Best Low-Carb Cheesecake EVER!

Okay, I'm a bit biased. Maybe even a lot biased. Whatever. I've been experimenting with low-carb cheesecake for a few years now, and this is definately the best one of them all, by a long shot.

Based on the "Brown Sugar & Buttermilk Cheesecake" recipe I found over at www.readio.com, I took their fine recipe, and reworked it to be low-carb and to work in my favorite cooking gizmo of late, the pressure cooker.

Equipment:

• 5" springform pan. I just so happen to have a hyperlink to where you can buy one.
• pressure cooker. I favor the Fagor.
• pressure cooker steamer basket that goes in the cooker.
• Mixer. I favor the KitchenAid.
• Aluminum foil
• Other stuff as needed.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 8-ounce packages cream cheeese, room temperature.
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup pourable Splenda (the still-low-carb pourable stuff, not the half-real-sugar Baking Splenda)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (give some of it in a glass to your kids for a laugh!)
• 2 tablespoons Amaretto flavor sugar-free syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Mix two eggs together in a bowl and set aside. Get your cream cheese and toss it into the mixing bowl. I warm the cream cheese first in a glass dish, to get the stuff up to room temp. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, it probably came with that stylin' looking paddle for mixing, which I prefer for cream cheese. Start mixing up that cream cheese. You will be beating it pretty good. Add in the egg mix slowly, too fast and it will splash all over the place. Add in all the other stuff, a little at a time. Get that thing beat pretty good.

Alternate Directions: If you want a little "chunk" to your cheesecake, do the above with only one package of cream cheese. After everything is well mixed, add in the last 1/2 package of cream cheese, and mix it to where the cheese is broken up into bits, but not completely blended in. This is, imho, the way to go. Very interesting texture.

Okay, anyhow, get your hard-to-find 5" diameter cheesecake pan, and coat it good inside with butter. This is going to be a no-crust cheesecake. Pour the cheesecake batter into the greased cheesecake pan. The batter just about reach the top of the pan.

Get a square of aluminum foil, place the cheesecake pan in the center of the square, and fold up the foil around the bottom of the pan, so that water does not seep in at the bottom during cooking. Get another square of foil, wrap the foil over the top of the cheesecake pan, so that the cheesecake doesn't fill up with steam and water during cooking. You probably won't even see the pan after covering it up with the foil, but that' fine.

Fill your pressure cooker with 2 cups of water, or whatever amount you use when using a steaming basket within your pressure cooker. If you don't have a steaming basket for your pressure cooker, or if you don't have a pressure cooker, give up now. I hope you read this before you make up a bunch of cheesecake batter.

Place the cheesecake pan in steaming basket in the pressure cooker. Close the lid on the pressure cooker and seal it. If your pressure cooker has multiple pressure settings, use the high setting. Following the directions for your pressure cooker, cook for 20 minutes, then remove from heat for another 10. Using my Fagor pressure cooker, this means that I start the pressure cooker on a burner turned on high until steam is blowing out the pressure cooker and the little pop-up indicator pops up. I then carefully slide the cooker over to another burner that is turned on halfway, where I start the timer for the 20 minutes.

Okay, after the 10 minutes is done, release any remaining pressure using the cold water release method. Do take care, you do not want to move the pressure cooker around too wildly.

After releasing the pressure, open the pressure cooker and remove the cheesecake pan, keeping mind that the pan will still be quite hot. Allow the pan to cool, then transfer it to the refrigerator for the evening. In the morning, remove the cheesecake from the cheesecake pan and transfer it to a different pan.

In my opinion, this makes for the best cheesecake ever, low carb or not.

The only complaint I received was from my wife, who could detect a metallic taste in the parts of the cheesecake in contact with the cheesecake pan. I've always had this problem with cheesecake pans. The next time I cook up one of these cheesecakes, I will see if lining the pan with parchment paper works
 or not.  Anyhow, there you go. If you give this a try, let me know how it went for you.