Keto Basque Cheesecake

I’ve never made this crustless cheesecake and only eaten it once in a restaurant. Four of us shared a slice and I remember promising a keto version to myself. I’ve adapted a few recipes into this LCHF keto recipe and it’s as delicious as it looks. Much lighter than normal cheesecake if you keep your mixing light and not overly beaten. It has a wonderful dark “burnt” caramelised edge and warm depth of flavour and is creamy and much less dense than a traditional cheesecake. I do believe it is traditional in Spain to enjoy it alongside a glass of Sherry!

A large part of important prep is having your baking pan well greased with butter, layering two sheets of parchment paper, also buttering after each is layer is put in the pan. Leave a good amount of paper higher than the top of the pan by at least 10cm (4 inches?) as this beautiful cheesecake can rise quite a bit and above the rim of the cake tin. It is now my most favourite cheesecake.

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Keto Vanilla Caramel Sauce

Do you have 30 minutes to spare to make this sauce?

5 minutes to gather and measure your four and a ¹/⁴ ingredients; amother 5 to melt the buttery sugar together and 5 more to let the butter and sugar foam and boil stirring all the while. 1 more minute to add the cream and then 14 minutes of gentle boiling and stirring and voila! Cool off by dunking your pot in a bath of ice water and then bottle when cooled.

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Fudgy Keto Brownies

This keto recipe is based on Alton Browns twice baked method and makes 48 sizeable brownies (I used a 40x20cm lined pan) and the recipe can be halved. What magic is this twice baked method that they turn out so moist? It’s a mystery! I also prefer a process of melting sugar into the butter as keto sugar can be very gritty, and this fixes that problem. Just be sure not to let the butter get too hot when dissolving the sugar in the butter.

These Brownies are fudgy goodness; so much so that you might end up cutting them into smaller squares. They are concentrated chocolate bombs, almost like a chocolate fudge dessert. You have been warned!

Summary: melt butter and sugar, mix in dry ingredients and then eggs; bake for 15 min, cool for 15, bake for 35 – 40 min

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Chocolate Date Rum Ball Treats

These are gluten free and not exactly keto as they have dates, but no sugar added and I used keto chocolate to dip them in. Delicious holiday treats. Big thanks to my Sister who found the base recipe I could work with!

Lastly, I have newfound respect for chocolatiers, as wow, I have never made chocolate sweet treats before. It was a learning experience!

Summary: soften chopped dates in butter, rum and fresh fresh orange juice, add to processed dry ingredients. Form into balls, roll in pistachio and coconut – or either; refrigerate while melting chocolate then cover with chocolate and store in fridge.

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Spiced Keto Muffins with orange zest

I’m beginning to think this is the only muffin recipe I’ll be using for a long while, just varying the flavours and types of nut flour I use. These are fresh out the oven to break an 8/16 fast since late lunch yesterday. Delicious slathered in butter. Just butter! I’m also convinced my favourite keto sugar is the brown version in the image below. Absolutely NO aftertaste, coolness and really tastes good. I’m not sure how I’ll bake keto sponge cakes in future, but honestly, it’s 100% the best flavour.

What we’ll be doing here – melting the butter/sugar mix gently on the stove; mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and in another bowl mix cream/nut milk/buttermilk with eggs and orange zest. Make sure to check you have some spices handy, I used a few or you can just stick with cinnamon. There are some optional things you can leave out, it will absolutely work without the optional add in’s. Makes 1 dozen muffins. Here we go:

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Keto Empanadas

Worth the time and these are delicious. I think a Keto version is such a win, as it’s meat wrapped in a cheese dough. I mean, how can that not be good?!

If you have leftover savoury ground beef these would be the perfect leftover plan. Also, I would suggest making the ground beef filling ahead and let it cool off completely as it’s easier to work with in the dough. Hot filling in a cheese dough is not fun to work with – I found that out as this was one of those spur of the moment “I need empanadas – after 3 years of none – in my life” now! Also let your dough chill in the fridge at least 30 minutes. It’s possible to make these in one go but you’ll see how hard it was to work with fresh warm dough and filling in my pics below.

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Keto Almond Biscotti

The last few Biscotti remain in a tin, so it’s a good time to post this recipe as they are “endorsed” by how long they have lasted, which has not been quite 10 days! I often bake two different items in one go, as I did when I baked these Biscotti. When I’m in the middle of baking I feel … oh well, all standard baking ingredients are on the counter and a mess is already made, might as well bake two goodies. I’ll post the fruit bake I made next.

I was born in South Africa and a standard in most homes is something called “rusks” dunked in a cup of tea or coffee, or just crunched as a snack, sort of similar to Biscotti. I do like Biscotti but they really don’t come close to the comfort of a hearty rusk, but we did enjoy these very much.

(My Mum bakes a large batch of rusks at least every few weeks, a handy standby for pop in friends. They are a sweet baked cake-like loaf, torn apart or sliced into pieces and then dried overnight in a slow oven. In SA they range from plain buttermilk rusks, to raisin and bran, or even lightly spiced and sometimes even aniseed, which I’m not a fan of.

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Fig and Toasted Pecan Bread

We went to friends for a board game night and I baked two quick loaves of bread to take. These loaves are gluten free, low carb (you can leave the figs out for an even lower carb count) and fantastic with just butter or any cheese.

This is a variation of my other nutty keto loaf. I plan to bake other variations, like an olive parmesan or spiced ginger and apple loaf.

The beauty of this loaf is it’s so quick, no separate beating of egg whites, folding in and working quickly like other keto breads. I let the one loaf rest in the dough stage while I mixed up the second. Baked beautifully!

Best flavour in this loaf is the toasted pecan flour, it came out like pecan butter and the taste was sublime!

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Chocolate Orange Baked Cheesecake

Chocolate crust, orange topping.

It’s been every kind of winter weather today. Crisp sunshine, sleet, windy gusts, calm and then driving rain. A “spend time in the kitchen” kind of day.

The lovely mandarins I bought for zesting and freshly purchased cocoa seemed the perfect combination for cheesecake.

I was surprised to see how cracked the cheesecake turned out and learned that overbeating is the cause. It’s odd, because when I poured it into the cheesecake pan I thought, ooh!, what a wonderful light mix. Using a whisk is apparently the answer to a perfectly smooth, heavier more settled mix and smoother top. I did use an electric beater, so lesson learned. Be sure to let all your cream cheese come to room temperature if using a whisk, otherwise you’ll be tired out mixing until smooth. Letting ingredients get to room temperature is a challenge for me as my recipes are usually impromptu whims!

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