Coconut Cheesecake
Cheesecake is, by far, my favorite dessert. Creamy and crunchy, sweet and sour, it fits my tastebuds in all the right ways.
As may be evident from several of my other recipes, I’m also a proponent of coconut. Its natural sweetness and richness are a welcome addition to so many decadent desserts.
One day while walking through the ethnic food section of the local supermarket, I eyeballed a can of cream of coconut and decided there must be a way to make two of my favourite foodstuffs mesh. And with a little tweaking, and a lot of crossing extremities, I managed to create this quite simple, yet very tasty variation on the classic cheesecake. Plus, the sour cream and low-fat cream cheese give it a lightness that will easily circumvent traditional cheesecake guilt.
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1/2 box Nilla Wafers
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
Filling:
- 2 1/2 pounds (5 blocks) low-fat or nonfat cream cheese/Neufchâtel, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup light sour cream
- 1 can (15 ounces) cream of coconut
Preparation
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottoms and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.
- For crust: In a food processor, crush wafers together with coconut into coarse crumbs. Mix crumbs and butter together in a medium mixing bowl until completely incorporated. Press mixture into the bottom of the springform pan until covered evenly.
- For filling: In a mixer beat the cream cheese until creamy. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the mixing bowl to ensure consistency. Mix in sour cream and cream of coconut.
- Pour filling over cookie crust and shake sides of pan gently to even out. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for about an hour, or until the edges are lightly browned but the middle is not completely set. Remove from oven and set on wire rack to cool about a half-hour. Once cooled, run a knife around the inside to loosen the edges. Remove outer rim of pan and refrigerate the cheesecake at least two hours before serving.
Yields 12 servings