With the holiday season in full swing, I find myself making a lot of sugar-free goodies. When I was baking in the kitchen recently, I decided to try making a sugar-free cheesecake brownie bar. I haven’t made cheesecake bars in a while, and I wanted to create something different. Something like mocha cheesecake bars!
It started off simple with an easy brownie layer as the base. As I was working on the recipe, I decided I wanted to add some coffee to the batter to create a rich mocha flavor. I thought that the coffee would enhance the chocolate flavor, as well as bring a nice rich flavor to the cheesecake layer.
What’s great about this recipe is that it’s really easy to make. And, you can easily change up some of the basic spices to mix up the flavors. If you wanted more of a blondie brownie, then you can just leave out the chocolate powder. Not in love with a mocha flavor? Then leave it out of the recipe.
Since the recipe is rich in flavor and sweetness, I cut the recipe into 16 bars. Pair this with a nice cup of warm coffee, and top it off with some whipped cream for a nice treat. These also freeze well, as I had them in the freezer for up to a week with no compromise in taste.
Yields 16 servings of Mocha Cheesecake Bars
The Preparation
Brownie Layer:
- 6 tablespoons butter, unsalted, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 tablespoon instant coffee
- 1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup erythritol
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Cream Cheese Layer:
- 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup erythritol
The Execution
1. Preheat oven to 350°F, and spray or grease a 8×8-inch baking pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the wet ingredients of melted unsalted butter and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract until well combined. Then mix in the 3 large eggs.
3. In the a small bowl: mix together the dry ingredients of almond flour, instant coffee, baking cocoa, salt, erythritol, and baking powder. Then, whisk the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Place ¼ cup of batter aside to use later.
4. Add the larger portion of batter into the 8×8-inch baking pan. The batter will be thicker than traditional brownie batter.
5. In a mixing bowl: blend the room temperature cream cheese, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and ½ cup erythritol until smooth. Spread on top of the brownie layer.
6. Using the ¼ cup of brownie batter, mix into the top layer of cream cheese to create a top brownie crust. This layer should be very thin.
7. Place in the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes at 350°F. When finished, you want the cheesecake bars to be fully cooled when cutting the slices.
This makes a total of 16 servings of Mocha Cheesecake Bars. Each serving comes out to be 231 calories, 20.7g fats, 3.1g net carbs, and 6.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 6 tablespoon butter | 610 | 69 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| 2 teaspoon vanilla extract | 25 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 3 large egg | 236 | 15.7 | 1.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 20.7 |
| 1 1/2 cup almond flour | 973 | 84 | 37 | 21.8 | 15.1 | 35.3 |
| 1/2 tablespoon instant coffee | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder | 160 | 4 | 24 | 16 | 8 | 8 |
| 1/2 teaspoon salt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 cup erythritol | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder | 2 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 |
| 16 ounce cream cheese | 1551 | 154.2 | 18.6 | 0 | 18.6 | 27.9 |
| 1 large egg | 79 | 5.2 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| 1 teaspoon vanilla extract | 12 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 | 0.6 | 0 |
| 1/2 cup erythritol | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 3706 | 332.2 | 84.1 | 37.9 | 46.3 | 99.5 |
| Per Serving (/16) | 232 | 20.8 | 5.3 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 6.2 |
Mocha Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
Brownie Layer:
- 6 tablespoon butter unsalted, melted
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large egg
- 1 ½ cup almond flour
- ½ tablespoon instant coffee
- ½ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup erythritol
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Cream Cheese Layer:
- 16 ounce cream cheese softened
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup erythritol
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted unsalted butter and vanilla extract. Add eggs and whisk until combined.
- In a small bowl, mix together the almond flour, instant coffee, cocoa powder, salt, erythritol, and baking powder. Then, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Set aside a small portion of the batter for the thin brownie crust.
- Add the larger portion of batter to the baking pan. The batter will be a bit thicker than traditional brownie batter.
- In a mixing bowl, blend the room-temperature cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract, and erythritol until smooth. Spread this mixture on top of the brownie layer.
- Using the smaller portion of brownie set aside earlier, mix it into the top layer of cream cheese to create a brownie crust. This layer should be very thin.
- Bake for 30–35 minutes. When finished, allow the bars to cool completely before slicing.
The brownie layer ingredients calls for 3 eggs, but the instructions says two, then the nutrient breakdown says 3 eggs total (which would be 2 for brownie layer and 1 for cream cheese layer)
Thank you for pointing that out! I fixed it so it’s 3 eggs total.
Would real coffee be too granular? I don’t have instant and don’t really want to buy any
Yes, instant dissolves once it becomes wet. There isn’t really another moisture component that you could replace with brewed coffee, so I would just leave it out.
Can you clarify… Is it 3 large eggs or 2 large eggs for the brownie batter portion? The ingredients list says 3, but the instructions say 2. I went with 2 because the nutritional calculations at the bottom shows 3 total eggs, but the batter didn’t look quite the way I thought it would. I knew that it wouldn’t be like a traditional brownie batter, but it wasn’t liquid at all (like your picture above with the whisk shows). Plus, the 1/4 that I reserved from the top wasn’t spreadable at all. I ended up just using a fork to break up the batter and mix it into the top of the cheesecake layer as best I could, but the consistency is making me think that you really did mean 3 eggs for the batter.
Hi Cheryl. Originally I thought it was 2, then I tested the recipe after you said it didn’t work well with 2 (I’m not the writer, I just do various things around the site.) and it worked well with 3 eggs. I also had an issue with the topping being very thick, so I ended up chunking it up and just dropping it on the top. Came out good, but might need a little tweaking.
