Pomegranate Cheesecake

Cheesecake. It's good. The Clines have a cheesecake tradition. Every New Year's Eve we baked a cheesecake - the good kind with several bricks of cream cheese. And it was always topped with cherry pie filling. Yum.

I hadn't made a cheesecake in years when I made this one last spring for a 'birthday cake.' It was SO good. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed a good, homemade cheesecake with a graham cracker crust.
Fast forward 18 months and I was in the mood to bake another cheesecake. This time it was Thanksgiving and we decided to venture outside of our comfort zone and try something new. And so I bring you Pomegranate Cheesecake. The recipe came from Better Homes & Gardens, but was written so poorly that it took two trips to the store to obtain all of the ingredients and about 5 times reading through the recipe to figure out which portions went in what bowl when. You catch my drift. The recipe below is my re-written version that I'll use next time I make it.

Pomegranate Cheesecake (adapted from BH&G)

Ingredients:
· 1/2 cup butter, softened
· 1/4 cup (plus ¼ cup) packed brown sugar
· 4 eggs
· 1-1/4 cups (plus ¼ cup) all-purpose flour
· 4 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
· 1-1/4 cups (plus ¼ cup) granulated sugar
· 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. vanilla
· 1 16-ounce carton dairy sour cream
· 1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
· 16 oz pomegranate juice
· 1-1/2 cups pomegranate seeds (1 fresh promegranate – I doubled it!)
· 1 Tbsp cornstarch

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar. Beat until combined. Add 1 egg; beat well. Beat in 1-1/4 cups flour until combined. Divide dough in half. Cover and refrigerate one portion.

2. Spread unrefrigerated dough half on bottom of ungreased 10-inch spring form pan with sides removed, spreading dough to edges. Place on baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely. When cool, attach sides of pan. Press chilled dough onto sides to a height of 1-3/4 inches, using a thin metal spatula to spread dough.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F. For filling, in an extra-large mixing bowl beat cream cheese and 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in the remaining flour (1/4 cup) on low speed until smooth. Add remaining 3 eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla all at once, beating on low speed just until combined. Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream, the lemon peel, and 3/4 cup (half) of the pomegranate seeds.

4. Pour filling into crust-lined pan. Place on baking sheet. Bake for 65 minutes or until edges are puffed and center jiggles slightly when gently shaken (I ended up 75 minutes...probably depends on altitude). Remove from oven.

5. Stir together remaining sour cream (the entire 16 oz carton, less the ½ cup you already used), sugar (1/4 cup), and vanilla (1 tsp). Spread sour cream mixture over top of baked cheesecake. Return to oven; bake for 10 minutes more (or until golden). Remove from oven. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen crust from sides of pan. Cool for 30 minutes more. Remove sides of pan; cool completely. Cover; chill 4 hours or overnight.

6. Remove cheesecake and Pomegranate Sauce (recipe below) from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving. Spoon some sauce over top of cheesecake; pile remaining 3/4 cup pomegranate seeds in center of cheesecake. To serve, slice cheesecake. Pass remaining sauce. Makes 16 servings. I say go with 2 pomegranates if you like them...you’ll want more seeds to sprinkle over the top!

7. For sauce, in a medium saucepan bring 1-16-ounce bottle pomegranate juice to boiling; reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until reduced to 1 cup (10 to 12 minutes). Stir together 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Add to juice. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Transfer to a medium bowl; cover surface with clear plastic wrap. Cool to room temperature. Store, covered, in refrigerator until serving time.