Rosewater-Pomegranate Cheesecake

Cheesecake reminded me that there is such a thing as a reduced-carb dessert.  And this one is Passover-friendly if you sub potato starch instead of cornstarch.

I had a coupon to get two free single-serve Greek yogurt cups.  No problem, I could get two plain yogurts, like I always do, and they would both be free.  They only had one.  What?  Then I looked at the nutrition information on the vanilla cup and decided I could use that instead of adding sugar to the cake.  Yes, there's that much sugar in yogurt, which is why I buy plain.

Once again, I made a one-third recipe in the 6" springform.  I'm guessing you can't get this whole recipe in the food processor.  It's the blender cheesecake recipe, but I had already gotten the Cuisinart dirty making the crust and figured I would just rinse it out and do the filling in it.  The one-third version was kind of pushing it.  One half is likely the maximum for a standard food processor.

Crust

2 C pecans, walnuts, or almonds
3 Tb sugar
 1/4 C butter, melted

1.  Run nuts and sugar in a food processor until finely ground.  Add melted butter and pulse until a damp mixture forms.

2.  Press crust paste into the bottom of a 9" springform, then up the sides as far as it will go.  Wrap bottom of springform in aluminum foil and place in a roasting pan.  (Or larger cake pan)

Filling

3 8 oz bricks cream cheese (low fat ok), room temperature
6 eggs, room temperature
*2-1/4 C vanilla yogurt (Greek ok)
2 Tb cornstarch or potato starch
1/4 C sugar if not making low carb
*1/4 C heavy cream
*1 Tb rosewater
1/2 C pomegranate arils, divided

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.   Add all ingredients except pomegranate to a large blender.  You may have to work in batches.  If that's the case, have a bowl ready for stirring the batches together.

2.  Pulse the blender at first, to break up the cream cheese, then run until smooth.  You will probably have to scrape down the sides.

3.  Pour filling into crust.  Sprinkle with half of the pomegranate.  I expected them to sink.  Maybe it was because I was working with frozen arils.  If necessary, stir a little to distribute them.

4.  Place roasting pan with cake pan inside on oven rack.  Pour 1" of boiling water into the roasting pan.  This is your bain marie.  Bake for 1 hour before checking for set.  You want the cake to jiggle a little, but not have a liquid center.  This may take an extra 10 to 20 minutes.

5.  When cake has set, turn off oven and keep the door shut for 30 minutes.  Then crack it open and let the cake continue to cool until you can take it out without oven mitts, another hour or so.  Refrigerate in the springform until ready to serve, 4 hours or the next day.

Topping

1 C plain yogurt or sour cream
2 Tb sugar
1 tsp rosewater
remaining pomegranate from filling section

1.  Beat together yogurt, sugar, and rosewater.  Spread on top of cheesecake.

2.  Carefully remove springform ring and transfer cake to serving plate.  Decorate with remaining pomegranate arils.

Serves 12-16

Difficulty rating  :)