Dairy-free Keto New York style cheesecake with NO cashews! (And no gluten, dairy, eggs or SUGAR) So creamy, you won't believe the ingredients! Jump to Recipe
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More Dairy-Free Alternatives are HERE!
It's finally here 😀 A dairy-free "cheesecake" that has no cashews and no sugar so it's perfect for those on a keto/ultra low-carb diet! Ever since I posted my first cashew-free creamy dessert recently (the Almond Dreamcake) I've gotten tons of requests to make it into a true CHEESECAKE *and* to make one that's LOW-CARB. Well I've been slaving away in the kitchen working on it, tweaking, trying over and over to get it right. And you guys (!!) it was worth the wait. It's SO GOOD! 
CASHEW-Free Cake!
You know I LOVE my cashews, and they make the most amazing dairy-free cheesecakes, but I had to figure out an alternative for those who don't eat cashews for whatever reason. The replacement is ALMONDS. Yes! Blanched (skinless) almonds, (soaked and blended into a cream.) Almonds are GREAT because they're:
- Super inexpensive
- Very low carb
- Easy to find at any grocery store or Amazon
- Mild (neutral) flavor and
- DELISH
I STILL CAN'T GET OVER THE TASTE AND TEXTURE. When you take a bite of this dessert, you won't believe it's just ALMONDS. Seriously shocking how much it tastes like a "real" cheesecake!
How to Make Almond Cream
- Use Blanched (skinless) almond slivers for best results as regular almonds may not blend as smoothly, especially if they have skins. Measure the almonds needed and place them in a large glass bowl.
- Bring a pot or kettle of water to a boil. Pour hot water over the almonds with enough to cover the top.
- Let the almonds for 2 hours to soften.
- Drain, rinse, and shake almonds dry (patting with a towel to absorb the excess liquid)
- Blend in a food processor or high speed blender, scraping down the sides as needed.
New York Style
This cheesecake has a CLASSIC "New York" style flavor and texture: A buttery, crumb crust with TANGY smooth "cream cheese" dripping with zesty strawberry sauce. So YUM. Yes, don't forget to add the STRAWBERRY compote/drizzle/sauce/DELICIOUSNESS. That's probably my favorite part! And it's also easy to make. Cook up some strawberries - blend them smooth. SMOTHER cheesecake in that gorgeous red yummines 🙂
How to Store Dairy-Free Cheesecake
This cake needs to stay refrigerated. For best results, store the strawberry sauce separately and pour on when serving.
- Keep refrigerated for about 1 week, tightly wrapped, or frozen for 1 month. Individual slices can be wrapped and thawed as needed whenever you need some cake!
- Freezing the sauce is not recommended due to change in texture.
Who's ready to dive face first into some dairy-free KETO CHEESECAKE!?! Yasssss. Enjoy! 🙂 If you make this recipe, I wanna hear what you think!! Tag me on Instagram @emily.likes.food #prettypies
Dairy-Free New York Cheesecake {Keto, Vegan, Paleo}
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 ½ cups nuts - almonds/walnuts
- 2 Tbs coconut oil
- Pinch of salt
- Dash of pure stevia
Cheesecake:
- 1 ½ cups blanched almonds - soaked
- 6 Tbs coconut milk
- Heaping ⅛ teaspoon pure stevia powder - to taste
- ½ cup + 2 Tbs coconut oil - melted
- 2.5 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
- Dash of pink salt
Strawberry Sauce:
- 1 ½ cups chopped strawberries
- ½ Tbs lemon juice - or water
- Dash of pure stevia powder - optional
- Splash of vanilla - optional
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Pulse together all ingredients in a food processor until small crumbs form.
- Press crust firmly into a small-7" springform pan lined with parchment. Set aside.
To make the filling:
- Soak almonds in a bowl of hot water (brought to a boil) for 2 hours. Drain, rinse and shake dry.
- Blend almonds in a food processor for several minutes until completely smooth and a ball forms. Scrape down the sides.
- Add remaining ingredients and blend smooth. Taste and adjust for sweetness.
