Diabetic-Friendly Cheesecake

When it comes to traditional holidays like Thanksgiving, it can be difficult to prepare foods that will allow the diabetics among us to stay on a healthy eating program. Most of the typical Thanksgiving dinner is very high in carbohydrates and the desserts are loaded with sugars and other carbohydrates as well. Everything from dressing, gravy, potatoes, candied yams to pumpkin pie, and cheesecake can spell danger for the diabetic.

Since my husband has been a diabetic for nearly ten years, I have learned how to tweak some of my recipes so he can still enjoy some of his favorite foods. This allows him to enjoy many of the Thanksgiving traditions without putting him in a sugar over-load. One of our favorite desserts is cheesecake. Here is the recipe after I tweaked it especially for my diabetic. Because the recipe uses flour, I tried to find more diabetic-friendly flours to use in place of regular flour, which helps lower the carbohydrates in this delicious recipe. I use Splenda brand sweetener because it is easier to substitute in equal measure, but you can use whatever brand or type of sugar-free sweetener you desire.

Crust
1/3 cup of Splenda (or your favorite sugar-free sweetener)
1/3 cup of butter/margarine
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup ground almonds
2 TBSP of soy flour or spelt flour

Blend together and press into the bottom of a spring-form pan. Bake 10 minutes in a 325 degree preheated oven.

Filling and Topping
4 8-ounce pkgs cream cheese
1 cup Splenda (or your favorite sugar-free sweetener)
3 TBSP of spelt four
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1 21-ounce can cherry pie filling, sugar-free variety (for topping)

Combine cream cheese, Splenda and flour, mixing well at medium speed. Add eggs one at a time, mixing ell after each addition. Blend in sour cream and vanilla, pour over pie crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour. Cool before removing rim of pan. Chill and top with pie filling.

Variations:

You can add a few chopped pecans to the cherry pie filling for a more festive look and great taste.

Instead of using cherry pie filling, you can use apple pie filling (sugar-free) and sprinkle top with a mixture of Splenda and cinnamon,( 1/3 cup Splenda and 1 tsp cinnamon) place back in oven until golden in color.

I also like to add about 1 tsp. of lemon juice to the filling, more or less to suit your taste.

This is truly a delicious dessert that will satisfy not only a diabetic but everyone else as well.