Norwitz Notions

One of my favorite recipes but one I can’t have any more (I can cheat with the dairy, but not the eggs).

Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking by Michael Norwitz
For the regular versions (with sugar) see cheesecake and pumpkin cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 well-beaten eggs
3/4 lb to 1 lb firm cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
3/4 to 1 teaspoon stevia or to taste (plain white powder)
1/2 teaspoons flavoring of your choice (lemon juice or a flavored extract) or to taste or 1/4 teaspoon cardamon and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups thick cultured sour cream
2 tablespoons almond powder or flour
2 tablespoons butter
optional: 2 cups berries of choice (halved or sliced)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Crust:

Melt butter and use to coat tin.
Dust with almond powder or flour.

Filling:

Mix together the eggs, cream cheese, 3/4 to 1 teaspoon stevia, and 1 teaspoon flavoring.
Pour the cream cheese mixture into the crust, and bake for 20 minutes
Mix together sour cream, 1/4 teaspoon stevia, and 1/2 teaspoon flavoring.
Remove pie tin from oven; layer will have risen.
Let cool (until the cream cheese layer has compacted) and increase oven temp to 425 degrees. If you are adding berries, cover the bottom layer evenly.
Pour sour cream mixture over the cake.
Bake for 5 minutes. Let it cool to room temp, and refrigerate for about 6 hours.

Alternate crusts:

2 cups nuts of choice (almonds, walnuts, etc): Run nuts through a food processor until they have a fine texture. Melt butter and mix well with the nuts. Press into the pie tin. This has a good flavor but distracts from the cheesecake somewhat.

Or: dust with two tablespoons vanilla soy powder instead of almond. This is good for those with nut allergies, although it does tend to clump slightly into thin flakes.

This picture is a bit of a cheat since it is a slightly different recipe (New York style) with some sugar, baked in a spring form pan. This was the bottom layer (of 3) of our wedding cake from 2005. Blackberry compote topping.

An earlier version of this recipe was posted to my lowcarb website June, 1, 1999.
Other listings: Gourmet Sleuth article on Stevia & recipes listing