- Pour over crust. Freeze for about 3 hours until set, remove springform, then refrigerate until ready to serve.
To make the strawberry sauce:
- Cook strawberries and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium high heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring and mashing with a spatula as you go.
- Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and stevia, if using.
- Puree mixture to desired consistency using an immersion blender, small blender (or macerate with a potato masher for a chunky texture.) Taste and adjust for sweetness.
- Chill for 30-60 minutes. Drizzle a spoonful over each slice of cheesecake. ENJOY!
Notes
Cuisinart Food Processor Bulk Supplements pure stevia powder Nordicware 7” Springform Pan -- if you use a standard size pan, your cake will be flat/thin. Double the filling for a 9"-10" pan. Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk *full fat is a must for the creaminess Nuts from ALDI To Store: Keep refrigerated for about 1 week, tightly wrapped, or frozen for 1 month.
boston celtics mom
can you substitute almond flour for the blanched almonds?
Emily
I don't think that would yield the same texture. Soaking the almonds makes them absorb water/soften, making them able to be blended into cream.
I would be afraid the flour would make it gritty instead of creamy.
I found a bag of blanched almond slivers at Aldi for $2.89 🙂 Much cheaper than almond flour. I would try to get the almonds instead.
Care
I haven’t switched to Stevia. Could you advise me on how I could convert this recipe using sugar? Thanks!
Emily
I would try adding 1/2 cup powdered sugar, then taste and adjust if needed. It may need a little more milk if it's too dry. If you try it, let me know how it turns out
Valerie
Lakanto- available online or Whole foods! Tastes just like sugar, made from monk fruit. No yucky aftertaste.
Renee Bushor
Regarding crust it says "Tbs Pinch of salt"
please verify
Crust:
1 1/2 cups nuts almonds/walnuts
2 Tbs coconut oil
Tbs Pinch of salt
Dash of pure stevia
Emily
Whoops! I will have to fix that. No tbs!! 🙂 just a pinch
Asia
Hoi! How much erythritol could I use instead? And is ir possible to use some plant milk instead the coconut?
Kindly,
Asia
Juliana Ramsey
Hi making this for my Momma today 🙂 I was wondering if I need to bring the almonds and water to a boil or just the water? Thanks 🙂
Emily
Just boil the water and pour it over the almonds Hope you both enjoy!
CP
What is the nutrition information for this? Thanks!
Emily
It's roughly 3.5 g net carbs per slice. You can paste the URL for the recipe into https://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe_parser for a quick nutritional calculation. 🙂
Dianne Dansby
CAN YOU SUB COCONUT PALM SUGAR FOR STEVIA OR MAPLE SYRUP?
Emily
Yes, you can replace the coconut milk with maple syrup.
I would use 1/4 cup and taste to see if it's sweet enough. Just try to use the same amount of liquid overall (maple + milk, if needed) as the original recipe so the consistency is not thrown off 🙂
If you try it, I'd love to hear what you think!
JCM
I made this for my dad. He was craving cheesecake, but does not eat dairy nor sugar due to stage 4 cancer. We LOVED the recipe. I had to use his vitamix to blend down the almonds. (My oster blender couldn’t cut it.) I can’t wait to try this again, but use other toppings. I sweetened everything with swerve and added cinnamon to the crust.
Emily
I’m so happy you loved it! That is really nice of you to make it for your dad. I hope he is ok Thanks so much for leaving a review
Caroline
Hi, thank you for posting your beautiful recipes. I have saved several of them and am eager to try them all. I only have a 10 inch springform pan. Can you please help me with adjusting the ingredients? Should I just double everything? Thanks in advance!
Emily
You are so welcome! You could either double or increase by 1.5x. Or leave as-is and have a flatter cheesecake. 🙂
Hope you enjoy!
Arron Dulay
Ahhh, cooking is so hard since being allergic to dairy, nuts and eggs. Thanks for the recipe. Could I replace almonds with another nut type or anything else?
