Behold…cheesecake berry crunch. This recipe is my very favorite dessert from the Trim Healthy Mama book, and the authors gave me special permission to share it with you! Get those taste buds ready…this stuff is SO good.
If you love cheesecake, then this is an amazing, no cook stand in for busy days! It’s really only a few ingredients tossed together: salted roasted almonds for the crunch, frozen berries, and some cream cheese that’s sweetened up a bit. The result is an amazing, flavor and texture bursting experience that’s worthy of fireworks display and declarations of love.
In fact, I think I need to whip up a batch, of this cheesecake berry crunch recipe RIGHT NOW!
The recipe in the book calls for your food processor, and I have used my little 2 cup counter top processor to do this, but I have found that I turn into more of a smushed puree when I use the food processor.
I really love to get the whole berry texture and the little crunchy nuts chunks in there with just a ribbon of creamy cheesecake flavor. Plus, lazy. I just don’t like to mess with appliance washing if it can be helped. So I have found that it’s just as easy to chunk up the almonds with my knife, schmoosh the cream cheese around with them in a bowl with the stevia, and then just stir in the berries.
SUPAH yum. Cold berry-fresh tartness, sweet cream-cheesy, and crunchy-salty…all of my favorite textures and flavors. You can see why this is my favorite Trim Healthy Mama dessert. Now you need to TASTE it for yourself!
Here is your printable cheesecake berry crunch recipe:
- ½ cup dry roasted, salted almonds
- ½ t. vanilla or almond extract
- 2 drops NOW Lemon essential oil or ⅛th t. lemon extract (optional but so good!)
- ¼ cup cream cheese (low fat or regular) or 2 oz. from a block.
- sweetener to taste- I use NuNaturals Stevia extract
- ¾ cups raspberries, strawberries, or berry blend
- Chop almonds by hand into chunks (each almond into about ⅓ if you're detail oriented), or pulse briefly in the food processor.
- If using a food processor: dump chopped almonds into your serving bowl, and add cream cheese, flavorings, and sweetener to the food processor bowl. Cream together, and add to your serving bowl with the almonds.
- If you're doing it by hand: which is my preference, then just leave your almonds on the cutting board, and add your cream cheese, flavorings and sweetener to the serving bowl and cream together.
- Taste and adjust flavors/sweetness.
- Stir chopped almonds, frozen berries, and cream cheese mixture together until well combined.
- Dig in!
If I didn’t love you already, now I love you 10xs more. Barry LOVES this. I think my favorite dessert is Cottage Berry Whip though. 🙂
😀
My favorite too . . . .
Love this Gwen! I like to do things by hand too…. cookie bowl oatmeal is super easy with a whisk. No blender needed!
Yes! I do the same thing with cookie bowl oatmeal. 🙂
Sigh…this.is.my.favorite! I may have had it last night for dessert. I also confess that I wait until my kids are in bed so I don’t have to share…shhhh……
I’ll never tell. 🙂
I got around 7 grams net carbs when I calculated 1/2 of this recipe. Did I do something wrong, or is it ok to go over the 11 gram limit sometimes for s?
You’d want to subtract the fiber from the carbs to get the net carbs, which would be around 8 grams per cup of berries (and we’re only using 3/4 cup in a full recipe, so 6 grams). Any carbs from your sugar alcohol sweeteners would not be counted.
Okay, so I got the book and I’m still reading the intro. Planning to look at breakfast meals like you suggested. But I keep coming across “add stevia (or sweetener) to taste”. How in the world do I even know a starting point? I do still have that Stevia In the Raw, but I won’t buy it again like you said with that maltodextrin. I did buy Organic Coconut Sugar and SweatLeaf Drops to try, but again… I’m not sure where to start.
There are so many different kinds of sweetening products, and even among the different brands of stevia extract there is a lot of variation in sweetness.
My best advice is to use the stevia extract in tiny amounts in single serving recipes where you can taste as you go. Something like the cheesecake berry crunch or even your cup of coffee. 🙂 That will help you get a feel for how much to use in other things.
The ‘blends’ like the Stevia in the Raw are going to use larger amounts of sweetener to achieve a good level of sweet. A true stevia extract is going to be dusting amounts. The liquid stevia like Sweetleaf will use a few drops for a drink, or up to a dropper full for bigger recipes.
