Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake

Creamy and delicious no bake Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake with a buttery almond crust.  Even if you are not on a low carb diet, you will love this!  

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

I am obsessed with this cheesecake.

If you are following a low carb diet like I am, you are probably looking for the occasional sweet treat.  This has become my favorite.  It is so simple.  It starts with an easy almond crust that includes almond flour, melted butter and a pinch of Splenda or your favorite sugar substitute.  You will need to pop the crust in the oven for a few minutes.  Once it is cool, add an easy, no bake cheesecake filling that will knock your socks off.  It is simply cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, a splash of vanilla which is optional and a packet of sugar free lemon jello.  How easy is that!

The filling sets perfectly and before you know it you will be indulging on a piece delicious, guilt free low carb cheesecake.  Even if you are not on a low carb diet, you will love this!  

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

You can use any sugar free jello flavor you want.  Lemon seems to be a classic cheesecake flavor, but I have tried cherry, raspberry and strawberry.  Orange would be great, or even lime for a key lime cheesecake, yum!  

You can even customize how you make it.  I have made these as mini cheesecakes using a cupcake pan.  Just line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners, press a little of the almond crust to the bottom of each cup and bake for about 6-8 minutes.  Once cool, add the filling and chill for a few hours until set.  Super easy.  These also make cute little desserts in jars too, great for a spring picnic in the park!  

So go ahead, splurge and enjoy this yummy guilt free, low carb dessert!  

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

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Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake

  • Author: Jenn
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 8 minutes
  • Total Time: 28 minutes
  • Yield: 6 -8 servings

Ingredients

  • Crust
  • 1 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 3 tablespoons butter (melted)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Swerve or Splenda (about 1 packet of Splenda)
  • Filling
  • 8 ounce cream cheese (softened)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • .3 ounce packet sugar-free lemon jello
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously spray an 8-inch baking dish or springform pan with cooking spray.
  2. Mix almond flour, butter and splenda until mixture is crumbly. Press in the bottom of baking dish and bake for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
  3. Cool completely.
  4. Cheesecake
  5. Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment mix cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
  6. Stir in vanilla extract.
  7. Add in heavy cream and whisk on high until mixture thickens and soft peaks form.
  8. Reduce speed to low and mix in jello packet and lemon zest until blended.
  9. Spread mixture evenly with a spatula over cooled crust.
  10. Cover and chill until set, about 2-3 hours or overnight.

Notes

Variations-
MINI CHEESECAKES – Line a 12 cup cupcake pan with paper liners. Press a small amount of crust on the bottom of each liner. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely. Prepare filling as directed and divide the mixture between each cup. Chill for several hours or overnight. Serve with liner or unwrap before serving.
CHEESECAKE IN A JAR – Divide crust mixture between jars and press into the bottom. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 7-9 minutes until golden brown. Prepare filling as directed and spoon into each jar. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight until ready to serve.

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Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

Low Carb Lemon Cheesecake | www.motherthyme.com

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63 Comments

      1. when eating low carb most people do not count calories just the net carb so this is actually great. Evenbetter if you make it crustless. Then the only carbs are coming from the cream cheese.

        1. In fact “most” people do in fact count calories on low carb if they want to lose weight. Most common reason for not losing weight on low carb is overeating and advising people they don’t need to count calories is not correct.

          1. I have lost almost 80 pounds by low carbing it. NOT counting calories. I have eaten salads with lots of cheese, salad dressing, and avacado galore. Same with Taco salads (hold the shells please). That’s the thing with low carb…..you can eat pretty good as long as you don’t eat any of the bad stuff. Yes, I miss the hell out of bread, rice and potatoes, but I can make up for it here. There low carb desserts are what saves me. 🙂

  1. The flavor of these cheesecake is very good. However, Jello simply poured into cold cream doesn’t dissolve, and you get little rubbery bits of undissolved Jello in it.

    Improve your results by removing 2 T of cream, and dissolving the Jello in 2 T of hot water. Add that to the other well mixed ingredients and continue according to the recipe. What the heck, throw in some lemon zest and a little lemon extract, too!

    1. This cheese cake is lovely. But, (DANG!!) wish I’d seen your comment before I made it. The jello does, in fact remain in tact unless dissolved first. Also I only had lime jello, and I doubled the recipe. Still a very nice low carb Christmas dessert. We all enjoyed it.

  2. If you mix/beat your jello & cream cheese together there won’t be any clumps. And you still get the flavor. I make this with raspberry sf jello and I LOVE IT. I use about 1/4c of HWC & whip it..and fold it into the cream cheese mixture. Its light n fluffy!

