This past summer, I tried my hand at making a Basque Cheesecake at home. There are many versions of cheesecakes, with some regional differences playing a part in the style of cake you end up with.
Visually, it has a noticeably charred top, there is no crust and the texture is light, airy and if you nail the recipe, creamy in the middle. The origin of this cake is the Basque region (specially the city of St. Sebastien). For those not sure where that is, it’s located in northern Spain by the French border.
The ingredients are minimal: cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs, corn starch, sugar, vanilla, lemon and cooking spray. The only prep required is to take out the cream cheese to warm to room temperature a few hours prior.
Equipment? Also minimal: a bowl, hand-mixer, a 6 inch deep round pan, parchment paper and your oven.
What you end up is a light, very tasty cheesecake that will impress your dinner guests and you pull it off with ease.
Basque Cheesecake
Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes25
minutesIngredients
2 packages of cream cheese (2x250gr.) room temp.
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup heavy (35%) cream
1 Tbsp. corn starch
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 450F. Into a bowl, add your cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice and whip with your hand mixer for about 3 minutes or until there are no lumps. Scrape the sides, continue mixing and add the eggs one at a time.
- Add the cream and corn starch and mix for a couple of minutes.
- Take a piece (or two) of parchment paper and scrunch it with your hands. Apply cooking spray in your pan and place the parchment paper in the pan, pressing the paper against the sides as best you can with the excess overhanging from the sides. Spray the parchment with cooking spray as well.
- Pour your batter into the pan, tap a couple of times on the counter and place in your pre-heated 450F oven for 23-35 minutes (the top should be a deep brown colour).
- Take out of the oven and allow to cool 2 hours on your counter then minimum 8 hours in the fridge.
- To serve, carefully lift the cheesecake out of the pan by grabbing the overhanging parchment paper and transfer to a serving platter. Carefully remove the parchment from under the cake.
- Allow the cheesecake to come to room temperature (30 minutes) and serve.
Recipe Video
Notes
- A 6 inch springform pan can also be used to bake this cheesecake.
