Mini Protein Cheescake~

I kid you not when I say this is THE BEST cheesecake ever made without cream cheese or even fake tofu cream cheese.


INGREDIENTS (makes 1 dozen cheesecakes, if baked in a cupcake pan)

Cheesecake part:

* 1 cup of nonfat plain Greek yogurt
* 2 tbsp of nonfat or 1-2% fat cottage cheese (I used 2%)
* 1 tbsp of whole wheat flour (orig. recipe called for coconut flour, but I didn’t have any)
* 1 whole medium lemon
* 2 fresh organic eggs
* 1/4 cup of vanilla whey
* 1/4 cup Stevia
* 1/2 cup berries

Crust part:

* 1/2 cup of walnuts
* 6-7 pitted medjool dates

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make the crust: blend the nuts and dates together in a food processor. It should turn into a crumbly gravel. If you don’t have walnuts, you may experiment with other nuts, but I cannot assure you that they will stick together as well as walnuts do! The stickiness from the dates should hold the bits together.

2. Scoop about a tablespoon of the crumbly mixture into the bottom of the cupcake pan. This will be your cheesecake crust. You can spray the cupcake pan with PAM beforehand, but i found later that it didn’t stick very much anyway. So this step is unnecessary if you have a new slick pan.

3. Using your fingers, press the crumbles down so that it becomes a dense layer, almost like the graham cracker layer of a real cheesecake! (I learned this from eating raw vegan cheesecakes.) If the crumbles keep sticking to your hand, try spraying your finger tips with PAM. Or spray the bottom of a rounded spoon and press with that.

4. Next, make the liquid cheesecake mixture: pour everything into a blender and give it a whirl for about 15-20 seconds or until smooth. You may taste test this to see if it tastes OK.

5. Pour the mixture on top of the crust about 3/4 of the way full.

6. Throw a tiny handful of berries (I used blueberries) into each tin. This is about 6-7 berries.

7. Bake at 325F for about 20 minutes and until tops are no longer liquidy.

WOW! Under 60 cals without the crust, 3.6 sugar, 5.3 carbs!.. 123.9 with the crust 11.7 sugar, 15.0 carbs amazing! Perfect dessert if you’re trying to eat clean with a sweet tooth. You can store the extras in the fridge. Just make sure to cover them to keep moist.