Thick and creamy pomegranate cheesecake with a sweet and tart pomegranate topping.
Have you seen anything more beautiful than this? We didn't bother doing any fancy water baths like some cheesecake recipes say to do. We just wanted a darn cheesecake and we wanted it fast. But we still had to wait till the next day to devour since it had to cool in the oven. But whatever, we got our cheesecake.
Oh and the pomegranate sauce! Oh baby...you may just want to spread this all over yourself and call it a night, because this pomegranate sauce will have you sweet dreaming. Trust that.
Pomegranate Cheesecake
LittleFerraroKitchen.com
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups finely ground graham crackers about 30 squares
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 stick of unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
Cheesecake
- 1 pound full fat cream cheese softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 pint full fat sour cream
- 1 lemon zested
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pomegranate Sauce
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds or seeds from 1 large pomegranate
- 1 Tb pomegranate molasses
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 3 Tb cornstarch
- ½ cup sugar add ¼ more if too tart
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- First, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Next, make the crust. Grind graham crackers until very fine in a food processor. Then add cinnamon and melted butter and pulse with the food processor until crumbs come together.
- Spray a spring form pan all over the inside with cooking spray and pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or cup, press the crumbs down into the pan all around and bringing the crust up 1 inch on the sides. Refrigerate while you make the cheesecake filling.
- To make the filling, beat the cream cheese and sour cream together using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. Beat until smooth and creamy. Then add in eggs, one at a time and continue beating until incorporated. Add sugar, lemon zest and vanilla extract, making sure everything is well mixed and scarping the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.
- Once ready, take the crust out of the fridge and pour cheesecake filling into the pan, slightly tapping and smoothing the top if needed.
- Place in 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 1 hour, or until cheesecake is set and you can test with a knife and it comes out clean. Once done, allow to cool at room temperature (about 30 minutes) then cool in refrigerator before topping with sauce (4 hours-overnight).
- To make the sauce, add pomegranate, sugar and water and cook on medium-low heat, stirring to begin softening the fruit. Then add the rest of the ingredients and continue stirring until sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon. Taste for sweetness, if too tart, add a bit more sugar.
- When ready, allow sauce to cool for a few minutes and then pour over cheesecake. The sides of the cheesecake will create a "well", which is perfect to hold the sauce.
- Let cheesecake and sauce set in the refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
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