I sure do love the fact that eating real food does not limit us. In fact, I believe it frees us! Do you know all the wonderful food that can be made with just a few real food ingredients? Pretty much everything, including Twinkies. (Although I never have figured out how to make a maraschino cherry without using a bunch of sugar and red food coloring. I guess we’ll just stick with real cherries.)
This Chocolate Cheesecake Pie recipe is so simple, so delicious, and made with all real food ingredients. You still want to make sure you consider this a very occasional treat, because sucanat is still sugar. But how nice is it that we don’t have to resort to boxed mixes or spend hours in the kitchen when we want to make something special. In fact, last week when I made this, I had a pie crust already baked in the freezer. All I had to do was throw the filling ingredients into the food processor, give it a whirl, then spread the mixture into my pie crust. Seven minutes later – Chocolate Cheesecake Pie!
Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Baked and cooled whole wheat pie crust
Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Mix in cream cheese, sucanat, cocoa powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Pour mixture into a baked and cooled pie crust. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving. Or skip the pie chilling step if your kids are breathing down your neck and asking for a slice before you even get the filling into the crust. Why wait?!
Don’t want chocolate in this pie? Skip the cocoa powder and end up with plain ol’ Cheesecake Pie. Or leave out the cocoa and add a splash of lemon juice for Lemon Cheesecake Pie. Or a splash of lime juice for Lime Cheesecake Pie. See how much fun real food ingredients can be? It gives us the freedom to go crazy in the kitchen! Trust me, crazy in the kitchen is what I do best.
What fun treats do you make with real food ingredients?
This is great! My husband is slowly coming around to real food changes that have been creeping into our house. :)
The best moment was when I vetoed putting Cool Whip on my first-ever homemade pumpkin pie. In all seriousness, he said, “well what ‘real’ food could you use to replace it?!?” Enter homemade, slightly sweetened, whipped cream. :) Sweet success.
This recipe reminded me of it because I’m pretty sure that all of my old recipes similar to this would have just had a tub of Cool Whip instead of the whipping cream…or even lite CW to make it healthier! ;) So glad that I’ve learned to be a better judge of what’s truly “healthy” thanks to great partners like you. Thanks!
What brand of cream cheese do you use? I have trouble sourcing cream cheese that doesn’t have all kinds of nasty ingredients in it.
Usually, I just use Philadelphia brand. Occasionally, if I happen to be able to go to Trader Joes, I pick some up there.
Just wondering if you’ve ever tried the Smithfield’s cream cheese from Azure Standard? I just put it on my order because someone said how good it is, it’s made with milk from cows not treated with growth hormones, and it is cheaper than at the grocery store. It comes in a 3 lb. block though.
I haven’t tried it, but will definitely look into it!
Just made my day! Sounds heavenly and easy. I’ll make this for Friday Family Fun nite tomorrow! With my husband in mind I can help but wonder about trying it with some peanut butter in there.
That sounds awesome, and I’m sure it would work!
I buy the Tillen farms”Merry Maraschino” brand of cherries from Whole Foods.The ingredients are simple: cherries, water, sugar, vegetable and fruit concentrate(color), natural flavor. They are still dessert, but WAY better then the nasty fake color/flavor, corn syrup laden kind.
Yummy! I’m so making this this weekend :) We are having guests from out of town. I think I’ll replace the WW crust with a traditional graham cracker crust. Our Super Target sells Annie’s organic graham crackers!!!
Thank you for the great recipe :)
I love to make chocolate bars with real food ingredients! My family likes when I make this recipe too. Cocoa powder, coconut oil, and honey. They are simple and delicious and I’m going to make some right now!
Hi Laura,
Which store bought flour would you recommend? I don’t have a grain mill and I know store bought is not the best but I have to use it for now.
Thank you!
Any organic whole wheat flour made from hard white wheat will work fine. King Arthur’s is a good brand and so is Montana.
Yummy! I eat mostly grain free, but my family does not. I love when we find desserts that can work for all of us – this will make a lovely custard in a bowl for me that I can eat along side them as they enjoy their pie, can’t wait!
I thought I posted a question earlier, but I don’t see it, so I must not have. I just made this, and was wondering if you do all of it in the food processor – the filling mix? I was surprised, but I did get soft peaks to form after pouring heavy whipping cream into the food processor. But after I put in the cream cheese & other ingredients, it didn’t stay very poufy, and was just more like a liquid again. I am giving it 24 hrs to set up – for a function on Monday eve, so I imagine it will be ok, but just curious if I did it right? Could I maybe have over-blended in the food processor?
Laura doesn’t mix hers all in the food processor. You do have to be gentle with incorporating the cream cheese and other ingredients after the peaks have formed. Otherwise you lose the light fluffy peaks you just whipped up.
Hi. So just wondering. If I was to substitute honey or maple syrup for the sucanat would you half it still or just use 1/2 cup like the recipe calls for??
I’d use probably 1/3 cup of honey or maple syrup.