A four inch cheesecake, which is genuinely small. It serves four modestly or two generously, and it takes twenty minutes plus an hour in the fridge.

No baking anywhere, and it is low carb throughout.

Almond flour crust, no baking

A quarter cup of almond flour with cocoa, sweetener and melted butter, pressed into the pan.

A conventional no-bake crust uses crushed biscuits held together with butter. Almond flour does the same job: it is dry, it has some texture, and butter binds it into something that holds when pressed.

The mixture should look like coarse crumbs before you press it. If it seems dry, the butter needs more stirring rather than more butter.

Press it into the bottom and partway up the sides. In a fluted ramekin, go all the way up the sides for a tart shape.

Soften the cream cheese properly

Three ounces, and softened is not optional in a no-bake filling.

There is no heat anywhere in this recipe to smooth things out. Cold cream cheese beaten with cocoa and sweetener leaves lumps that stay lumps in the finished cheesecake.

Half an hour on the counter, or thirty seconds in the microwave watching carefully. Softened means it gives easily to a spoon, not melted.

Room temperature cream

Two tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, and the temperature is specified.

Cold cream added to a mixture containing melted chocolate causes the chocolate to seize into small hard flecks. Those do not smooth out with more beating.

Let it sit out alongside the cream cheese.

The mixture should spread

The recipe gives a useful test: it should be a spreadable consistency, and if it is not, add a bit more cream.

Filling that is too stiff drags the crust as you spread it, and in a small pan the crust is fragile. A tablespoon more cream at a time until it moves easily under a spatula.

Spread carefully rather than pushing. Start in the middle and work out.

Unsweetened chocolate plus cocoa

Three quarters of an ounce of chocolate melted with butter, plus half a tablespoon of cocoa powder in the filling and a tablespoon and a half in the crust.

They contribute differently. Melted chocolate brings cocoa butter, which sets as it chills and gives the filling body. Cocoa powder brings concentrated chocolate flavour with no fat.

Using both means you get the richness of chocolate without needing enough of it to make the filling too firm.

Unsweetened rather than dark, since all the sweetening comes from the erythritol.

One hour in the fridge

Which is short for a cheesecake, and it works because the quantity is small and there is no gelatin to set.

The filling firms up as the butter and cocoa butter chill. A larger cheesecake would need considerably longer for the centre to reach temperature.

The size is the point

A four inch springform or a five inch fluted ramekin.

Most cheesecake recipes make eight to twelve servings, which is a great deal of cheesecake to have in the house if there are one or two of you.

This makes four small servings at 244 calories each with 6.44g of carbohydrate. It is designed to be finished rather than to sit in the fridge for a week.

Keeping it

Tightly wrapped in the fridge for up to a week.

Tightly is worth emphasising. Cream cheese absorbs odours from a refrigerator readily, and an uncovered cheesecake picks up whatever else is in there. <p>Low carb chocolate sauce drizzled over is offered as an option and it suits, though the cheesecake is rich enough without. ## Sweetener notes Erythritol-based confectioners sweetener is what this uses, and powdered rather than granular matters. Granular erythritol does not dissolve in a cold filling and leaves a gritty texture.

Allulose works and is less prone to the cooling sensation erythritol can give.

Scaling it up

The recipe doubles into a six inch pan, and the chill time roughly doubles too, since a thicker filling takes longer to firm through the centre. Two hours is a safer estimate.