Emily
You are welcome! For the crust, any nut or seed will work. For the filling you can use cashews or macadamia nuts. Hopefully you're not allergic to those 🙂
Melissa
Can I use Swerve instead of Stevia? Where it says Stevia powder.. would I use Swerve Confection?
Emily
Yes you can 🙂 definitely the confection/powdered version. Just add to taste.
I would also add a little liquid so it's not too dry.
Let me know if you try it and how it goes.
Lauren Walsh
Hi! Thank you so much for this amazing and delish looking recipe! I plan to make it today/tomorrow. Would it be ok to use a 9 inch springform pan instead of a 7”?
Emily
Hi! You are welcome!
Yes, that is fine. It will just be flatter 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Lauren Walsh
Another question - my almonds have been soaking for almost 2 hrs now (I’m using slivered ones) and they aren’t very soft. Is that ok?
Emily
Did you soak them in hot water (just off a boil?) if so, they should be good. If not, maybe soak longer. You could even change the water-- drain and add hot water. There won't be a drastic obvious difference in the almonds after soaking, so you're probably good! Hope that helps! 🙂
Lauren Walsh
Yes. I did. And that does help! Thank you! ♥️
Lauren Walsh
This recipe is amazing! It was a big hit with my family!
Emily
Yay!! So glad to hear that! Thank you
Lauren
Is there anyway I could make this cheesecake, chocolate? Or do you have another grain, dairy, and sugar free chocolate (cheese)cake recipe?
Emily
Yes! You could add 3-5 Tbs cacao powder to make it chocolate. And/or a few Tbs melted SF chocolate.
It will likely need a little more sweetener and liquid, But just taste and adjust as you go 🙂 It's flexible.
I also have a chocolate cheesecake recipe with a low carb option. It's cashew based, though, so it's a little higher carb than this NY recipe.
https://prettypies.com/chocolate-fudge-cheesecake
It lists stevia as the sub, but you can also swap pure maple syrup for Lakanto SF maple syrup. I love monkfruit!
Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to help! 🙂
Lauren
OK. Thanks a lot! 🙂 I am on a very strict grain free, sugar-free, dairy free, and other frees 🙂 diet, so the Lakanto maple syrup won’t work for me because I believe that uses corn-derived erythritol. But thank you! I may try using the cacao.
Emily
You are welcome! The Lakanto pure monkfruit extract and vanilla monkfruit drops do not contain erythritol, just fyi 🙂
If you make it, let me know how it turns out. Hope you enjoy!
Lauren
Oh! I’m just noticing that, I can make that chocolate cheesecake recipe, because I can use just Stevia. Yay! 🙂
Emily
Yay!
Lauren
Thanks! I don’t think I knew that. 🙂
Megan
Is the coconut oil solid or liquid for the crust!
Emily
Solid. It melts when you blend it 🙂
Megan
Perfect! Thanks so much. This will be a great dessert for Christmas
Emily
Hope you all enjoy Merry Christmas!
Rachel
This did not come out tasting like the real deal at all. I don't like it at all. I'm really discouraged. 🙁
Emily
Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that Did you taste the filling and adjust to taste? This one is not as sweet as my other cheesecakes. More tangy. And if you're not used to stevia, maybe that was it?
My favorite cheesecake is this Orange Spice one (https://prettypies.com/orange-spice-cheesecake), which uses monkfruit. Better flavor and better texture.
Rachel
I did taste it and tried to adjust. Even got my boyfriend's second opinion. We thought it would taste better after it was frozen but it was just bad. I guess it could be the stevia but I know my brother made some cheesecakes with actual cheese that were sweetened with stevia in order to be low carb and I loved those. Thanks for the alternative suggestion but I'm not a big fan of orange and I really wanted a regular cheesecake. I'm just so discouraged because everything I try just turns into a waste of time and hope and expensive ingredients.
Marissa
I'm excited to try this but after soaking my almond slivers for 3 hours and processing them they are just turning into almond meal and won't turn into a paste/cheesecake. Could I be doing something wrong? Trying 2 different food processors, it's slowly coming along but has taken forever. Any advice is much appreciated!
