Basque burnt cheesecake

To be really honest, my family doesn't particularly love the basque burnt cheesecake. But you know who does? Grandpa, and pretty much everyone else. Haha yep, and for that, I decided to perfect this recipe and gift him an entire cheesecake.

Ingredients:

350g cream cheese

80g sugar

3 eggs (approx. 155g)

220g whipping cream (I used non-dairy whipping cream)

20g milk

20g honey

1 tsp vanilla

20g corn flour

Method:

1. Line a 6 inch round springform pan with parchment paper.

2. Ensure that all your ingredients are at room temperature. Then preheat your oven to 240 degrees with a baking tray on the middle-upper rack to achieve a nice deeply caramelised/burnt top. Or if you are happy with a more golden top, the middle rack will suffice.

3. Using a paddle attachment, cream together 350g cream cheese and 80g sugar on low speed until combined. Scrape down the sides to ensure that it has been mixed together evenly. Try not to incorporate too much air while mixing.

4. Add in the eggs one at a time and combine before the next egg addition. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl at each addition!

5. In a small bowl, measure out 20g corn flour and add 20g milk Stir until fully dissolved and there are no lumps. Then add this into the cheese mixture and mix till combined.

6. In a measuring cup, combine 220g whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla and 20g honey. In a slow steady stream, slowly pour mixture into mixing bowl until until fully combined. Again, remember to scrape the sides of the bowl.

7. If your mixture looks very bubbly, pass it through a fine mesh sieve and the resulting batter should be very smooth with little to no air bubbles remaining. If in doubt, another round of sieving never hurts!

8. Pour batter into pre-lined cake pan and tap the pan against the countertop to remove large large air bubbles and using a toothpick, pop any visible air bubbles near the surface.

9. Bake for 22 minutes at 240 degrees. Then remove from oven and leave to cool at room temperature for about 2 hours before chucking it off into the fridge to finish setting. It will collapse slightly overall, more so in the middle, but it should not collapse too much and the final height of the cheesecake should be about 2.5 inches. For serving purposes, slice the cheesecake only when completely chilled. Note that if you are baking more than one cheesecake at a time in the oven, bake for an additional one or two minutes. There is minimal difference between baking in a light tin or dark tin so you could bake all the cakes together even if the colour of your baking tins differ from one another.

Variation:

For a black sesame basque burnt cheesecake, mix about 2 tbsp unsweetened black sesame paste with honey until sufficiently sweetened, then add in a few scoops of cheesecake batter and combine till no lumps remain before adding another 1/3-1/2 of the cheesecake batter and mix to combine. Then pour in the black sesame batter into the pre-lined pan before pouring the vanilla cheesecake batter into the centre. The basque burnt cheesecake bakes up with a good black sesame fragrance even while in the oven, and makes for a more interesting basque burnt cheesecake experience.

Happy baking!

Carina xx