I have never been forgiven by a superhero or by a Luxembourgian before, so this is doubly awesome.
(psst, “Luxembourger”)
(you are forgiven again)
The concern (IMHO) with such commercial options is that they absolutely are likely to taste better, or at least, more like a “traditional” along with a better consistency/texture, but you’re a lot less likely to have the full details of exactly what went into the final product. A lot of low sugar / sugar free foods add tons more stuff to compensate, each of which can have their own issues. And of course, our earlier discussion on what sugar alternate they’re using, which might have it’s own issues.
Baking it yourself can be a pain (dear FSM, do I hate spring form pans or water baths!), but puts you in full control.
As an aside, since the sweetener isn’t structural in any way to the cheesecake, how well it would work out to do a cheesecake entirely sans-sweetener, but serve with a (or a variety of) sweet topping (thinned marmalades, chocolate ganache, honey, etc.) on the side, which one could add to taste. Including a few varieties that had alternate sweeteners.
Just food for thought (you may now boo me, I deserve it) for future efforts.
Follow-up: as I made the main cheesecake, I set aside a small portion of all the ingredients except sugar, and mixed them up at the end. I took it to my mom’s house, and my sister added my mom’s preferred blend of artificial sweeteners (including some that she assured me could only be acquired online, thus my ill-advised comments above about smuggling) and popped it in a ramekin.
Success!
It just shows everyone cared enough to make the extra effort!
That was kind of my goal. My mom is hugely interested in food, but not always the way I am, including her fascination with artificial sweeteners and other ways to bake low-carb treats, which is why I was determined to use them.
Yay! Glad it worked out.