Here’s an easy, low-carb, sopapilla cheesecake! Instead of a traditional crust, we will substitute a pork rind based dough. This means that you don’t have to blind bake a pie crust. You can pan-fry the layers instead. Then this dessert gets layered with a quick cheesecake. It’s topped with another layer of pan-fried dough, then a generous dusting of cinnamon and erythritol. I think you’ll love serving this dessert with a nice cup of hot coffee.
You will need about 30 minutes to create this, so this recipe is much faster then a full size cheesecake. There are no worries about cracking, or fussy baking and cooling techniques. Some of you may appreciate that there is no almond or coconut flour too. The sopapilla cheesecake recipes I’ve seen use crescent roll dough, or even just tortillas. That is no good if you’re keeping things keto. The pork rind based pancakes are a simple and low carb switch.
I think it’s best to let it completely cool before serving, but it’s also nice a little warm. (It’s just not as firm.) Try a dollop of this blackberry chipotle jam for a little added spice.
Yields 10 servings of Sopapilla Cheesecake
The Preparation
- 1 ounce pork rinds
- 5 large egg
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons erythritol, granulated
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup low-carb white sugar replacement, powdered, such as Swerve
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
The Execution
1. Use a food processor to grind the pork rinds up into a fine powder. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. In a mixing bowl add the powdered pork rinds, 3 eggs, and water. Mix well.
3. Preheat a frying pan over medium heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of butter. When it becomes hot and stops foaming, ladle a large scoop of the batter into the pan. Spread it out into a large pancake shape. Wait until the batter bubbles and is brown around the edges before carefully flipping. After the “tortilla” is cooked on both sides set it aside and start a new one in the pan. Continue until you use up all the batter, there will be about 4 pieces.
4. Brush the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan with melted butter, then add a piece of the cooked pork rind batter. Break up the other pieces to fully cover the edges, but make sure to reserve one for the top of the cake. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon/erythritol mixture. Bake for 5-10 minutes.
5. Use a hand mixer to blend the softened cream cheese, Swerve confectioners, remaining 2 eggs, and vanilla extract.
6. Spread the cheesecake mixture over the bottom crust.
7. Cut the remaining piece of cooked pork rind batter into wedges and arrange over the top. Sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon/erythritol mixture.
8. Bake for 20 minutes then allow to cool before serving.
This makes a total of 10 servings of Sopapilla Cheesecake. Each serving comes out to be 254 calories, 23.4g fats, 2.4g net carbs, and 7.6g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 ounce pork rinds | 162 | 10.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15.4 |
| 5 large egg | 393 | 26.2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 34.5 |
| 1 1/4 cup water | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 tablespoon butter | 407 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 |
| 2 tablespoon erythritol | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon | 19 | 0.1 | 6.3 | 4.1 | 2.1 | 0.3 |
| 16 ounce cream cheese | 1551 | 154.2 | 18.6 | 0 | 18.6 | 27.9 |
| 1/3 cup low-carb white sugar replacement | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 teaspoon vanilla extract | 25 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 | 1.1 | 0 |
| Totals | 2577 | 236.6 | 28 | 4.1 | 23.9 | 78.6 |
| Per Serving (/10) | 258 | 23.7 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 7.9 |

Sopapilla Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 ounce pork rinds
- 5 large egg
- 1 ¼ cup water
- 4 tablespoon butter melted
- 2 tablespoon erythritol granulated
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 16 ounce cream cheese softened
- ⅓ cup low-carb white sugar replacement powdered, such as Swerve
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Use a food processor to grind the pork rinds into a fine powder.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the powdered pork rinds, three-fifths of the eggs, and the water. Mix well.
- Preheat a frying pan over medium heat. Add half of the melted butter. Once hot and no longer foaming, ladle a large scoop of the batter into the pan, spreading it out into a large pancake shape. Wait until the batter is bubbling and brown around the edges before carefully flipping the pancake. Once cooked on both sides, set aside and repeat with the remaining batter.
- Brush the bottom of pie pan with half of the remaining melted butter and add a layer of the cooked pork rind batter. Break up the other pieces to fully cover the edges, reserving one pancake to place on top of the cake. Brush with the last of the melted butter and sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon/erythritol mixture. Bake for 5–10 minutes.
- Use a hand mixer to blend the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar replacement, remaining eggs, and vanilla extract.
- Spread the cheesecake mixture over the bottom crust.
- Cut the remaining piece of pork rind pancake into wedges and arrange them on top of the cheesecake. Combine the cinnamon and erythritol and sprinkle the mixture liberally on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes and allow to cool before serving.










Call me crazy, but on step 3, for clarification, after you create the first piece of fried pork rind (both sides), do you remove and set aside before beginning the next one? Trying to get a visual before I totally screw this up on my first attempt and become a Pinterest fail. LOL.
Thanks <3
Yes Tarra! Sorry about that, I will update the recipe so it tells you to set the pieces aside. I don’t want you to have a Pin fail either!
What is considered a serving size?
The carb count on the back of my Philadelphia Cream Cheese says 1 carb/oz. I noticed that your cream cheese is a bit higher. What brand do you use? Or is it all the same and Philly is just fibbing?
Hi Madelyn, the information is from the USDA database. That one has cream cheese listed as 1.56 carbs per oz. The nutrition label for the package is probably rounded to the nearest whole number. (I think Philadelphia brand is about 1.3something carbs per oz.)
Here is the USDA page for cream cheese:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/17?manu=&fgcd=&ds=
I don’t know where to find Swerve. Can I just use more erythritol?
I don’t eat pork. What would be a good substitute?
I’ve heard that there are chicken skin crisps that are similar, but you may have to make your own.
Another alternative would be to use our tortilla recipe instead:
https://www.ruled.me/low-ca…
I’ve heard that there are chicken skin crisps that are similar, but you may have to make your own.
Another alternative would be to use our tortilla recipe instead:
https://www.ruled.me/low-carb-tortillas/
Can you tell me the total carbs instead of net carbs?
I love that your recipes are right at the top…little blog discussion and straight to the point of tips and suggestions. I can quickly discern whether I happen to have the ingredients on hand for right now…
Thank you!
Total carbs is listed to the left of fiber on our tables. (3.42 per serving for our tables.) We do not add sugar alcohols, so if you’d like to track those add 4g carb per tsp erythritol as well. (Might want to double check that against your package.)
I have Swerve but I don’t have erythritol, nor Swerve confection. Swerve is pretty fine on it’s own but could I just maybe pulse Swerve in the processor to attempt to get it finer in place of confection? Trying this tonight we spinach stuffed pork loin for Valentines dinner. Thanks!
That should work!