Tired of the same old mug cakes, or keto style cookies or cake? Want to make something fun this Valentine’s Day for your sweetie? Everyone loves cheesecake! My recipe used almond flour for the crust, but you can substitute finely crushed almonds or even use another flour. Just be forewarned, research flours before you use them. The valentine’s day history from Japan is down below!

 

Ingredients: 

Crust:

3 tbsp butter, melted

3/4 cup almond flour (or almond meal)

(**edit I found that 1/4 cup or handful of crushed pecans really enhances the crust**)

Filling:

12 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/4 cup Truvia (or erythritol/swerve) whichever you prefer for you alternative sweetener

7 drops of Liquid Stevia

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

Toppings:

You can top it however you like. I usually use sugar-free strawberry or raspberry jam, but today I was in the mood to keep them plain! (mostly because I have a picky sweetie that wants to put his own toppings on it. And, well, it was for him.)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and start with combining your melted butter and almond flour. Mix until it is all crumbly but well combined! (here is where you could also add in 1/4 cup of crushed pecans or walnuts in the food processor for added texture)

2. Line a muffin tin with paper or silicone cupcake liners. Then press 1-2 tsp of your almond flour mixture into the bottom. Personally, I prefer my crusts a little thicker, so I used 1.5 to 2 teaspoons typically.

3. Bake the crusts for 5-8 mins (depending on how hot your oven gets, you might want to check on them every once in a while) until they are golden brown.

4. To make the cheesecake filling, first beat together the 12 oz of cream cheese with a hand mixer until soft like this:

 

and then add in 1 egg. Mix to combine.

5. Now add the 1/4 cup Truvia or sweetener of your choice and 7 drops of liquid stevia.

6. Next, add 1 tsp of vanilla extract, the 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice and 1/4 tsp salt and mix it all together one final time. Make sure you at least get up to medium speed on the hand-mixer so it becomes well blended.

7. Spoon your cheesecake filling into the baked crusts and bake for 20 mins at 350 degrees. My oven normally only takes 18. You will want to make sure that the cheesecakes have risen slightly, yet barely jiggly on the top. A key element here is to make sure that you fill the cupcake liners to the brim! It will puff up, but once it cools they will fall back down.

8. Now let them cool on the counter for at least 10 mins. After that, you can top them if you wish, or leave them plain and place them in the fridge.

9. Let them chill overnight for as long as you can stand! Or, if you are really in a pinch, place them in the freezer for a few minutes.

And viola~ Keto cheese cakes!

These are really great, at only 2.8 of net carbs per cake. They are so rich, you probably can’t handle more than one anyway.

Calories: 175 per cake

9 grams of protein

 

So, what is Valentine’s Day like in Japan?

 

Even though this isn’t chocolate, like they do traditionally in Japan it is similar to what they call a handmade love chocolate, or “Honmei-choco”. (in this case maybe Honmei-cheezu? I know, cheesy) In which ladies will go out, buy ingredients and make something sweet for their sweetie! Like this:

And stuff that you just buy for others (like co-workers or friends) get “Giri-choco” (obligation chocolate) like, this:

Doesn’t seem so different except the swapping of genders…or does it? There’s a twist!

In Japan there exists something called “White Day” which takes place on March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine’s Day. On White Day men are supposed to give return gifts to women who gifted them chocolates on Valentine’s Day. More often the color of the chocolate is white because of the name of the day. Flowers, candies and other gifts are also popular along with the chocolates. Again, department stores have many advanced reminders with gift displays so men will have no excuse to forget about this special day which is important for women. Hmm, sounds like an excuse for the market to exploit one of the slower days for holidays around that time of the year. ha! White day chocolate typically looks like this:

And there you have it kiddos! The difference between Valentine’s Day in the US and in Japan. I like the idea of equally celebrating both men and women this way with showering your affections on some stranger you have a crush on. (or the love of your life…that works too)

In either case, enjoy Valentine’s Day with your sweetie. I know I will.