Say hello to the ultimate smooth and luxuriously creamy healthy cheesecake recipe.
This. is. what. dreams. are. made. of.
Lighter and creamier than Cheesecake Factory – with a third of the calories and sugar!
I figured today—my birthday—is the perfect time to share one of my own personal favorite recipes. When I say this healthy cheesecake is good, you know it has to be really good… because I do not take my cheesecake lightly.
I’m exceedingly selective when it comes to good cheesecake.
So many cheesecake recipes out there are not only way too sweet (seriously, a cup and a half of sugar in a cheesecake is too much!) but also too firm. The perfect cheesecake should never be overpowered by sugar, and every creamy bite should absolutely MELT in your mouth.
2018 Edit – There’s now a Brownie Cheesecake Recipe too, because of course there had to be a chocolate version!
I ate my birthday cheesecake in my pajamas.
For breakfast.
Happy birthday, indeed!
Can we talk about the sugar for a minute?
It’s called cheese cake for a reason.
Many cheesecake recipes call for such a large quantity of sugar that the bold and savory cheese flavor is lost and sugar ends up being the only thing you taste. If I wanted to eat something that tasted like sugar, I would skip the cheesecake and eat a bowl of frosting.
(Not that eating a bowl of frosting isn’t also delicious in its own right…)
Sugar was the first thing I knew I could slash when it came to creating a healthier cheesecake recipe. I started by researching traditional cheesecake recipes to get a feel for how much sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, and other basic ingredients usually go into cheesecake. And then I played around quite a bit.
A lot goes into my recipe creations!
With this particular cheesecake recipe, I also knew I wanted to omit all the heavy cream called for in traditional cheesecake recipes and replace it with something much healthier.
Since cheesecake should have a subtle tang to begin with, I came up with the idea to use yogurt, and it worked perfectly!
Also left out were the eggs normally found in cheesecake recipes, which took a bit of trial to find the perfect replacement since eggs add moisture and bind recipes together.
Since there’s nothing more frustrating than having to visit multiple health food stores to locate all the ingredients in a recipe, I knew I wanted this healthy cheesecake to call only for ingredients you can find at a regular grocery store.
*Crust is the recipe from this post: Vegan Cheesecake Recipe
Healthy Cheesecake Of Your Dreams
Ingredients
- 24 oz cream cheese, such as trader joes vegan
- 2 cups plain yogurt, such as coconutmilk yogurt
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cornstarch - or here's a Keto Cheesecake Recipe
- 1/2 cup sugar or maple syrup, honey, or xylitol for sugar-free
- pinch uncut stevia OR 2 additional tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Fill a 9x13 pan about halfway with water and place it on your oven’s lower rack. Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Using a blender or hand blender, beat all cheesecake ingredients just until smooth. (Do not overbeat, as this would introduce air bubbles that would burst in the oven and thus cause cracking.) Smooth into a 9-inch springform pan, either lined with a crust or without. Place on the middle rack above the other pan. Bake 30 minutes, and do not open the oven during this time. When the time is up, leave the oven door closed and turn off the heat. Leave in the closed oven for an additional 5 minutes. Then remove—it will still look underdone—and let cool 20 minutes before placing the still-underdone cheesecake in the refrigerator. It’s important not to put the cheesecake right from the oven to the fridge, because you want it to cool gradually so it doesn’t crack. Chill at least 6 hours, during which time it will firm up to the proper texture. Leftovers covered in the fridge will last around 3-4 days. That is… if you don’t eat it all first!View Cheesecake Nutrition Facts
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Turned out amazing!! Thanks for an awesome healthier recipe!! I tried using a couple healthy substitutes – egg whites for the eggs, Greek yogurt cream cheese, honey instead of sugar, and coconut oil instead of butter. Consistency was still great!!
Delicious!
Hey, I don’t have a springform pan. Can I use a pie dish?
This is my favorite recipe for cheesecake! I used honey as the sweetener, and I used a graham cracker crust {not sugar free though} It was awesome!
Hi. I gave my springform pan away … but I’d love to make this recipe. Would other pans/pie plates work as well? I just ordered your cookbook for our granddaughter 🙂
Hi, thank you so much! We have honestly never tried it in anything else but if you have a deep dish pie pan or only want to use enough of the filling to comfortably fit in a regular size pie pan (and most likely adjust the baking time down) that should work! You can also make cheesecake bars or Katie’s no bake cheesecake if you prefer: https://lett-trim.today/?s=cheesecake
Sorry – I didn’t check the box to be notified if anyone responds. I just sent a message asking about substitutions for the springform pan. (Pie plates or round cake pans? Thank you!
Please post recipe for your crust, or a link to one you used. I’m really upset I read through the whole thing and you just ay use any crust. What did you use?!
A delicious healthy recipe for pie crust (for this cheesecake, too) is one I use from Jazzy Vegetarian. It’s simply 1 C oats, 1/2 c walnuts or nut of choice, 1/2 c coconut, 2/3 c raisins that have been soaked in water for 15 min. until plump, then drained. Blend all ingredients together until a dough forms and press into pan.
Definitely a high quality recipe. I made it and it looks exactly like yours. However, mine did crack during the 20 min cool down. But, cracks to me are a sign of homemade and I love that.
I will say that vanilla greek yogurt would be better than plain just because the tablespoon of vanilla was not detectable and the result could be sweeter. Or, I would increase the sugar to 1 cup since I love sweet. I used my own healthy crust consisting of coconut, walnuts, raisins and oats blended to make a dough. What a delicious treat for the end of a day! Thank you!