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Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust

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This key lime cheesecake dessert has a hazelnut crust! It’s the perfect combination of tangy, sweet, creamy, and crunchy. Your brunch guests will be begging you for this recipe!

 

Recipe for Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust - This easy dessert is tangy, sweet, and crunchy all in one bite. It's SO good!

This isn’t the variety of key lime cheesecake that I normally make. One of the Brunchweek sponsors is Bob’s Red Mill. If you’ve been around this blog before, that name should ring a bell.  They’re responsible for the Low-Carb Baking Mix that I’ve used in nearly all of my baked goods lately, and they also make the steel cut oats that I used in my recipe for Carrot Cake Steel Cut Oatmeal.

Anyway, they sent over some hazelnut flour for me to try, and I was so excited about it!  Oh, and to make this key lime cheesecake especially sweet, I had help from another sponsor…I used Dixie Crystals sugar!

FOOD FACTS – Hazelnuts and Hazelnut Flour

Origins and Fun Facts

Hazelnuts (also referred to as Filberts) date back to 283  B.C. That’s when, according to a manuscript found in China, the filbert took its place among the five sacred nourishment that God bestowed on human beings.

In the early days, the filbert was used as a medicine and a tonic. More than 1,800 years ago, Greek physician Dioscorides emphasized the properties of the filbert: “It cures chronic coughing if pounded filbert is eaten with honey. Cooked filbert mixed with black pepper cures the cold. If the ointment produced by mashing burnt filbert shells in suet is smeared on the head where hair does not grow due to normal baldness or to some disease, hair will come again.” Oregon grows 98% of hazelnuts produced in the US—but only a fraction of the world’s supply of hazelnuts are grown here; the vast majority of hazelnuts are grown in Turkey, Spain, and Italy.

Nutrition

  • Hazelnuts are a healthy source of Vitamin E and monosaturated fat. They’re also a good source of protein, and they’re low in carbohydrates.
  • Hazelnuts are naturally gluten-free. (Bob’s Red Mill packages their Hazelnut Meal Flour in a gluten-free facility, too, which makes it safe for gluten-free eating!)
  • According to the Bob’s Red Mill website, “Replacing 30% of the flour in your baking with hazelnut meal will add wonderful texture and flavor while reducing the total carbohydrates. This makes it perfect for those following a low carbohydrate or paleo diet.”

CLICK HERE to see nutritional values for hazelnut flour

 Key lime cheesecake with a hazelnut crust from ItsYummi.com

 

Please don’t think that I’m a horrible person for making this key lime cheesecake a full fat, calorie loaded dessert.  I just figured that Mother’s Day and Sunday brunch are a time to indulge a little bit.

Watching our waist line and calorie counting can happen again tomorrow.  Today, I think we should feast on the indulgence!

 

Key lime cheesecake with a hazelnut crust from ItsYummi.com

 

Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust

Key lime cheesecake with a hazelnut crust from ItsYummi.com

Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust

A creamy, sweet, tangy, and crunchy experience with every bite, this key lime cheesecake will be a huge hit for dessert!
5 from 2 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 401
Author: Lindsay

Ingredients

  • CRUST
  • 6.6 ounces (1.25 cups) hazelnut meal or flour
  • 3 ounces (6 Tablespoons) unsalted butter
  • 2 ounces (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
  • FILLING
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2.5 ounces (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
  • zest of one lime
  • juice of one lime
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or lemon extract)
  • 2 eggs
  • whipped cream for garnish

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 350 F.
  • To a medium bowl, add hazelnut flour, sugar, and melted butter. Use a spoon to stir until combined. Press mixture into the bottom and barely up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
  • Place into heated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and allow crust to cool while you prepare the filling.
  • To a large mixing bowl, add cream cheese, sugar, lime zest, lime juice, and extract. Use an electric hand or stand mixer to blend on high speed until mixture is combined and creamy. Add eggs and mix on medium speed, just until combined.
  • Pour mixture into crust and bake for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Remove from oven and leave pie in springform pan. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Garnish with whipped cream and lime slices or zest before serving.

Recipe Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust
Amount Per Serving
Calories 401 Calories from Fat 306
% Daily Value*
Fat 34g52%
Saturated Fat 12g75%
Cholesterol 94mg31%
Sodium 120mg5%
Carbohydrates 22g7%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 18g20%
Protein 7g14%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Still hungry? Take a look at the other delicious brunch recipes in today’s lineup!
Brunch Beverages:

Brunch Eggs:

Brunch Main Dishes:

Brunch Sides:

Brunch Breads and Grains:

Brunch Desserts:

  • Key Lime Cheesecake with a Hazelnut Crust, from me!
  • Sacher Torte, from Roxana’s Home Baking.

 

UPDATE: The giveaway ended and the entry form and rules were removed from this post.

Key lime cheesecake with a hazelnut crust from ItsYummi.com

Reader Interactions

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Comments

  6. Carla says

    Well you know me and my cheesecake 😀 I have a bag of hazelnut flour just begging to be used. Love how you used it in the crust.

    Reply

  7. Lori @ Foxes Love Lemons says

    OK, I actually did not know until reading this that hazelnuts and filberts were the same thing. Thanks so much for teaching me something new, even if it’s a fact I probably should have known all along 😉

    Reply

  8. Shaina says

    Now I’m not the biggest fan of key lime. It’s hit or miss for me, but that crust….Omg. I’d flip the pie over and eat the whole bottom 🙂

    Reply

  9. Karen @BakingInATornado says

    I adore Key Lime Pie, I’m going to have to look into hazelnut flour and give this version a try.

    Reply

  11. Karen Ostrom says

    My favorite brunch is quiche, I love all kinds and make all kinds, my husbands is good old fashioned tomato gravy and biscuits, brunch, lunch or dinner

    Reply

  12. Liz says

    Oh, how I love key lime pie! Yours looks amazing, Becca! Who needs all those savory dishes, I’d love to start with this!!!

    Reply

  17. Laura says

    Hmmm, favorite brunch dish….peanut butter cheesecake…does that count towards brunch?

    I’ve read to live by the 80/20 rule eat lean/green/mean 80% of the time so you can indulge 20% of the time.

    This lime cheesecake is my Mother’s Day 20%! I don’t care if I have to make it for myself….and Mom of course!!!

    This dessert is totally worth doing that 1980’s Billy Blanks workout VHS tape for!!! (I know, I still have those, so embarrassing!)

    Reply

    • Chef Becca says

      I’m completely on board with the 80/20 nutrition plan, Laura! Oh, and can I interest you in a DVD swap? Your Billy Blanks for my Richard Simmons 😉

      Reply

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