Burnt Basque Cheesecake

 

Look, Iiiiiii know this recipe share probably seems cliche or gah omg Becky c’mon, this is trendy, give it a rest but holy crikeys, Burnt Basque Cheesecake my friends, wow.  Just wow.

Wow.           ......wow.

Let’s set all the silly dismissive thoughts aside about “please, just another cheesecake, ambulance chasing a trend, what could be so [enter whatever thought you have here]” because omg, you have to make this cheesecake. 

It is so earth-shatteringly good, it runs circles around our (now they all seem) paltry American ones. 

I about passed out and fell off the couch tasting this wonder. 

Ok, right, it’s a cheesecake, sure.  Jeez Becky, what has got you so riled up about this one?, you may be scratching your head. 

There are several differences, and believe you me, I researched this heartily… 

First, it’s crustless. Right? So no graham crackers or whatever else one might slip in as a base.  How can this be good or easy to serve, Becky, c’mon?  It is.  Both. The pan is lined with parchment paper* for easy removal.

Second, it’s not baked all the way through. Per se. The center is custardy and puddly soft, very unlike American cheesecake where it has the same consistency bite for bite. 

I cannot stress enough how critical the creamy center is; it is not to be micro-managed into a solid. The Point of this is the custard center. Do not Americanize this cheesecake! 

See, there are oodles of recipes online for Burnt Basque Cheesecake and if you look at the photos, they look like, well, like my New York Style one:  baked through.  Don’t bake those.  Bake this.  You want, need, it to be underdone in the middle. 

Third, the top is caramelized and a deep deep golden brown, aka "burnt."  It tastes like the crispy snappy burnt sugar top of Creme Brûlée and there is everything right about that.  

Yeah I’m sorry, I cannot get enough of how gorgeous this bakes up. Is it getting hot in here?

Fourth, the ingredients are cold.  No room temp prep. 

Fifth, it is a one-bowl wonder, a true mix-and-pour, could-not-be-easier-to-assemble recipe. 

Sixth, if it cracks, it cracks; if it’s messy, it’s messy; if it’s not perfect, it is not — that's the beauty of this cheesecake. The Spanish, they get it. 

Aaaabbbsolutely make our other cheesecakes, but oh my, absolutely make this one. It will alter the trajectory of your life. 

All right, now, before we get going here, let me clarify a few things. I used certain tools and also made the special 10” springform pan* size purchase.  

Right, now I know, I do not advocate single-purpose tools and if you don’t think you’ll ever use a 10” springform pan again, you can try to scale the recipe using one of the conversion sites in the right sidebar. But. Once you make this, you will use the 10” pan again. I’ll see if I can find more recipes that use it too. (Get a light-colored one for best results in general.) 

I also have an older, very butch jumbo size Cuisinart food processor,* 14 cups, that hasn’t seen use in years. Luckily I’m a packrat, kept it anyway, and it is perfect for this. Don’t panic, I’ll toss in tips along the way as I don’t imagine this is common. 

Beyond that, everything else is handily managed by any non-regular-baking household. Simple is king here, my friends. 

And as simple as it is, there is a lot going on.  So it doesn't need no flour, no cornstarch, no fillers, no flavorings....Tellin’ ya, Spaniards know where it’s at. 

Mmmk.  Oh my gosh this is so good. 

Start preheating your oven right off as you need it to be scorching hot. 

Tear off two twenty inch long pieces of parchment paper, enough so that it’ll hang over the edges by two inches or so, and stuff them into the pan.  Put one in, turn the other sheet 180° to make a plus sign, stuff it in. Crinkling them into a ball first and unfurling will prevent the paper from rolling back up on you. The paper won't line it perfectly, it won't stay put, and it'll be a mess.  That's perfect. 

I did a little extra folding and smooshing to make it neater so I could get the photo without paper flying out everywhere. No need to do so.

Toss all the ingredients into your (large) food processor and run that for a good solid seven minutes or so.  

That’s it, five ingredients (the salt is measured into the sugar here).

If you do not have a 14 cup or larger-sized food processor, you can run this in half batches in a regular-sized one or in a stand mixer. Or, if you have a hand mixer, you could try that but you might need to mix half at a time. Cold cream cheese is, heh, strong. 

All in the pool, let's do this!

You can add up to 400 grams of sugar, about 2 cups, but I trimmed it to more evenly balance the sweet sugar and the tart cheese. Up to you. 

Then all you do is just pour it in the pan and bake.  No water bath, no messin’ about; the Spanish have life to go live, people. 

Blended up for bake time, oooh yeah.

As it’s baking, you’ll start to smell the scent of caramelizing sugar.  Aw man.  Mmm.  Yum. 

Keep a watchful eye on it as ovens vary but it’s done when the top has browned nicely, the lightly dry looking edges have puffed slightly, and the center has a set skin but is like jiggly molten lava underneath.  Which it probably is.  But this is right, you want that center wiggly jiggly fun time loose.  Trust it! 

Straight from the oven here. This one timed out at 31 1/2 minutes. It’s hot in here, right?

The top will continue to brown as it cools so don’t leave it in the oven looking for killer coloring.  Get it nicely brown enough, keep it wiggly, and take it out. 

Let this baby cool on the counter for an hour then pop it in the fridge uncovered for five hours at which point you can serve it or cover and chill overnight.

Straight from the oven here. This one timed out at 31 1/2 minutes. It’s hot in here, right?

And voila, you have just made yourself the most exceptional cheesecake of all time, the magnificent Burnt Basque Cheesecake. 

Man is this thing good.  Like obsession-worthy good.  Like good is definitely the lamest descriptor word good.  

It's transcendent. 

It is definitely hot in here. Somebody open a window please?

Go forth and bake, my friends!

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Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

*The springform pans and food processors are Amazon affiliate links.  Bake happy, thanks!  Please see the "Info" tab for more, well, more info.