I have these in the oven right now and cannot wait to try them! I also got enough ingredients to make them again, however, next time, I’m thinking I might add some mint to the cheesecake to have a mint/mocha/cheesecake brownie! <3
Hi, just wanted to say thanks for this one. It was excellent. My entire family agrees. I made 2 changes, and only because I used what I had on hand. I left the salt out because I used salted Kerrygold butter. And I doubled the instant coffee to 1 Tbsp because I only had medium roast on hand, and wanted to make sure the coffee held its own and let a true mocha flavor stand out. It worked. I’m sure the called for amount is good too, but I like me some coffee 🙂 This was rich, sweet, chocolatey, and had an awesome texture in both the crust and the cheesecake filling: I’ll definitely be trying some more of your dessert recipes after having so much success with this one. Thank you again. ~Bob
I’m about to make this one for the second time. The first one was good (I used 3 eggs rather than 2 that it stated originally), but the topping layer was way too thick. Add a bit more liquid to the topping layer (I used half/half because it’s what I had). I used a Starbucks’ VIA packet (Columbia) for the instant coffee and it provided a perfect coffee richness without being overwhelming.
Oooh, that sounds great!
WAY WAY WAY too sweet! And I like sweet stuff! Next time both brownie and topping at half, used Swerve.
Oh wow! I wonder if the sweetener tastes sweeter to some.
Swerve tastes much sweeter when baked in my experience. Erythritol doesn’t seem to have that effect.
That’s really interesting!
i was wondering if I cut the sweetner in half how that would affect the outcome. For me the sweetner is to much but my son loves the recipe just the way it is.
I made these a couple weeks ago for my coworker’s birthday and they were AMAZING. Not too sweet at all for us. The only oddity was that my brownie mix came out drier / clumpier than your photos? The taste and end result was fine, it just made the top layer a bit difficult to spread on top of the cheesecake layer. At any rate, I’m obsessed with these bars and if I’m not careful I’m going to start making them on a weekly basis.
I’m glad to hear it Aileen! The crust seems to be a bit finicky for people, but others have said that adding a little more water can help.
I was curious to know if the nutrition facts are correct because erythritol has 4g of carbs per teaspoon. Which brand are people using because im basing it off of NOW brand. Thank you for the clarification! PS i have made this recipe several times and love it!!
Hi Emily, we don’t have a space for the sugar alcohols in the nutrition tables., and it wouldn’t really be right to put them under fiber, so we zero it out. There are no digestible carbs. Sorry for any confusion!
First off these look amazing, all the things i have made from here are amazing! but i was wondering what the serving size is exactly for this?
One of the best GUILT FREE recipes on here. I made them, to test, loved them, then took them to work to get an unbiased opinion and they LOVED them too. They also could not believe that they were good for you.
One co-worked stated “it was strange because it got better and better the more you ate”
Hahah, thanks Patrick!
ERYTHRITOL Has 4g of Carbs per tsp. That would add up to 288 additional carbs for the recipe that were left out of the macros and 18g of additional carbs per bar. Taste good but far from a sensible Keto treat.
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol, which is indigestible – similar to fiber. It’s 0 net carbs.
what happened to my post instead of correcting the missing carb info? you should be honest with everyone.
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Mix some lemon and orange zest in the cream cheese mess.
Yum!
Do you need to chill after baking for the cheesecake portion to set?
You don’t have to put it in the fridge, but it will be much firmer when slicing if you can let it cool first. 🙂
Could I sub swerve instead of pure erythritol for the same amount?
Sure!
Based on the previous comments I used half the amount of Swerve and they were great!!
Hi, just a bit confused about the baking cocoa. Is it in powder form or squares or chips? Thanks.
It’s a powder, usually located in baking section near sweeteners.
Thank you.
These brownies are to die for!!! I made them yesterday with my daughter and they are delicious, combining two of my favourite things… Cheesecake and brownies!! I added a bit more cocoa and used about half of the sweetener in the recipe as we prefer dark chocolate. Thank you so much, I have yet to try Ruled Me recipe I don’t love!!
This recipe is one of our favorites.
So I made this and it is by far the best and my favorite keto dessert recipe ever! I am so happy with how the crust part turned out. I am ready to make another batch but I am wondering, would I still get the same texture if I use powdered erythritol instead of granular?
It should work the same!
Could one use non-instant coffee? I bought a package of Starbucks ground coffee beans… only to find they were decaf. I’m only holding onto them because I thought maybe I could use them for baking.
I don’t know if you can sub it in this particular recipe because you add the instant coffee as a dry ingredient, and there’s no additional water that could be replaced with liquid coffee. 🙁
Tried this today. Not bad but the crust was very dry and crumbling, also I made it with equal not sweet enough but I’ve tried Stevia and Swerve can’t tolerate the aftertaste
Made these over the Christmas holidays, all I can say is ‘make them’. Even non Lowcarbers enjoyed them.
I made these for the first time over Christmas, WOW. My non Low Carb friends loved them as well. About to make my second batch for my son and daughter-in-law who have also recently adopted the Keto life style.
These are nothing short of incredible. I did have to cook mine for nearly an hour at 350, but they are quite perfect. For sweetener I used half powdered swerve and half granulated allulose. Also used Hershey’s special dark for the cocoa. Cut into 36 bites and have them in the freezer for a random treat. Thanks again for a killer recipe.
I’m really happy to hear you liked it! Thanks so much for giving your feedback!