Keto Pecan Pie Cheesecake (No Crust, Pecan Topping)

Slice of keto pecan pie cheesecake on a white plate, the rest of the cheesecake behind
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Introduction

This post was originally published in partnership with Lakanto. We are no longer affiliated with them, and the opinions here are, as always, our own.

I love pecan pie. I also love cheesecake. If you are reading this, we are probably in the same boat, and there is room in it.

The obvious question is which one this actually is, and the answer is that it does not bother choosing. It is a cheesecake all the way through, with the pecan pie arriving on top as a separate thing you make in a saucepan afterwards.

There Is No Crust

That is the part to know before you start, because it is the opposite of what both halves of the name suggest.

A pecan pie has a pastry base. A cheesecake usually has a pressed crumb one. This has neither — the batter goes straight into a 10-inch springform pan and bakes on its own. You save a step and a pie dish, which is genuinely the nicest thing about it.

The pecan pie half is the topping. Butter and powdered sweetener melted together in a saucepan, heavy cream stirred in, then simmered until it darkens to a deep golden and thickens up. That color change is the thing to watch for, not the clock — pull it early and it stays thin and slides off the sides of the cheesecake instead of sitting on top of it. Vanilla and the chopped pecans go in once the pan is off the heat.

Start It the Day Before

The active work here is maybe half an hour. The waiting is most of a day, and it is not optional.

The cheesecake bakes for an hour, cools for thirty minutes, then goes into the refrigerator for four hours before the topping touches it. Spread the topping on and it wants another thirty minutes to an hour to set before you cut it.

So this is a dessert you start in the morning for the evening, or the night before for the next day. If you are making it for Thanksgiving, it is one of the few things on that table you can get completely out of the way early, and it is better for the wait rather than merely surviving it — a cheesecake that has had its full four hours cuts cleanly.

One small thing in the cooling step that is easy to rush: wait until the springform pan is cool enough to hold before it goes in the fridge.

Keto Pecan Pie Cheesecake

Prep Time
30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Additional Time
5 hours
Total Time
6 hours 30 minutes
Yield
12 slices
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
American

Ingredients

For the cheesecake

For the topping

Nutrition Facts

12 servings per recipe
Trans Fat 0g 0% 0g 0%
Total Sugars — —
Allulose 0g 0% 0g 0%

Where you see an em dash: one of the ingredients in this recipe does not publish a figure for that row, so we cannot add one up honestly. We would rather show you nothing there than a zero we cannot stand behind.

About these numbers: We are home cooks, not certified nutritionists. Nutrition is shared as a courtesy. We pick a representative product for each ingredient, and our recipe system works out the totals from the amounts in this recipe, so please treat them as a helpful estimate rather than a guarantee. The brands you buy, any swaps you make, and how generously you portion the recipe will all move these numbers.

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

    Start by preheating the oven to 300 degrees. Do not open the oven door and allow the oven temperature to heat up during your cheesecake prep time.

  2. Add the cream cheese and butter and blend until smooth.

    Both should be softened, not melted - soft enough to blend smooth, but melted butter will loosen the batter. Blend until there are no lumps of cream cheese left.

  3. Beat in the eggs.

    Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly combined.

  5. Mix in the Greek yogurt, vanilla, and sweetener.

    Now, you will want to spoon in the Greek yogurt and add the vanilla extract and Lakanto sweetener. Mix all of the ingredients until well combined.

  6. Pour the mixture into a 10-inch springform pan.

    Pour the cheesecake filling into a 10-inch springform pan and set it inside the oven.

  7. Bake for 60 minutes.

    Leave it alone for the hour — opening the door drops the temperature and is the usual cause of a cracked top.

    At the end of it the outside should be set and the middle should still wobble slightly when you nudge the pan. That wobble is right. A cheesecake baked until the center is firm in the oven sets hard once it has chilled.

  8. Let cool for 30 minutes, and then chill for 4 hours.

    Leave the cheesecake to cool to room temperature before chilling it in the refrigerator for 4 hours. You can tell when the cheesecake is cool enough to put in the fridge when the spring form pan is cool to touch.

  10. Prepare the Topping.

    Now, add the extra butter and powdered monk fruit sweetener in a saucepan and melt together on medium heat. Stir in the heavy whipping cream, and simmer until the sauce is a dark golden brown in color and thickened.

  11. Remove from the heat, and add in vanilla and chopped pecans.

    Take it off the heat before the vanilla and pecans go in, so the vanilla does not cook straight off and the pecans do not keep toasting in a hot pan.

  12. Spread the topping over the cheesecake and chill.

    Spread the pecan topping over the chilled cheesecake, then give it another 30 minutes to an hour in the refrigerator so the topping sets before you cut it.

Notes

The Topping Is the Pecan Pie Part

There is no crust in this recipe. The cheesecake bakes on its own in the springform pan, and the pecan pie half arrives later, as a topping cooked in a saucepan.