      1. Your recipes look so good! Wish I could make them but there is no nutrition information and I have diabetes. Such a bummer. . So many of you bloggers don’t bother to do the carb, sodium, calorie info and it is sad as the food looks so great. There are programs I read about on these and other blogs where the program does it for you. Not sure how they work.

        Good luck!

        1. It’s really not that hard to figure out the carb count/nutrition facts yourself.

          1 1/4 cup almond flour =15 net carbs
          packet splenda = 1 net carb
          8 oz cream cheese = 6 net carbs
          1.5 cups heavy whipping cream = 9.96 net carbs
          The butter, jello and vanilla all have zero carbs

          The entire recipe has a total of 31.96 net carbs. Just divide by the number of servings you cut it in to.

  3. I think I over whipped!!! the cream cheese and cream mixture was looking good then it went all runny!
    Might try whipping cream separately next time and folding into whipped cream cheese. I hope my runny mixture still sets, fingers crossed.
    Anyone else had the mixture turn runny?? – did I simply overmix?? or have I not mixed for long enough? (the amount of time I have whipped the mixture would be more then long enough to whip the cream on it’s own)
    I am a confident baker but cheesecake is not something I have made a lot of. Any advice or ideas…..

    1. Hi Morgan, it sounds like you may have not whipped long enough. The mixture should thicken and have soft peaks before you pour it in the crust. It will also thicken more once it is refrigerated. You may want to whip the heavy cream first next time then fold in the cream cheese if you feel more comfortable with that. I make this often and it is always so tasty and I never feel guilty eating it! 🙂

  4. This is such a perfect recipe. I have made 4 flavours in the last one week because my while family keep devouring it. I am the only low-carber in the family and was looking for something to enjoy for an occasional desert when everyone else eats ice-cream or birthday cake and came across this. Thank you for sharing it. My favourite flavour so far is the mango passionfruit and the original lemon, oh the lemon! If you mix and whip long enough it turns out perfect!!!

  5. This is a great recipe thanks Jennifer! I made it with diet lime jelly crystals and that tasted really nice. Have made my second one today (currently in the fridge setting) with diet strawberry jelly crystals – that should ne nice too! Just wanted to check – I didn’t actually make the jelly – just poured the jelly crystals into the mixture – was this correct?

  6. Was looking for an easy low-carb no bake recipe for cheesecake, and this is a WINNER! Made it this week-end in SF lemon jellow and when I first read the directions, I thought this would NEVER come together. What, don’t dissolve the jello? What, don’t beat whipped cream first??? But I made it exactly like the instructions, and it turned out AWESOME! I could eat this straight with no crust needed. I did make a pecan nut crust but really, it didn’t need it. It set up very firm. In LOVE with this recipe, I might try to dissolve the jello next time in 2 tablespoons boiling water and reduce cream.. it was juts a bit grainy, but I didn’t mind.

  7. could I double this recipe and make it in a 9×13 dish? I have to take a dessert for 14. And I have to travel 6.5 hours. I have an insulated carrier for my 9×13 dish.

  8. Just amazing… After many attempts of low carb cheesecake failures this one turned out amazing!!! My kids even love it… Thank you!

  9. hi, this looks do yammie and I will trybto make it but we don’t have sugar free jello in Holland so my question is is there a substitute for?
    Ihope you can help me.
    Greetz Mariska

    1. I wonder if you could just use a pack of plain gelatin and some lemon juice? I was going to try making this without the crust.

    2. I’m not the recipe developer, but I’d imagine you could sub unflavored gelatin and a sugar free powdered drink mix like Kool-aid or Crystal Light of you have access to that sort of thing. I’ve made the recipe with no substitutions and it’s devine!

  10. In my Nov. 24 post I asked about doubling the recipe. It worked and was the hit dessert at our Thanksgiving dinner. One of my niece’s husbands was bummed that he couldn’t have dessert. He had started low carb. When I told him the cheesecake was low carb, he was so excited. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe. I have been fixing the just the filling and find that I don’t miss the crust! I have lost 60 pounds since July 29th and was able to continue my weight loss during the holidays! Thanks again!

  11. I made this using sugar free white chocolate pudding instead of the lemon jello and it was delicious and sweet and creamy! Perfect recipe!

  12. This was really, really good. I had to stop myself from eating the filling! I used extra large muffin tins and made 6. I will probably make this without the crust as a mousse sometime.

  13. Absolutely love this recipe! Is there a nut free substitute for the crust though? I have some friends and family with a nut allergy who would love this, sans nuts obviously lol

  14. Hi!

    Thank you so much for this recipe. I’ve made it in lots of different flavours and for many occasions – it’s so versatile.

    Can you tell me if it freezes? I have a big BBQ this weekend and could do with being able to make two or three cheesecakes in advance. I can’t see why it shouldn’t freeze, but wondered if you knew.

