Lightened Up Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheesecake has no added sugars and you and your family will never even notice the difference!
If you're looking to watch you're weight this holiday season or your sugar intake, but still want to be able to enjoy a nice dessert, this recipe is made just for you! It's creamy and smooth just like a typical cheesecake should be with a subtle pumpkin flavor that doesn't overwhelm. No sugars have been added to this pie and it is fantastic! Even my picky teen ate this up asking for more.
According to Calorie Count website, a standard pumpkin cheesecake has 340 calories, 20 grams of fat, 36 grams of carbs and 25 grams of sugar! Now I can't tell this is super low in fat but it's lower than 20 grams. It wouldn't be creamy if it didn't have some fat in it. For only 235 calories per slice, 7 grams of protein, and less than 5 grams of sugar, this healthier cheesecake is a perfect solution for the health conscious.
Recipe Notes:
- I was able to find a gluten free graham cracker at Whole Foods made by Kinnikinnick called S'Moreables. The fifth ingredient has brown sugar which is my rule of thumb on added sugars, must be 5th or higher. You can certainly make your own as well, but for the sake of convenience that's what I chose to use.
- The nutrition info is for the recipe you see here. You can also use full fat ingredients as well in the cream cheese and sour cream, but I went with light and it tasted delicious!
- If you use full fat ingredients instead of light this is the nutrition info for you: Calories: 279* Fat: 22g* Cholesterol: 126mg* Sodium: 254mg* Carbs: 15g* Fiber: 1.7g* Sugars: 5g* Protein: 5.8g*
- I've found using a powdered stevia in the dry ingredients works better and mixes well. I love the flavor of vanilla liquid stevia and it works best in the wet ingredients here, but if you don't have it on hand use plain liquid or substitute powdered. 1 liquid teaspoon would need to be replaced with at least 4 packets of powdered. I've made this with only 4 packets of stevia within the filling and no liquid vanilla stevia and it was not very sweet at all, or at least not typical of a cheesecake. You can always adjust as you see fit.
Lightened Up Gluten Free Pumpkin Cheesecake {No Sugar Added}
Ingredients
- Crust
- 1 ½ cups gluten free graham cracker crumbs
- 5 tablespoons butter unsalted, softened
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons powdered stevia
- Filling
- 2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, ⅓ less fat, room temperature
- 1 can 15 ounces pumpkin puree or fresh
- ½ cup sour cream light
- 4 room temperature eggs
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½- 1 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia
- 4-6 packets of powdered stevia or 4-6 teaspoons
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a bowl mix together graham crackers crumbs, butter, cinnamon and powdered stevia.
- Press crumb mixture into a 9 inch spring-form pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer beat cream cheese until smooth.
- Add pumpkin, sour cream, eggs, remaining spices and stevia.
- Blend until smooth.
- Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
- Pour filing into crust and bake for 45 minutes.
- Let sit in oven for 2 hours, do not open.
- Remove, allow to finish cooling.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Kim Richardson
A co-worker passed this onto me, as both of my daughters are Type 1 diabetics. It looks absolutely delicious and we'll love it in place of pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving. 🙂 Question: We use Splenda for Baking instead of Stevia. Do you have any idea of the equivalencies by chance? Thank you kindly for such a yummy recipe!
Brenda
I would guess at least a cup of not 2 for Splenda. Maybe cut recipe in half and try it with one cup before thanksgiving to see if it's sweet enough for you.
Coolcatkimmie
Looks wonderful! I'm need to cut out a few more carbs and I'm going to make it crustless! Drops it down to under 5 carbs per serving. Can't wait to try it!
Kay
Hi there,
This looks like a great recipe, especially since it doesn't use 3-5 blocks of cream cheese like other recipes! I have a few questions though-
If you reduce the amount of cream cheese to say, 1.5 packages and increase the amount of sour cream to 1 cup, will I get the same result or would it compromise the recipe, taste, texture, etc?
Also, if I were to use regular sugar instead of Stevia, would the amount still be the same (as in 4-6 teaspoons Stevia being equal to 4-6 teaspoons sugar)?
Lastly, what would be a good substitute for vanilla liquid Stevia?
Thanks!
Brenda
Hi Kay,
I can't say reducing the cream cheese and increasing the sour cream will produce the same texture as I've not tried it any other way to confirm. But I can tell you on the sugar aspect, not stevia and sugar are not one in one in recipes. The amount of stevia here is equal to about 3/4 cup-1 cup sugar. So maybe look at a standard cheesecake recipe as to how much sugar to include. I use the vanilla stevia because it adds a nice smooth flavor and hint of vanilla, so vanilla extract still provides that flavor but not sweetness. If you use the sugar in a standard recipe it should be sweet enough.
Julie
I would like to just give you some advice on how to bake a proper Cheesecake from a pastry chef to a home cook. You want to add your eggs very slowly to your cream cheese, making sure you scrape down the bowl after each addition. This will help eliminate chunks of cream cheese visible in your pictures. Heat your oven to 250*F, no higher. Wrap the bottom of your spring form pan in foil and cook the cheese cake in a water bath. Cooking it low and slow in a water bath will make for a perfect cheese cake, one without cracks or color. It will probably take around 2 hours to cook, the center should jiggle and snap back into place.
I hope this helps! (Sorry, if you are offended by my advice)
Brenda
I'm not offended in the least, thank you for the advice! So much for Martha Stewart! I followed her directions when cooking my cheesecake and look at those cracks! I'm grateful for the advice as I'm not a trained chef so thanks for letting me know how to fix the recipe.
Pamellia
So nice to see people getting along...
Lovisa
Hi,
Can the stevia be substituted with any other sweetener (dry for dry and liquid for liquid)? Like I have agave nectar at home which is liqiud. Can I used crushed nuts instead of graham crackers?
Brenda
My boys have nut allergies but I think crushed nuts would work. I don't use agave at all so not sure how sweet it is. If it's similar to honey maybe just a 1/2 cup.