Coconut Cream Cheesecake
This was the first cheesecake I ever attempted to make; it wasn’t nearly as hard as I anticipated… And it’s been a giant hit!
This cheesecake is seriously so good that my family requests it for so many gatherings. My mom always requests this cake and most recently my aunt offered to pay me to make this cheesecake for her to take to a friend’s birthday. I happily obliged because I wanted to make it so that I can share it with all of you.
All the ingredients in this cheesecake are pretty straightforward and almost all of them can already be found in your pantry, with the exception of maybe canned coconut milk and coconut extract. I always have unsweetened and sweetened shredded coconut on hand because coconut is my… Spirit food?
Read along here for a detailed description of how to make this cheesecake or just skip all the way down to the bottom and save the recipe card to Pinterest!
Preheat your oven to 350.
In a food processor (I also have a small Oster food processor that my aunt Gayle gave me for my wedding shower seven years ago and I still use it to this day) combine your sleeve of graham cracker crumbs, ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut, and sugar. Once that’s combined, add in your very soft butter. It will be very crumbly. Press the crust mixture firmly into a sprayed 9-inch springform pan.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust starts turning a golden brown; it takes about 12-13 minutes in my oven. Once it’s done, remove and turn your heat down to 325.
In a stand mixer, combine three blocks of cream cheese and mix until it becomes creamy, probably 3 to 4 minutes on high. Next you will add in the sugar, I did this slowly to make sure it incorporates well and starts to become nice and soft.
Next I put in the cornstarch & salt and mixed well, then the shredded coconut. You want each ingredient to incorporate well and you should probably scrape down the sides of the bowl too, don’t miss the very bottom! Then I added in the vanilla extract and coconut extract and mix well.
Next, I added in three already beaten eggs and combine this mixture until the eggs are well blended and it’s a nice fluffy mixture. Lastly, add in 7 ounces of coconut milk. I used A Taste of Thai.
Pour into your sprayed spring-form pan and set it in a roasting pan. Your cheesecake is going to be baking in a water bath to stay nice and moist, preventing cracks. Pour enough water into the roasting pan that it goes about halfway up the cheesecake pan. You don’t want the water to completely evaporate in the process of baking.
Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. If you grab the roasting pan and wiggle it a little and the cheesecake is no longer jiggly, it’s time to pull it out.
Once out of the oven, remove the cheesecake pan from the roasting pan and put directly on a cooling rack.
Allow to cool completely before covering and putting in the fridge. I like to just keep the spring-form on at that point for protection in the fridge. Once the cheesecake has chilled in the fridge for 8 hours, you can put your toppings on!
I will say, this cheesecake is so good when it’s nice and cold right out of the fridge… The longer it sets in there first, the better.
Line the edge with either homemade whipped cream, which is just (very cold) heavy cream and sugar whipped in a stand mixer on high until it forms whipped cream. Or you can just used canned! Lastly, with cooled toasted coconut that you baked in the oven at 450 for about 3-5 minutes, spread around the whipped cream and center of cheesecake.
Coconut Cream Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 envelope Graham Crackers, crushed
- 5 T sugar
- ½ cups shredded sweetened coconut
- 6 T butter
- 3- 8oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 T cornstarch
- ½ cup shredded sweetened coconut (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ t tsp coconut extract (optional)
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 7 oz coconut milk
- 1 tub whipped coconut cream, or homemade
- ½ C toasted coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, combine a sleeve of graham crackers, a half cup of shredded coconut, and 5 tablespoons of sugar. Don’t over pulverize! Once well combined, add in 6 tablespoons of very soft butter.
- Press firmly into a sprayed 9-inch spring-form pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes,
- Remove and turn oven down to 325.
- In a stand mixer or large bowl, beat 3 blocks of softened cream cheese until soft.
- dd in 1 cup of sugar, cornstarch, salt and combine well.
- Add ½ cup of finely chopped, shredded sweetened coconut and again mix well.
- Next, add 3 beaten eggs and vanilla & coconut extracts into the mixture and combined until very smooth.
- Lastly, add in 7 ounces of canned coconut milk.
- Pour on top of crust, and place cheesecake pan inside a roasting pan. Pour water inside of roasting pan halfway up the cheesecake pan.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cheesecakes is no longer jiggly.
- Remove cheesecake pan from roasting pan immediately and place on a cooling rack.
- Let cool completely, leave spring-form on, cover with foil and refrigerate for 8 hours.
- Line cheesecake with homemade or canned whipped cream.
- Finally, top with toasted sweetened coconut. (Bake on 450 for 5 minutes – let cool before you put on cheesecake).