Emily
Oh no, sorry it’s taking so long. My advice is to just keep blending. It may just need some more time.
Also just want to make sure you blending the almonds just by them self with no liquids or anything else added? If not, that may explain why it’s not blending.
One other thing that could affect it: the size of the food processor. Large ones (like 11 cup) are not as adept at blending small amounts. If you have a small one, I would use that.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.
Marissa
Hi, thank you for responding! So we ended up feeling like our processors weren't as powerful as they could (we processed for so long and it just wouldn't improve) be so my husband used an immersion blender to sort of mash it down and it helped a lot. Still wasn't totally smooth but it came out very tasty. I am going to try again, the only other thing I thought of is that although I soaked the almonds in boiling water (poured over and left to sit on counter) for 3 hours, my kitchen is ice cold so maybe they didn't soften very well? I am definitely going to experiment a bit, there are too many amazing cheesecakes to make. Love all of your recipes!!!
Marissa
Also, of you were using pure monk fruit extract powder (Lakanto) do you know how much you would use? I have been doing everything to taste but was curious!
Emily
I start with about 1/16 tsp and sweeten to taste. It doesn’t take much! 🙂
Emily
Oh maybe it was the cold kitchen! You can soak them overnight or refresh the water a couple of times. That should help.
Thank you, I’m glad you love the recipes!!
Mira
Does the ratio of almonds to walnuts for the crust matter? Can I use 2/3 walnuts, or even ALL walnuts?
Thank you!
Emily
It’s not a huge deal. It will just have more walnut flavor and be a bit softer 🙂 Almonds are more neutral tasting. But you can use as many walnuts as you like. They work great.
Hope you enjoy!
melissa
My little one is on a very strict medically supervised sugar free keto diet. Can’t have a SF real cheesecake because of allergies, so I was thrilled to find this recipe for their birthday cake! Got ingredient approval (minus the strawberry topping) from doctor but would like us to not use the lemon juice in the filling. Is the lemon juice for taste and color, or a necessary acid or binder? Can I leave it out or replace it?
Emily
The lemon juice gives the tangy flavor and some of the moisture. You can replace it with water, almond milk or coconut milk or another liquid.
If you can, I would add some type of flavor, extract or topping, so it’s not bland.
What about a drizzle /topping using almond butter, stevia, vanilla and coconut oil like on this cake, (but with almond butter) https://prettypies.com/caramel-brownie-Chunk-Cheesecake
I hope you enjoy and your little one has a great birthday!
Melissa
Thank you for your advice and suggestions! I made it yesterday and the taste and consistency is like a NY cheesecake. I added more coconut milk instead of lemon juice. It worked but I could see how it would’ve made a big difference for that true zing and flavor. With that being said if I make this again without lemon juice per doctor orders, it tastes just like an almond joy cheesecake and all it would need is a sugar free chocolate topping/sauce! Thank you again!
Emily
You are welcome! So glad it worked out for you chocolate sauce would be amazing!! I’ll have to try that
Jessze
May I replace the coconut milk with almond milk?
Emily
If you do, it won’t be as rich and creamy
Lynn
Hi, could you tell me how much Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener I would use in place of the 1/8 heaping tsp of pure stevia powder? Thank you!
Emily
Sure, I would try 3-4 Tbs *powdered* lakanto monkfruit. Don't use the classic granulated monkfruit b/c it's too gritty. If you only have classic, put it in a small blender for about 15 seconds to make powder.
Always taste and adjust to your desired sweetness 🙂 You can always add more if you like. Hope that helps! Enjoy! - Emily
Hayley
Hi Emily.
What would the ratios be if I wanted to use Besti instead of the pure stevia powder?
Emily
1/8 tsp pure stevia = about 1/2 cup sweeteners that measure like sugar. I would start with 1/3 cup and add a Tbs at a time until it’s sweet enough. Also use powdered Besti so it’s not gritty. if you don’t have powdered, it’s easy to make it by blending the granules into a powder using a small blender
For the crust, I’d use about 1-2 Tbs.
Hope you enjoy! 🙂 Let me know how it turns out