Coconut Cheesecake with Pomegranate Gel

Every year, my husband makes me dinner for Mother's Day.  Some years, his mother joins us, so I make a dessert as my gift to her.  This year, it was this cheesecake.  If you cannot find Ground Coconut, you can use sweetened flaked coconut in the food processor.  In place of coconut extract, you may use vanilla, but the cake will not have as nice of a coconut flavor.

  Crust:                                                                     1/4 Tsp Coconut Extract

  2 Cup Ground Coconut                                              1/8 Tsp salt

  8 Graham Crackers, broken                                       5 Large Eggs

  1/4 Cup sugar                                                           Gel:

  1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter, diced                                   4 Tsp water

  Filling:                                                                     1 Packet unflavored gelatin

  32 Ounce Cream Cheese                                           1 Cup Pomegranate Juice

  2/3 Cup sugar                                                            5 Tbl Sugar

  15 Ounce Cream Of Coconut                                                 

Crust:  Preheat oven to 350F. Blend all ingredients in processor until finely ground and sticking together, 1 to 2 minutes. Press crumb mixture onto bottom of a 9-inch-diameter spring form pan.  Bake crust until golden, 14 to 15 minutes. Cool crust on rack.   Increase oven temperature to 425F.

Filling:  Blend cream cheese in processor until smooth, scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Add sugar and blend thoroughly, scraping sides often.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Add coconut extract, and salt, blend until just moistened.  Add cream of coconut, mix until blended. Pour filling into crust.  Bake cheesecake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250F. Bake until center is softly set, about 1 hour 35 minutes longer.  Turn off oven. Keeping door closed, cool cake in oven 1 hour. Refrigerate cake, uncovered, at least 12 hours or overnight.

Gel:  Place water in small cup; sprinkle gelatin over.  Pour pomegranate juice into small saucepan. Mix in sugar. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves and bubbles form at edge of pan. Add gelatin mixture and stir 1 minute to dissolve. Cool 10 minutes; pour into center of cheesecake. Rotate and tilt cake until glaze is spread evenly over top. Chill cake to set glaze, at least 1 hour.