Instant Pot Cheesecake Recipe: Low Calorie, High Protein Cheesecake

I’m still relatively new to the world of pressure cooking. In my short time with an Instant Pot, I’ve made exclusively savory dishes like crispy carnitas, healthier frito chili pie, and high protein sloppy joes, which were great by the way. The Instant Pot is undeniably fast and an extremely useful cooking tool, but I had a tough time wrapping my head around making desserts. A delicate dessert and loads of pressure just didn’t seem to mix in my mind. I was wrong! And this low calorie instant pot cheesecake is proof.

One of my biggest challenges in cooking high protein desserts is balancing the elimination of calories with keeping flavor and texture in a recipe. Remove too many calories, and a recipe ends up bland and rubbery. If you’ve tried high protein foods, I know you’ve experienced this.

A cheesecake is something that can be challenging because there’s really no strong flavor to make up for a mistake. Meaning, finding the right balance of fat and carbs with protein and calorie reduction is the key, and I think I’ve nailed it with this Instant Pot cheesecake. I’m obligated to say that, of course, so you be the judge.

High Protein Instant Pot Cheesecake Nutrition Facts

Before we get to the recipe, I’d like to take a second to highlight the nutrition breakdown for my Instant Pot cheesecake. Below you’ll see the nutrition facts for 1/8 slice of the recipe. I’ve also included the information with 1/3 fat cream cheese instead of fat-free cream cheese in case you have trouble finding it, but we’ll talk more about ingredients in a second.

• Per 1/8 slice (cheesecake only): 230 Calories | 22.6P | 23C | 5.3F
• Macros for 1/8 slice with 1/3 fat cream cheese (cheesecake only): 288 Calories | 19.1P | 21.3C | 14F

You can add any topping you like or just eat the cheesecake by itself, but I’ll include two recipes below for a White Chocolate Strawberry and Double Chocolate version. And of course, they’ll be lower calorie options as well. Here’s a look at the breakdown for a slice with the toppings.

• White Chocolate Strawberry slice: 282 Calories | 26P | 29.5C | 6.8F
• Double Chocolate slice: 285 Calories | 26P | 29C | 7.8F

Crazy good, right?

Okay, let’s get to the protein cheesecake recipe and how to make the different toppings.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Cheesecake

Let’s talk cream cheese. Like I mentioned above, I know some have trouble finding fat-free cream cheese in certain areas. So if you want to make this recipe with 1/3 fat cream cheese instead, that’s perfectly fine. It will add 60 calories per slice, but that’s not the end of the world.

This brings up another interesting point. I want you to love my recipes. If this is your first foray into making a healthier cheesecake, I would rather you use the 1/3 fat cream cheese and transition to fat-free. To me, the differences are tiny, but I’m accustomed to eating high protein desserts. For only 60 extra calories, I can almost guarantee you’ll love this Instant Pot cheesecake with 1/3 fat cream cheese. If you decide you’d like to eliminate more calories and make this on the regular, then roll with it. There’s nothing wrong with easing into things!

Outside of the cream cheese discussion, another key ingredient will be Greek yogurt. Most everyone is good in the hood with fat-free Greek yogurt, so I’ll just mention the plain versus vanilla decision. Greek yogurt and its slightly sour taste really contribute to the cheesecake flavor here but if you have an ultra sweet tooth, there’s nothing wrong with using pre-sweetened vanilla Greek yogurt. And if you’re using plain, you can still sweeten your cheesecake with something like stevia or a low-cal sugar alternative (I did).

For the crust, you’ll be making a standard graham cracker crust with a bit of added protein. If you like an extra tender crust, you may want to swap a bit of apple sauce for butter or graham crackers for protein powder (gram for gram). These will have a relatively tiny effect on the overall nutrition breakdown.

Protein Powder Notes

Update 2/2020: If you’re a PEScience user, checkout some of my more recent recipes like the red velvet protein cheesecake, no bake pumpkin pie cheesecake, or s’mores protein pie. 

You can use any protein you’d like, but I usually recommendOptimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey and/or Dymatize’s Whey or Elite XT blended protein. They’re reputable brands that have been around forever.

The macros are with Gold Standard Whey. 

If you’d like to learn more about the different types of whey protein and how to find the best value for protein, read this article.

How to Make an Instant Pot Cheesecake

This recipe may look intimidating at first with all the instruction, but it’s really as simple as mixing, pouring, wrapping things in foil, and pressing buttons.

As for equipment, you’ll need a 7″ springform pan and the Instant Pot itself, of course. I used the Lux60 model for this recipe. I believe Instant Pot makes a cheesecake pan especially for use with the Instant Pot, but you’ll be fine thanks to what I like to call the scroll method.

You can see in the image below that it’s going to be a tight squeeze into the Instant Pot. That means attempting to remove your cheesecake from the Instant Pot after cooking when it’s piping hot would lead to certain death or worse.

Have no fear, you can simply fold extra foil to form handles to easily lift the cheesecake out of the Instant Pot.

That’s really about it in terms of technical tips. Others might be:

• Be sure your springform pan is “closed” before adding ingredients.
• Press your crust up around the edges of the pan. You can see the space between crust and pan in the photo above. Use a spatula to really press the crust to the outer edges to ensure no cheesecake leaks through.
• Freeze crust while making your cheesecake.
• Be careful when removing the cheesecake from the Instant Pot. In the photo above, I’m demonstrating bare-handed after the cheesecake had cooled slighlty. Use caution!
• Don’t release the springform pan until your cheesecake has completely cooled after cooking.
• Run a knife around the edges after cooling if needed so you don’t rip the cheesecake in half when releasing the springform pan.

Okay, you got this. Here’s the full recipe.

For the White Chocolate Strawberry Topping

• 2 Tbsp (28g) White Chocolate Chips or Baking Chocolate
• 1/2 packet (16g) Sugar-Free Fat-Free White Chocolate Pudding Mix
• 1 scoop (30-32g) Protein Powder vanilla
• 1/3 C (80mL) Unsweetened Almond Milk
• 1 C (210g) Strawberries frozen or fresh