Key Lime Cheesecake (**Not Paleo, this one has lots of dairy**)

Sara's Low Carb Key Lime Cheesecake

Equipment:

1 Eight inch pie plate (I used a glass deep dish pie plate which worked great)
1 Shallow roasting pan big enough to fit pie plate in.

Four 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (softened--I left mine at room temperature for about an hour and then microwaved it for about 30 seconds)
3/4 cup sour cream
10 packets stevia powder (I used NuNaturals NuStevia White Stevia Powder, which is one carb per packet)
8 grams Xylitol (Xylitol is a sugar alchohol found in fruits and some vegetables. The one I used has 1 carb per gram)
The juice and zest of two medium sized limes
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 whole eggs (I used large)
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract

Crust:
1 ounce macadamia nuts chopped finely
2 ounces pecans chopped finely
2 T. (or more) butter
1 packet Stevia white powder


Preheat oven to 400. Prepare a water bath by placing a shallow roasting pan in the oven to heat up with oven. In the meantime, heat water on top of the stove in a tea kettle or something to pour into pan for the water bath.

Make the crust as you would a graham cracker crust, blending the chopped nuts with softened butter until it sticks together. Spread thinly over the bottom of the cheesecake pan, and up the sides as much as possible. I blended mine together in a food processor until it was kind of sticky, and put it in a very well buttered pie plate, but it stuck anyway, so maybe use nonstick spray for a better result. Set crust aside, and prepare cake batter.

Mix the first five ingredients together with an electric mixer until it is thoroughly incorporated.
In a separate bowl, mix the cream, eggs, and vanilla extract. (I also used an electric blender for this to make it nice and smooth) Whip the cream first for about 30 seconds with the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time.

Fold both mixtures together, then, blend them thoroughly until you have a nice cheesecake batter. It should still be fairly thick, but thin enough to pour.

Pour into crust, and place cake in the shallow roasting pan, pour hot water in roasting pan and around cake until it comes up about 1/2 inch or more around the cake (I used a large glass pie plate to make my cheesecake in). Be careful as the roasting pan will be hot, and this is a tricky manuever (I almost burned myself a couple of times).

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 275 and bake an additional 1.5 hours. Then, turn the oven off, and leave the cake in the oven for another three hours. This will allow the cake to cool slowly and not fall. Cool cake thoroughly before serving. (I refrigerated mine for an additional two hours).

Enjoy with raspberries, whipped cream, or other fresh fruit.

Serves 8, (or 16 if you cut smaller pieces.)

Nutritional info: Based on 8 servings

Calories: 677
Fat: 66g
Carbs: 9.8g
Fiber: 1.1g
Protein: 12.8g
Oxalates: 15mg (this is an approximation due to the fact that there aren't really any good numbers for stevia--the plant is very high in oxalates, a teaspoon of the powdered plant is 41 mg, but using it as a sweetener means that it is cut with bulking agents and you get far far less than an actual teaspoon when using it...If you have a very strong oxalate reaction, and carbs are not an issue, I would advise using honey or agave syrup instead to sweeten it with.)

I wanted something special for the 4th of July that didn't have sugar in it, and I hadn't tried my Stevia much for baking, and thought I would give it a try. It turned out really good in my opinion. My husband said he could tell it was not sugar, but I don't believe him--I am going to try a taste test with him to see if he really can tell next time. Anyway, it was very rich and a great cheesecake, with a really nice tart lime flavor. So, if you want something special, and can afford to eat dairy--enjoy!!