Mini Lemon Ricotta Cheesecakes

April 14, 2011 5 Comments

Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake with Blueberry Puree

Generally, my dessert of choice includes some sort of chocolate but as we are coming into warmer weather here in Colorado I am really enjoying the light texture and fresh taste of these Mini Ricotta Cheesecakes.  I have made them twice now, once as plain cheesecake with cherry topping and these pictured here with lemon zest and blueberry puree…both are equally delicious!  I love that they are grain-free and stevia sweetened, making them a very low carb, low glycemic, guilt free treat.  The recipe is super easy and can be adapted to just about any flavor of cheesecake…chocolate with raspberry sauce will be my next creation, of course.

This recipe will make six mini-cheesecakes. I use a mini-cheesecake pan with removable bottoms but you can also use a standard muffin pan lined with paper and foil muffin liners for easy removal.  I use full-fat dairy products but you could substitute low or reduced fat dairy for an ever lower calorie treat.  Also, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature before combining for an evenly blended batter.

Crust:

3/4 cup blanched almond flour

2 T. butter, melted

2 packets stevia (I use SweetLeaf)

1 tsp. vanilla

Cheesecake Filling:

9 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 packets stevia

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

3 large eggs

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

zest of one lemon (optional for lemon version)

Puree:

3/4 cup fresh blueberries (or fruit of choice)

6-9 drops of liquid stevia (or one packet)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Line six muffin cups with paper and foil liners.  Combine almond flour, melted butter, stevia and vanilla until mixture holds together, divide evenly between muffin or mini-cheesecake cups and press into the bottom.  Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly golden, remove and cool.  Meanwhile, in an electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese and stevia until blended.  Beat in ricotta, egg, vanilla and lemon zest, if using.  Pour filling into prepared muffin or mini-cheesecake cups.  Bake 15 minutes, or until almost fully set.  In a food processor, puree blueberries for 30 seconds, whisk in liquid stevia and set aside.  Remove cheesecakes and let cool completely on wire rack.  Refrigerate one hour or wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.  Serve chilled or at room temperature topped with blueberry puree.

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Slightly Indulgent Tuesday & Tasty Tuesday

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Grain-Free Granola

April 2, 2011 5 Comments
I think I’m in love…since being gluten and grain free one of the things I miss is a crunchy, sweet and slightly chewy granola.  I like to have some texture in my fruit and yogurt, smoothies and occasional frozen dessert…my “go-to” topping is  usually toasted macadamia nuts (which are wonderful too!) but sometimes I have a hankering for a little something sweet and indulgent.  I came across this recipe at Heartland Renaissance and slightly adapted it to use my favorite low-glycemic sweeteners.  This recipe makes about 2 quarts or 32 ounces of granola, a typical serving is about 1/4 cup or 1 oz, so there is plenty to share with your loved ones or can easily be cut in half.

Grain-Free Granola

Ingredients:
2 cups almonds
1 cup pecans
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut, shredded
1 cup raisins (or your favorite unsweetened dried fruit, chopped)
1 T. cinnamon
4 T. butter
4 T. coconut oil
2 T. coconut palm sugar
2 T. – 1/4 cup yacon syrup (or agave, honey or maple syrup)
2 t. vanilla
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a food processor, place the 2 cups of almonds and pulse until they are chopped up. Process the almonds until they are a pretty coarse texture, some will be finer than others and that’s okay.  Pour almonds into a large mixing bowl. Process the walnuts and pecans to about the same texture of the almonds; this will not take as long as the almonds so be sure to watch the nuts in this step, add pecans and walnuts to large mixing bowl. I like to start with coconut flakes and pulse them a few times (or you can use shredded coconut and skip this step), next, add half of the sunflower and pumpkin seeds to the processor and pulse a few times.  Place the remaining seeds, fruit, cinnamon and coconut to the mixing bowl and mix well.
In the meantime, combine butter, coconut oil, palm sugar and yacon syrup over low heat until combined. Take off heat and stir in vanilla.
Pour the hot liquid into the nut mixture and stir well until evenly combined and all pieces are coated.
Pour the granola out onto a greased (or parchment lined) jelly roll pan and spread out to an even layer. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the mixture begins to smell fragrant and slightly brown on top. When done, remove and allow to briefly cool on the cookie sheet before transferring into your preferred storage jar while still warm, taking care not to allow it to cool completely on the cookie sheet as it can stick.

Berries, Cottage Cheese and Granola

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Chunkey Monkey Cake

March 25, 2011 2 Comments

Chunkey Monkey Cake

I love dessert, I eat it everyday at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, it’s the best part of my day.  Most days it’s just berries and whipped cream or yogurt, an apple with almond butter or a frozen smoothie, but several times a month I like to make something really decadent.  I am always on the lookout for gluten, grain, refined sugar and especially GUILT free healthy options for my special treat days.  Yesterday I came across a wonderful recipe for Carob-Banana Bars at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen website, I could hardly wait to make these today…I have made a few alterations to the original recipe to include cacao powder rather than carob and added walnuts for some extra texture, it came out perfect!  I will try this recipe with carob powder sometime as I really do like the taste of carob…I was just out of it today and didn’t want to make an extra trip to the store since I had everything else.  My dad is coming over today so I am excited to see if he likes it…he loves dessert as much as I do so I’m sure he will!
A few recipe tips:
Make sure all ingredients are room temperature (even the eggs) otherwise they will cause the coconut oil to harden.
Use slightly over-ripe bananas for a sweeter cake.
If you choose to use the carob powder rather than the cacao powder the additional sweetener isn’t necessary, stevia can sometimes have a bitter taste so you may add the 1/4 cup palm sugar instead of the extra plain stevia listed in the recipe below.

 

Enjoy with a dollop of fresh whip cream

Chunkey Monkey Cake

 

2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 cup cacao powder (or carob powder)
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 – 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (1 heaping cup)
2 large organic eggs
1/4 cup melted virgin coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
24 drops chocolate liquid stevia + 10-20 drops plain stevia or 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil an 8 x 8-inch glass baking dish with coconut oil.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use your fingers to break up any clumps in the almond flour. Then whisk the ingredients together. Set aside.
In a small bowl, add the bananas and mash with a fork. Measure the mashed bananas to make sure they are just over 1 cup. Add more banana if needed or remove some. Then add the remaining ingredients and stir together with the fork.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk together. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool before cutting into bars.  Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or glass of ice-cold almond milk.  Enjoy!

Yep, Daddy liked it!

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