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This recipe was developed for the dessert loving, health conscientious individuals who appreciates the finer things. A refined dessert with a Keto conscience. It has three components. A rich, praline hazelnut crust. A light but luscious vanilla bean & Meyer lemon filling. Garnished with Gateau Riche; almond lace tulle.

serves 8

Toasted Hazelnut Praline Crust.

• 1/2 cup butter

• 1 cup toasted hazelnuts, very finely chopped

• 1/2 cup almond flour

• 1/4 cup Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener

• a few passes of freshly grated nutmeg (use a microplane zester for this)

• pinch of salt

Mascarpone & Meyer lemon filling.

• 8 oz. mascarpone, softened

• 8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese, softened

• 1/4 cup Golden Monk Fruit Sweetener, finely ground

• 1/4 cup heavy cream

• 2 Tbsp. Sour Cream

• 1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice + zest from 1 Meyer lemon

• 1 tsp. bourbon vanilla

• 1 Madagascar vanilla bean, scrapped

Gateau Riche cookie garnish.

• 1 recipe of small batch, Gateau Riche

1.) Make your crust. Preheat oven to 375f. In a small sauce pan, heat 1/2 cup butter over medium heat until the butter foams up, turns amber in color & gives off a nutty aroma, usually 2-3 minutes then remove from heat. Browning the butter first elevates the flavor of the crust. Combine all crust ingredients in a medium size bowl, using a wooden spoon or your fingers, stir just until combined. Press this mixture into an 8” spring form pan, going up the side wall a bit. Bake for 7 minutes. Since ovens vary, watch the crust carefully, it should be just beginning to brown on edges but the center should still be soft to the touch. Set aside to cool completely, as it cools, the praline will set up firm.

2.) Meanwhile make your filling. In a large bowl, cream together mascarpone, cream cheese & monk fruit. You can do this by hand using a wooden spoon to break up the dense cream cheese then move onto a whisk or use a hand mixer. When totally smooth, beat in heavy cream & sour cream until incorporated. Then whisk in lemon juice, zest, vanilla & vanilla bean just until smooth & incorporated. Spoon filling into the cooled crust, you can place the crust in the freezer if needed to hasten the cooling process if need be. Smooth out the filling, cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate for 2 hours, or place in the freezer for 30-minutes to an hour. If desired, garnish with Gateau Riche, almond lace cookie.

Everyone loves the walnut & praises the pecan but where is the love for the hazelnut? So under used & under appreciated. This toasted hazelnut crust is really the star of this cheesecake. The short baking time is just enough to set the crust & caramelize the Monk Fruit, as it cools it takes on a perfect praline consistency. It’s decadent & somehow yet Keto!

By using Mascarpone & cream cheese we create a silkier, richer filling that manages still to remain light & airy against the rich crust. Mascarpone is the Italians answer to cream cheese. It is much higher in cream content making it silken & smooth but we relied on the denser cream cheese to add body to this no bake cheesecake. Vanilla bean & Meyer lemon strike a single note in perfect balance.

Gateau Riche are delicate & lacy almond cookies used in fine restaurants. They are very thin & mailable when warm, making them ideal for molding into various shapes. Rounded over a small bowl, they hold that shape to be filled with ice cream, sorbet or the like. Rolled up like cigars they can be filled with flavored creams or dipped in chocolate & rolled in chopped nuts. Now, the Gateau Riche in this recipe proved to be a challenge. Monk Fruit has a different molecule structure than white sugar therefor it gave different results. These cookies do not take shape well, they are however still lovely as thin rounds to be dipped in dark chocolate or to be a romantic flourish. The flavor of which is reminiscent of See’s toffee candy.