Going Low Carb

Cheesecake for Dinner

I’m having a bit of an identity crisis.  I’m a baker.  I’m always the one to bring dessert.  I bake with my kids on a regular basis and our family weekend breakfasts include an array of baked goods: sticky buns, scones, pumpkin bread, pancakes, waffles – you name it.  I’ve sold desserts professionally.

The caveat: baking is inconsistent with a low carb diet.

Sure, we’ve all read about the low carb substitutes for flour and sugar. I’ve had limited success with substitutes – both in using and in eating them. So, where does that leave a baker who has decided to make the switch to low carb eating? With a bit of an identity crisis.

Each Thanksgiving, my specialty is pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and pecan praline topping. Yum. At one point, I was making and selling dozens of cheesecakes each year during the week of Thanksgiving. Recently I attempted a low carb cheesecake with only a bit of pure maple syrup for sweetness and toasted pecans for the crust. It was not bad… with the spices you could almost imagine the real thing. But, in fact, it was far more savory than sweet.

I needed to reframe my thinking. I decided to give baking a shot from the savory side. I attempted a savory pumpkin cheesecake and the results were delightful. I satisfied my yearning to bake, if not my sweet tooth.

You should try it, too. It is a hearty dish that makes a great lunch for the following day. So reframe your thinking and have cheesecake for dinner!

Greasing the Pan

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 8 oz. bacon
• 8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh sage, plus more whole sage for garnish
• 2 (8 oz.) bricks cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
  

  Onions, Garlic, Sage

• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (see note below)
• 1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• 2 tbsp roasted salted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• vegetable oil for preparing garnish

Start by cooking your bacon and reserving the grease. Once cooked and cooled, crumble the bacon.

Mushroom & Bacon Crust

Pour half of the bacon grease out of the pan and brush a bit of it on the bottom and sides of a springform pan. Use the grease remaining in the pan to saute the mushrooms for about 5 minutes until cooked. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and spread them in the bottom of the prepared pan to form the crust of the cheesecake. Crumble half of the bacon on top of the mushrooms to help fill in the crust.

Add any remaining bacon grease left from oiling the springform pan back to the saute pan. Add the onions, garlic, and chopped sage and saute until soft. Remove this mixture from the pan and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, broth, pumpkin, sour cream, eggs, allspice, salt, and pepper until smooth. Fold in the remaining crumbled bacon, parmesan cheese, and the cooled onion, garlic, and sage mixture.

Ready to Bake

Pour pumpkin filling over the crust and bake at 300’ for about 1 hour, 10 minutes or until set. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan before serving to allow the cheesecake to finish setting. It should still be warm for serving. Garnish the top with pepitas, more parmesan, and a few sage leaves freshly fried in oil.

Savory Pumpkin Cheesecake

The result is a wonderfully rich and creamy cheesecake reminiscent of a thick butternut squash soup.

A note about pumpkin: We use pumpkin often in our household. Until recently, we have been able to find it easily year round. Due to the pumpkin shortage, however, we have had great difficulty locating it in the grocery stores. Organic canned pumpkin is available at Amazon.com, which is where we got ours.