Hmm… seems like I am on a dessert kick lately. I promise to do more non-dessert after Christmas! lol I just can’t help myself!
Holidays just scream dessert to me! Usually I would buy probably 10 POUNDS of sugar, flour, and butter to last me through Thanksgiving and Christmas… oh my!
Now I have my favorite THM Sweetener and my poor old flour and sugar have been sitting there (probably should just throw it out).
Sooooo… here we go with these yummies! Turtle Cheesecake Bars!!!!!!
For the crust mix your dry ingredients well. Add room temp butter to your dry ingredients. Mix well until you get a dough ball.
Next, next press into a 9X13 baking dish that has been heavily greased (I use the organic coconut oil spray from Trader Joe’s). Use your fingers and press it down until it covers the bottom completely.
Bake this in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
Set aside to cool while you start your filling mixture.
Combine the cream cheese (and you can use 1/3 fat cream cheese if you want to), eggs, sweetener, & vanilla. (you can use the Basic Cheesecake recipe from the Trim Healthy Mama Book on page 373 if you’d rather)
Mix well!
Gently spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust.
Bake this for 25 minutes until you see a little golden touches around the edges (you can bake it for 5 minutes longer if needed).
Allow to cool for 5 minutes or so.
Next, chop up half a 3.5oz bar of 85% dark chocolate. Mix with 1/2 cup of pecans! Spread this on the warm cake.
***Caramel Sauce Recipe From Nana’s LIttle Kitchen… http://nanaslittlekitchen.com/brookes-five-minute-caramel-sauce/
(PLEASE USE THE ABOVE RECIPE… the site for the recipe below is down right now. The above recipe is great too & works!)
While the cheesecake cools whip up some of this most amazing delicious Caramel Sauce from Nana’s Little Kitchen Seriously y’all, I could DRINK this, it’s so good! I mean, you HAVE to make this and KEEP it on hand…
Drizzle this caramel sauce over the cheesecake.
Pop this into the fridge. For an hour then cut into bars or bite-sized pieces! AND ENJOY this S dessert!! NOM NOM…
THM Turtle Cheesecake Bars (S)
Description
Turtle Cheesecake Bars for the Trim Healthy Mama’s!! Yummy caramel sauce drizzled on top of chocolate & pecan covered cheesecake! Oh my!
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups of almond flour
- 1/4 cup of unsalted butter room temp or warmed
- 1/4 cup of THM Gentle Sweet or 1 tbsp. THM Super Sweet Blend (or 2 tbsp. Truvia or your favorite sweetener)
- Sprinkle of Salt
Cheesecake Filling
- 2– 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- 1/2 cup of THM GENTLE SWEET or 2 tbsp. of THM Super Sweet Blend (or 1/4 cup of Truvia or your favorite sweetener)
Topping
- Nana’s Little Kitchen’s Caramel Sauce (link is up in the post)
- Half of a 3.5oz bar of 85% dark chocolate chopped
- 1/2 cup pecans chopped
Instructions
Crust
- Mix dry ingredients with the warmed butter.
- Mix until a dough ball is formed.
- Grease a 9X13 baking dish well and press dough completely into the bottom of pan with your fingers.
- Bake the crust for 350 degrees at 15 to 20 minutes until it is golden brown.
- Allow to cool.
Filling
- Mix cream cheese, eggs, sweetener, and vanilla together well.
- Pour into cooled crust and bake for 25 to 30 minutes on 350 degrees until you get golden brown touches to the cheesecake.
- Allow to cool for 5 or so minutes before adding the chocolate/pecan pieces on top.
Topping
- Chop the pecans & chocolate up and mix together.
- Whip up a mixture of the caramel sauce.
- Add pecan and chocolate on top of the warm cake.
- Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top.
- Pop in the fridge for an hour then cut up into squares or bars.
- ENJOY!!!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 12
How about coconut flour? I love it better than almond. 2/3 cup ya think? Would it work?
Eekk… I am so sorry for not getting back sooner… I haven’t tried it yet with coconut flour. I think it would work but you need to add extra butter to it to keep it from crumbling! 🙂
Perhaps look up a coconut flour pie crust recipe, and sub that.