Thanks, Gwen! I didn’t have any cream cheese so I mixed it up in a bowl with your Luscious Lemon Yogurt and a few drops of Lemon Extract – SOOOOOOO good!!!
Oh, deliciousness!
I was running around all morning and had to get ready for an afternoon shift at work. Not much time but I whipped this up for lunch and it was fantastic! Thanks
Oh, this is one of my favorites. 🙂
Okay so this might be a silly question, but is this classified as an S snack?
The first time I had this I used a blender…it was a huge hassle, and I had to add lots of almond milk…but it turned into ice cream! Delicious! ! I now have a food processor and made it creamy on purpose. My children are convinced it IS ice cream! So yummy!
I have been looking at the lemon essential oil for sale on the internet and it appears to be non-edible. What did I miss?
I use NOW lemon oil, which I feel very comfortable using in these types of amounts in foods. If you’ll look up their essential oil FAQ, you can read more about their testing and processing methods. They match the higher $$$$ companies for purity.
NOW does not have the “internal use” focus of other EO companies, but their oils are rigorously tested for purity. I actually respect that they don’t give usage recommendations on the packaging, since that leaves it up to the consumer to do their own research & speak with a professional.
Many eo’s are toxic, even in their purest form. So there are just very few that I’d consider using internally. This is one of them. 🙂
Hi Gwen, just wanted to let you know that I work for a local health food store and we sell the NOW essential oils. We called the company to ask about using the oils internally. They said that if the essential oil is from something that is a food (for example, lemon or basil) then taking it internally is fine in small amounts. 🙂
And I agree with you, they are a great company, and one that I trust. I use many of their EO’s and love them!
Great to know, Rene! 🙂 I appreciate that their company encourages personal research and professional counsel on using eo’s internally.
Good idea! I blended all the ingredients in a blender and added a bit of heavy whipping cream. It WAS like ice cream.
Thanks so much for sharing, Gwen! Made this for the first time today (only been doing THM for a couple of weeks) and totally loved it! Will become a dessert fave (and possibly a naughty brekky!) Thankyou again for all you do for us THM’s 🙂
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I made it for dessert just now, using slightly less than 3/4 cup frozen strawberries and ~1 TBSP stewed rhubarb. I used 2 packets of Truvia for the sweetener, and it was delicious.
Oh, I LOVE rhubarb with strawberries!
Could I use pecans instead? Just raw, maybe I’ll warm them up in the oven and sprinkle some salt on them. Just making sure there’s not a reason most of their recipes have almonds and not other nuts? I looooove pecans!! Thanks!
Pecans would work nicely in this. 🙂 Toast them a bit for a good crunch factor, and maybe stir them in last. Almonds are just easy to come by for most of us. 🙂
So this looks delicious, but I’m allergic to nuts. Any suggestions on what could be substituted to give some crunch, but remain on plan? Usually, I substitute sunflower seeds where nuts are included, but just don’t think that sounds at all appetizing….
Thanks!
Can you do coconut? Try it with toasted coconut! There’s a wonderful coconut crunch recipe here: https://gwens-nest.com/sugar-free-coconut-caramel-crunch/
Hi Gwen, I LOVE this recipe! I have only had it for dessert and I usually get three servings out of it. Can I really have the whole thing if I am eating it for breakfast?!?! A half of a cup of almonds and a 1/4 of a cup of cream cheese isn’t too much fat? Just curious, because, well, it’s my favorite! 🙂
You can! I would probably not choose this every day, just because I like to switch things up and not stay so heavy with my S meals and snacks. I try not to use lots of almonds. I have this once or twice a month. 🙂
Hey Gwen, I was curious, if I wanted to make a huge batch, would I store it in the freezer, or in the fridge? Wouldn’t it lose the cold crunchiness? Thanks!
I think it’s best made fresh. That way you get the creamy and icy and crunchy all together. If it’s pre-frozen, it would be more like a chunky popsicle. 🙂
Fantastic Dessert! I’m new to THM and can’t believe this decadent treat is something I can have! Absolutedly delicious!