That topping is butter and powdered sweetener melted together, then heavy cream stirred in and simmered until it goes dark golden and thickens. That color change is the cue to stop — it is the difference between a sauce that sets over the cheesecake and one that runs off the side of it. The vanilla and pecans go in off the heat.

Give It the Chilling Time

This is a make-the-day-before dessert, and the times in the steps are not padding.

The cheesecake bakes for an hour, cools for 30 minutes, then chills for 4 hours before the topping goes anywhere near it. After the topping is spread on, it needs another 30 minutes to an hour to set. Put the cheesecake in the oven in the morning if you want it after dinner.

A note on the cooling step: wait until the springform pan is cool to the touch before it goes in the refrigerator, rather than moving it straight from the oven.

Storage

Cover it loosely and keep it in the refrigerator, where it holds for up to a week.

It can also be frozen for up to two months. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then in foil or a freezer bag, and thaw it in the refrigerator.

Either way it lives in the fridge rather than on the counter — this is cream cheese, eggs and yogurt, so treat it the way you would treat any other baked custard.

Serving

Cut it with a sharp knife wiped clean between slices; the topping is sticky and drags otherwise. A 10-inch cheesecake gives twelve slices, which is a small slice by cheesecake standards and a sensible one given the topping.

Coffee is the natural partner, mostly because the topping is sweet and unsweetened coffee is the easiest thing to put next to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this cheesecake have a crust?

No, and that is deliberate rather than an omission. The cheesecake bakes directly in the springform pan, and the pecan pie half arrives afterwards as a topping cooked in a saucepan. There is nothing to blind-bake and nothing to go soggy under the filling.

If you want a crust you would be adding one to a recipe that is not built around it — the bake time, the pan and the amount of filling are all measured for a crustless cake, and we do not have crust amounts or timings to give you.

Can I use different nuts in the pecan topping?

Mechanically there is nothing stopping you: the nuts go into the topping at the very end, off the heat, so a swap changes nothing about how the sauce is made or how the cheesecake bakes. What it does to the result is another matter — the 2 cups are measured for pecans, and we cannot tell you how another nut would compare.

Worth knowing that it stops being pecan pie at that point, which is most of what the topping is doing here — it is the caramel sauce plus pecans that makes the reference, not the cheesecake underneath.

Is this keto pecan pie cheesecake gluten-free?

Yes. Nothing in it contains gluten — it is cream cheese, butter, eggs, Greek yogurt, vanilla, powdered sweetener and pecans, with no flour anywhere, which is what being crustless gets you.

Check the label on your sweetener if you are cooking for celiac disease rather than preference, since blends vary in what they are cut with.

Can I use ground pecans instead of chopped?

Chopped is what the topping is written for, and the texture sitting on top of the caramel is half of what the pecans are doing there. Ground pecans lose that crunch, and we cannot tell you how they would sit in the caramel, so chopped is the one to use.

They do not go into the cheesecake batter itself. The pecans belong to the topping, and adding them to the filling would be a different recipe rather than an adjustment to this one.

Why does this recipe seem complicated? Why do you need all the ingredients listed?

It is two components rather than one, which is what makes the list look long. Here is what each ingredient is doing.

  • Cream Cheese, softened: Full-fat, and softened so it beats smooth. It is the body of the filling.
  • 3 tbsp Butter, softened: Extra fat for a richer filling. It is softened rather than cold so it beats into the cream cheese instead of staying in lumps.
  • 2 Large Eggs: What sets the filling in the oven. They are the structure here, not an add-in.
  • Plain Greek Yogurt: Loosens the filling and puts a little tang against the sweetener.
  • Vanilla Extract: Rounds out the tang of the cream cheese and yogurt. It does not sweeten anything — the sweetener does that.
  • Lakanto Powdered monk fruit Sweetener: Powdered rather than granulated, so it dissolves into the filling instead of leaving grit.
  • Butter: More butter is used for the pecan topping.
  • Heavy Whipping Cream: Simmered with the butter and sweetener, it is what turns them into a caramel that sets on top rather than running off.
  • Vanilla Extract: Goes into the topping off the heat, so it does not cook straight back off again.
  • Chopped Pecans: The pecan pie half of the name. They go in at the end, off the heat, so they do not keep toasting in a hot pan.

Wrap Up

If you would rather have the pie itself, our keto pecan pie has the pressed crust this one skips, with the pecans laid in first and the filling baked over them. The rest of the holiday table, from pumpkin pie to appetizers, is on our keto Thanksgiving recipes page.

If it is the pecans you are here for rather than the cheesecake, we also have Keto Candied Pecans and Sugar Free Pecan Pralines, both of which are considerably less of a project. For how the pecans themselves fit on keto, see Are Pecans Keto?

Have you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog? Please rate it below and let us know your thoughts in the comments! We love hearing from you!

You can also share it on Instagram using the hashtag #buttertogetherkitchen for a chance to be featured on our page.

Correction — October 20, 2026: The recipe card gave a total time of 1½ hours, which left out the cooling and chilling. It now counts them: about 6½ hours from start to a cheesecake ready to slice.