My whole family loved these which is hard to do sugar free! In fact I can wait to try one when they are cool, they couldn’t wait!
Haha that’s awesome!! Thank you!!
I love you! This looks wonderfully, deliciously, yummilicious! And I think caramel sauce with a drizzle of coffee is a marvelous idea!
Awhhhh well thank you! THE CARAMEL SAUCE!!!!!!
Umm. Don’t stop posting desserts on account o’ us 🙂 no one is complaining!
HAHA OK! 😉
AMEN to the comment to please do NOT stop posting dessert recipes. I am a dessert lover and having healthy recipes to choose from helps me stay at my current weight and LOSING rather than gaining!!!
THANK YOU, Sarah, for all your wonderful healthy recipes!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Awh hugs hugs thank you!!!
I’m wondering if you could freeze these after they are cut?
I believe so… I never have left overs to try it! haha The joys of six kiddos!
Since I have frozen other cheesecakes (and buy frozen ones) I would imagine freezing it would be just fine. You will need to wrap it in an airtight type wrap, which might be best achieved by cutting the cheesecake into the size servings you want, and “flash freezing” them unwrapped in the coldest part of your freezer for a couple of hours. Then, remove them, wrap them nicely in plastic wrap and place in a zipper freezer bag. That is the best way I know to freeze something like this successfully! Good luck!
Thank you for this tip!!!
Yummy. Eating it right now. It was a hot with all of the family. Even the hubby who isn’t a a stevia fan. Mmmm.
OH AWESOME!!!!!! 🙂
I made this and it was a hit! Those who didn’t know it was “different” said they had no idea. I myself thought it was delicious. I also loved that it wasn’t too sweet. 5 stars!
Awesome! 🙂 The caramel sauce is so amazing!! Kuddos to Jess Kuh for creating that!!
Thanks. 🙂 That sauce is super yummy, if I do say so myself.
YES YES YES it is!!!! Going to make some and put a tsp in my skinny chocolate!!! 🙂
This was amazing! Would never guess it wasn’t “normal” 🙂 thank you!
YAY!!! 🙂
Could I half the crust? (Trying to save $ on the almond meal)
You could make a 8X8 so half of the crust… just spread it really then! 🙂
If you are concerned about the price of the Almond flour for the whole crust, you could also add some pecans or whatever nut you have on hand to bulk it out a bit (if you have access to nuts for a good price like I do here in Texas – we have a lot of folks that have pecan trees around here and we can get them cheaper than from the store…). Just a thought 🙂
Looks great! I’m trying for the first time. I could only press almond mixture over 1/2 of the 9×13. Is this the true size?
Hmm… it is the true size but I had to work at getting it pressed down really good. I might need to work on maybe doubling the crust to make it easier to cover the bottom of the pan completely! Thank you for telling me!
I made an ‘almost’ sugar-free version of this today. I am a recipe developer for Glutino Foods and I wanted to use their new gluten-free salted caramel pretzels. I figured they would go well with the almond flour as part of the crust for this. It didn’t disappoint. I blogged about it, too! https://nowicanhavemycakeandeatittoo.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/chocolate-and-salted-caramel-cheesecake/
Oh awesome!!! Thank you for telling me!!!
Thank you for making your recipes printable.
You are so welcome!! 🙂
This sounds yummy
This is one of my husband’s favorite recipes! Of course, there hasn’t been one we’ve tried that we haven’t LOVED!
One of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth! Thank you!
My favorite recipe on THM! I looooooove it!!! Probably too much…. They go way too quickly! Haha! Thanks for this recipe!
Hi,
Made these bars for Easter, they were a hit. Thanks so much, looking forward to trying many more.
Love, LOVE LOVE this recipe..make it often
The Turtle Cheesecake Bars are by far one of my most favorite THM desserts!!!
This dessert gives me hope that I can survive on THM! Thank you!
Can I use Lilly’s choc chips instead of the choc bar? That’s all I have.
Yes yes!! YUM!!
Can I use Lilly’s choc chips? That’s all I have.
Absolutely!! 🙂
That looks freaky delicious…when I first read it, it said you wouldn’t be doing any ‘non-dessert’ stuff till after Christmas, and I thought, ‘What? Wait till then? NOOOO!”