    Thank You xx

  15. LOL I made a lime cheesecake a few days back just to see how it froze but, this recipe is so good, my family ate it before it got anywhere near the freezer! So now I need to make another…..

  16. Fantastic recipe, easy to follow. The only parts I found a little hard were the oven temp and changing ounces into grams/mls. Our ovens only go to 230C, so I had to find a website to convert it.

  17. Love this recipe. Thank you for sharing. I did add a little lemon zest as I wanted a bit more zing after tasting the mixture. I also dissolved jelly in a little boling water before adding. Turned out great. Very happy.

  18. Sugar-free jello has aspartame which does two things to me: kicks me out of ketosis and lowers my seizure threshold. Is there something I can use in place of the sugar-free jello?

    1. NANASUSAN, I would love to know if there is something other than the sf lemon jello only because I don’t like aspartame. Other than that I love this cheesecake.

  19. I cooked my base mixture in paper cupcake liners, then poured low carb fudge over that and cooled it quickly in the freezer for a couple hours before adding the topping. Extra decadent!
    I used tropical jello and dissolved it in 2 tbsp hot water and allowed to cool slightly before adding it to the topping and it worked perfectly.
    This recipe is a hit with us!
    DELICIOUS! Thanks for sharing it.

  20. I cannot eat this unless there is a nutrition label,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,how about putting them on these recipes? Thank you from Carrie

    1. Hey Carrie, the nutrition values depend on the brands you use. Just put the ingredients into myfitnesspal under recipes, put in the number of servings and bam! There’s your values.

  21. Insread of jello use a pkg of unsweetened drink mix (Koolaid, etc.), one pkg unflavored gelatin & sweetener equivalent to 1 cup sugar (1/4 tsp liquid sucralose, or equivalent powdered Splenda, erythritol, etc.) should work fine. I never use sf Jello, always make my own with the above mixture.

  22. This recipe is amazing.
    For those wondering about the nutrition info… Disregard the person claiming over 500 calories per serving. I made the cupcake version (12 servings) of this and ended up with about 250 calories per cupake. Here are the brands of the ingredients I used, as well as the nutritional info:

    Crust:
    – Bob’s Red Mill almond meal/flour
    – Truvia sweetener
    – Fraser Valley butter

    Filling:
    – Jello powder (no sugar added)
    – Island Farms whipping cream (33% m.f.)
    – Club House pure vanilla extract
    – Philadelphia original cream cheese

    Nutrition per cheesecake cupcake:
    – 240 calories
    – 5 g carbs
    – 24 g fat
    – 4 g protein
    – 150 mg sodium

  23. To those commenting on too many calories…for your consideration…the true premise behind the “low carb” lifestyle is to recognize (refer to Dr. Atkins’ Diet, Jorge Cruise’s “Belly Fat Cure” and Gary Taubs’ “Good Calories and Bad Calories” research to substantiate). These resources – among others – on the nutritional science behind carbohydrate and sugar calories (versus all others) document the basis of low-carb weight management success (to avoid insulin spikes). Do the homework to prove it for yourself. These books are well worth the read to get the facts. You can then choose to manage your weight…either by counting/limiting total calories exclusively OR by tracking carb and sugar grams. It can help clarify an “either/or” option, depending upon what makes most sense for your individual lifestyle, weight goals and health considerations. I hope this helps clarify the variables.

  24. I made this with sugar-free white chocolate pudding. I try to stay on low carbs during the week but something happens on the weekends and I have to have something sweet. This will take care of that problem in the future. There are so many possibilities and flavors. I do think I will eliminate the crust. Something about about paying $10 a pound for almond flour irritates me. Anyway, it’s a wonderful recipe. Thanks.

  25. Love this recipe. I am taking it to a Christmas party next week as a low carb option. To the post above, if you have access to a Sam’s Club, they have Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour in the 3 lb. bag for about $12.00. (In the Chattanooga, TN area)

  26. Has anyone tried making this with plain gelatin and adding lemon extract and zest, and say stevia extract to sweeten? I’m deathly allergic to aspartame and other chemical sweeteners, so SF jello is a no go.

  27. 6 years since this post and it’s still delicious. I had absolutely no problems with any part of the recipe. I don’t keep sweeteners in the house and the crust was fine without it. At around 4 net carbs, this is a wonderful treat for my low carb lifestyle. Weird thing though, it’s super hard to find SF Lemon Jell-O in my area. I had to order it from Amazon. Also, the cheesecake has no funny artificial sugar aftertaste….hurray! Thank you!

  28. No sugar-free lemon jello to be found anywhere in town! Have been trying to find how to substitute unflavored gelatin but haven’t been able to figure out.

  29. I know its not low carb but has anyone used regular jello in this ? not the sugar free version. I dont like using artificial sweetners. thank you 😊

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