasberries, but made with Splenda and margarine, this is a great dessert option for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet or any other type of low-glycemic eating plan. I couldn't bring myself to use margarine, but there's not a huge amount of butter here.
