Basque Cheesecake – a Dessert that Looks and Tastes Better Burnt?
I came across a photo of a basque cheesecake, pretty much a burnt cheesecake, not so long ago and I was intrigued! The burned parts of the cheesecake looked amazing, with the colors and beautiful cracks along the side and the top of the cheesecake. A cheesecake with a perfectly smooth light colored top requires a lot of precision to achieve, so I figured making the basque style cheesecake would be much more fun and easygoing.
The recipe that accompanied that intriguing photo (above from Bon Appetit) called for making a full 10″ cheesecake. Because I didn’t have enough cream cheese, I looked online to see if there was a recipe specifically for a 6” basque cheesecake so I wouldn’t have to guess at adjusting down from a 10” yield. I came across this recipe which was exactly what I was looking for. It even suggested adjustments if you wanted to bake a bigger cheesecake. The cheesecake could be made with a traditional graham cracker crust, or a vanilla wafer crust to give it a bit more flavor. I’m normally not much of a crust person, but I do enjoy vanilla, so I went with the latter option.
Let’s Get Started!
Before getting started with the actual baking of the cheesecake, I lined a 6-inch round cake pan-with-removable-bottom with quite a bit of parchment paper, enough to rise 2-3 inches above the top of the pan. The parchment paper folds would give the edges a beautifully dark golden color with texture.
Ingredients (Above Photo)
Crust:
- 130 grams (about 1 ¼ cup) ground vanilla wafer cookies (I used a generic brand of Nilla wafer cookies)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 85 grams (6 tbsp) melted unsalted butter
Cheesecake:
- 450 – 454 grams (16 oz) cream cheese room temp (I used two 8oz packs)
- 100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs room temp
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 16 grams (2 Tbsp) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (1/4 tsp if regular salt)
- 250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
Instructions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Step 2
Crush the vanilla wafer cookies until fine, and then mix well together with the salt and butter.
Step 3
Pour the mixture into the parchment lined cake pan and smooth out the mixture to form the crust. It should line the whole bottom and around half the height of the side of the round cake pan, evenly or unevenly.
Step 4
Leave the compact crust aside and start to make the cheesecake filling. Mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. You can use a food processor or a mixer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to ensure a smooth mixture.
Step 5
Add in the vanilla to the cream cheese/sugar mixture.
Step 6
Add in the eggs, one at a time. Make sure each egg is incorporated into the mixture before adding the next egg.
Step 7
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and 1/4 cup of the cream until a paste forms.
Step 8
Continue to add the rest of the cream bit by bit and mix until the mixture is smooth, leaving no lumps of flour.
Step 9
Add the flour mixture into the other mixture (cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs), and mix well until smooth.
Step 10
Add the cheesecake mixture over the crust. It’s 100% great if the cheesecake mixture goes up past the cake pan height and onto the parchment paper, leaving about an inch of parchment paper. I had extra mixture that I sadly tossed since I didn’t have another prepared pan of appropriate size to bake the rest of the mixture in.
Step 11
Place in the oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes until the top is browned. The inside should be a bit jiggly. I ended up baking mine for 40 – 45 minutes because mine cracked a lot in the center and I saw it was still raw initially. If your cheesecake mixture is too high, I recommend a higher baking time and also putting a separate tray in the oven to catch any spills.
Step 12
Take the cheesecake out of the oven and let cool to room temperature. You can eat it then, or place it in the fridge to chill overnight to enjoy later. I put mine in the fridge to chill overnight before unwrapping the parchment paper.
In the end, I thought it went quite well for a first attempt; so imperfect and delicious. I really enjoyed the richer texture of the edges as compared to a traditional cheesecake, and I quite enjoyed the vanilla wafer crust!
Look at that awesomeness! Beautiful cracks on the top that semi-fused back together during the cooling process, and amazing textured colored side. The cheesecake has so much color compared to a regular cheesecake, and it tastes great. There’s some richer flavor without it tasting burnt. It goes very well with some coffee or some tea. I hope you all enjoy! I’ll definitely make this again, as it’s convenient to not prepare a water bath trying to make a perfectly smooth cheesecake.
3 Comments
Sunny
looks amazing, especially the vanilla wafer crust!!
rw
Thanks! <3
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