Rich and decadent, this THM S Autumn apple cheesecake has an oat walnut crust, slivers of real apple throughout, and a coffee caramel sauce topping… and this refined sugar free cheesecake is a great people pleaser – even those people who usually eat sugar!
It may look like a lot of work, but it’s actually quite easy (just a lot of hands off oven and chilling time) and you could leave the coffee caramel sauce off entirely if coffee isn’t your slice of Heaven (the cheesecake will still be delicious).
The Equipment
You *might* be able to pull this off without a springform pan, but all bets are off on how to get the cheesecake out nicely. (A different pan would make keeping the water for the water bath out of the actual cheesecake easier, however… just make sure your alternative pan is deep and oven safe.)
A food processor is pretty much a *must* for this recipe. It not only makes the job a million times easier, it’s practical. (No, I don’t recommend a blender. It doesn’t have enough liquid.) I use a relatively cheap food processor that is probably at least twenty years old, and it does the job just fine.
Although a stand mixer with a paddle attachment is nice, you could probably get by without one… but your arm will probably be quite tired by the end. You’ve been warned.
Autumn Apple Cheesecake Ingredients
When we were on our recent road trip, we purchased a bunch of piñata apples, so I used those for this recipe… but since those are not available to me normally (and they are softer and sweeter) I would probably use Pink Lady or Honey Crisp apples in the future.
This cheesecake is topped with a coffee caramel topping – the recipe I recently published. Get the Decadent Coffee Caramel Sauce recipe!
Please do NOT use oat flour in this recipe. Oat fiber is not the same thing… I purchase mine from the Trim Healthy Mama store as not all oat fiber is created equal (and some brands will actually ruin your recipe).
Truvia spoonable jar has a refill bag available, which I use frequently to refill my jar, but make sure it’s not the blend from the same brand that contains sugar.
You can try substituting plain 0% Greek yogurt (I like Chobani or Fage brands) in place of the sour cream to reduce the fat content and make this a slightly less heavy dessert (also cut it into more servings). I replace sour cream with Greek yogurt in a 1:1 ratio all the time and have never missed the sour cream. This was just one instance where we happened to have sour cream and not Greek yogurt.
Autumn Apple Cheesecake
Equipment
- springform pan 9 inch
- Food processor
- stand mixer with paddle attachment
Ingredients
Oat Walnut Crust
- 1 1/2 c old fashioned oats
- 2 c walnuts
- 8 tbsp butter salted, melted
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- 2 tbsp truvia spoonable jar
Autumn Apple Cheesecake
- 24 oz neufchatel cheese softened
- 1/3 c truvia spoonable jar
- 2 tbsp truvia spoonable jar
- 1 tsp blackstrap molasses
- 1/2 tbsp oat fiber NOT interchangeable with oat flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 c sour cream (or 0% plain Greek yogurt or a lighter version)
- 3 lrg eggs
- 2 med apples peeled, cored, and processed or chopped small
Topping
- 1 batch coffee caramel sauce recipe link in notes
- apple pieces, optional peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
Instructions
For the Oat Walnut Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Cover the outside of a 9" springform pan in heavy duty foil with no gaps, using multiple sheets of foil if necessary. Grease the inside of the springform pan. Set aside.
- In a food processor, combine the oats and walnuts. Process until most of the oats and walnuts are in small pieces.
- Add the melted butter, cinnamon, and truvia. Process until mixture begins to stick together.
- Press the oat walnut mixture into the greased springform pan.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Leaving oven on to bake the cheesecake, remove the crust from oven and set aside.
For the Autumn Apple Cheesecake
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the neufchatel cheese until smooth.
- Add the truvia and molasses, and beat again.
- Beat in cinnamon, oat fiber, vanilla, and sour cream.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.
- Stir or beat in the apples.
- Pour the cheesecake filling into your freshly baked crust, and carefully place springform pan (still with foil on the outside) into a large oven safe dish.
- Fill the outer dish with water so that it comes up about an inch high on the springform pan.
- Carefully place the two nested dishes (one with water and one with cheesecake) into the hot oven and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the top of the cheesecake is lightly browned and feels firm when lightly pressed.
- Remove from oven and cool, then refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Topping
- Make the coffee caramel sauce (recipe link in notes) and drizzle lightly over the top of the cooled cheesecake.
- Top with peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples if desired (this might bring it into THM XO category but would add more apple flavor).
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Once you process the crust ingredients in the food processor, you can use the same bowl for the peeled, cored apple for the cheesecake filling.
- Adding the optional apple slices to the top could push this cheesecake into THM XO category, depending on how much apple you use, but would add more apple flavor.
- This is a THM heavy S recipe, to be enjoyed occasionally - it's a very indulgent treat and not conducive to weight loss if enjoyed too often.
- Feel free to make the cheesecake slices thinner to feed more people and make this a *slightly* less indulgent dessert.
Did you make this recipe? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.
Christian, wife, “hybrid” mama, I run the site All Behind A Smile to help others like me.
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