Glad I kept reading and saw the comments were from last year…whew! Although this is on the list…gotta get some ingredients first, tho.
Thanks for your inspiration and desire to make things look sooooo ‘flippin’ good’!
Haha!! Hugs!!!
Oh dear. The sauce…I wanted to get out a straw but just used a spoon instead. 😉 Instead of just dark chocolate and nuts I made the yummy THM chocolate covered frozen nuts with pecans. So good!
Haha I know, right!? It’s amazing!!!
Could I use the Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend in place of the almond flour?
Hmmm…. you could probably try this… I would just less Baking Blend though.
Just curious, do you use blanched almond flour or the unblanched? The coloring of your crust makes me think it’s unblanched but thought I would ask. Can’t wait to make this for Christmas!!
I think I did use unblanched for these pictures but either would work! 🙂
What is the net carb count per serving?
I’m sorry I don’t have it figured out. :-/
Can I make the crust and then put the cheesecake on top then cook it together?
That should work! 🙂
This looks amazing and can’t wait to try..Have you ever made a recipe for Flan THM style the Carmel sounds so delicious made me think of it?
YUM!! Hmmm… I might have to try and make a flan!! 🙂
Is there anything I can subistute for the molasses in the Carmel sauce?
You can just leave it out!
Ooooh! Do you have a cookbook?
Not yet… I am hoping to!!
Do you happen to have the recipe for the caramel sauce? The link to the page is not working…says the site is suspended. 🙁 http://simplyhealthyhome.com/trim-healthy-mama-caramel-sauce/
My friend is having trouble with her page but here is another recipe that will work! http://nanaslittlekitchen.com/brookes-five-minute-caramel-sauce/
Help!! The recipe for the caramel is no longer there!!!
My friend’s site is down but here is a recipe that will work… http://nanaslittlekitchen.com/brookes-five-minute-caramel-sauce/
When you say “THM Sweet”, do you mean the Gentle Sweet? I am making these for Thanksgiving for my usually stevia-hating-but-recently-on-restrictions dad, so I want to get the proportions just right
It’s the old sweet blend or Super Sweet Blend now… I will update with Gentle Sweet because that’s what I use now!
This recipe is exactly what I need to serve a group of nonTHM ladies. Can’t wait to whip up a batch! Quick question on the caramel: Brooke’s note suggested adding xantham gum to avoid the caramel separating. Did you feel you needed to do this, or did it solidify enough as is? Thanks for sharing this recipe!
If my sauce is really thin, I will add a tiny but of the xantham gum but if not… I leave it alone! 🙂
Trim healthy mama newbie here. This recipe looks amazing!!! I’m hoping to make it for my mom’s birthday this weekend. I just had a question about the caramel recipe.
It mentions using “powdered” Gentle Sweet. I have a bag of THM Gentle Sweet (with xylitol) and it does look a bit powdery in comparison to my THM Super Sweet. Do I use it as is or is there something I’m supposed to do to make it powdered?
No just use the Gentle Sweet. No need to powder it! It’s mostly already powdered!
Thanks so much! I followed the recipe exactly using 1/3 less-fat cream cheese and it was very runny compared to your photo. Maybe my eggs were too big so made it thinner. I could just pour it into the crust. I’m not sure if it would have turned out better, but these were so yummy. The only problem was I used all Gentle Sweet and served it to people who were not used to it so that there was a lot of tummy rumbling and bathroom visits with 1/12th of the recipe. Next time I will try using Super Sweet and only Gentle Sweet for the topping. I used the whole recipe for the caramel sauce, maybe I was supposed to use only part of it? Well, I enjoyed them and will make them again!
Haha… yeah that will put you in the bathroom. I use the Xylitol-free THM Gentle Sweet. That does help some! 🙂
I cannot begin to say how ridiculously amazing this dessert is! I have made the whole thing, and I have halved the recipe and I have made it in muffin tins and I have NEVER been disappointed! This cheesecake is something we come back to over and over because it is easy and delicious. And the caramel sauce is perfection. Mrs. Criddle is pure genius! Thank you for helping to keep us healthy with incredible treats like this one.
★★★★★
This is a delicious cheesecake. Thank you.
★★★★★