Crustless Pumpkin Cheesecake (with Sugar-free Salted Caramel Pecan Topping)
Ingredients
Cheesecake
Topping
Instructions
  1. Arrange your oven racks so there is a rack at the bottom and one in the middle. Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees and put a large pot or full kettle of water on to boil.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and Greek yogurt. Beat on medium with a hand mixer until they are thoroughly combined.
  3. Add in pumpkin, sweetener, protein (if using), pie spice and vanilla and blend again until thoroughly combined.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat your egg whites until they form soft peaks (about 3-4 minutes on medium).
  5. GENTLY, tip your egg whites into the cream cheese mixture and use a scraper or a long wooden spoon to gently fold the egg whites into the mixture (folding is gently turning the batter over on itself over and over again). NOTE: It may take a few minutes to get it all combined. Do not rush and do not use the hand mixer!
  6. If you’re using a baking pan, spray it down with non-stick cooking spray. If you’re using a springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper (you can also just spray it down, but parchment paper makes it easier to remove the cake from the pan later). Scrape the batter out of the bowl and then spread it evenly.
  7. In the bottom rack of your oven, set a large baking dish and then fill it with the boiling water. In the center oven rack, set your baking dish.
  8. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the cheesecake seems mostly set (it will start to pull away from the sides of the baking dish and will appear firm). Turn off the oven, prop the oven door open and allow the cheesecake to stay in there while the oven cools down, usually about 20 – 25 minutes. This is what it looks like at the point when you turn off the oven. As you can see it retains the little swirls from me spreading it in the pan. If you are a perfectionist…well…make sure you spread the top flat! You’ll notice some cracking. That happens. I am not a master baker so my cheesecakes almost always crack a little. Usually small cracks are a good indication it’s time for the oven to go off.
  9. When the oven is cooled remove the cheesecake to a cooling rack and cool thoroughly before covering and refrigerating. I get the best results when I refrigerate overnight, but I think 2-3 hours would do the trick.   If you used a springform pan, run a sharp knife around the perimenter of the cheesecake before releasing the springform.
Make the topping
  1. Set a pan over medium flame with no non-stick, no nothing and let it get HOT!
  2. Add the pecans and toast them, stirring often, until you can just begin to smell them. Transfer to a bowl.
  3. In that same pan, melt your butter. Add your caramel sauce. Almost instantly the caramel sauce is going to change from a lighter tan to a darker brown. That is good and right and normal.
  4.   Add the salt and stir until it begins to boil and bubble. Make sure the sauce, butter and salt are all mixed together before pouring into your bowl of pecans. Then stir the mixture thoroughly.