my first attempt at burnt Basque cheesecake

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Thanks to many shelter-in-place policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been unleashing their talents in the kitchen and publicising these on their social media platforms. One of the videos I've watched is on how to make burnt Basque cheesecake, a pastry that hails from San Sebastian, Spain. I thought that this cake is foolproof; it's actually difficult to mess it up because (1) the recipe actually calls for burning the top of the cake; and (2) all the ingredients are mixed without much concern about the sequence of mixing. In contrast, many recipes I've encountered warn about burning the surface of the cake, otherwise it would be too dry or instruct readers to mix all dry ingredients, then all wet ingredients, then mix the wet and the dry mixtures.

Anyway, I decided to make burnt Basque cheesecake myself, basing my version on the Bon Appétit recipe. But I tweaked the recipe because of limited resources in our kitchen. Below is the Bon Appétit recipe and the red notes are my modifications.

Recipe:

1/3 cup all purpose flour  I used Lehi Mills pancake mix
6 eggs
2 lb cream cheese, room temperature  I didn't warm the cream cheese prior to use
2 cups heavy cream  I used all-purpose cream
1 tsp kosher salt I used regular sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cup sugar I decided to use light brown sugar

The original recipe is cooked in a 10" springform pan lightly coated with butter and lined with parchment paper. I don't have the springform pan so I decided to use glass baking dishes. For all mixing steps, I used a two-speed hand blender with the wire whisk attachment. While mixing, I scraped down the ingredients from the side of the bowl every few minutes to make sure that all ingredients were incorporated well.

Method:

  1. Coat the baking dish with a thin layer of butter and place a sheet of parchment paper in it. Make sure that the length of the parchment paper is about 2" longer than the height of each side of the baking dish.
  2. Preheat the oven at 450ºF.
  3. Mix the cream cheese and the sugar in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has a smooth consistency.
  4. Add an egg and continue mixing until it is well-blended, then add the next egg. Continue doing this until all eggs have been added to the cream cheese-sugar mixture.
  5. Add the cream, the salt, and the vanilla extract and continue mixing until these are incorporated well into the batter.
  6. Add the pancake mix and continue mixing the batter until it is smooth (no lumps).
  7. Pour the batter into baking dishes up to 3/4 height of the baking dish. There should be some height allowance because the cheesecake rises during the baking step.
  8. Bake the batter for 2 hours or until the top of the cheesecake is golden brown to dark brown and the core is still jiggly. 
  9. Take out the baking dishes from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool. The centre of the cake will sink while it is cooled. This is expected.
  10. Serve warm or further cool in the fridge before serving. 

Verdict:

The recipe yielded a batter that filled two six-cup baking dishes and one three-cup baking dish. The Bon Appétit recipe mentioned that cooking time was 60–65 mins. However, my cheesecakes were cooked in just under two hours; this is probably because I used glass baking dishes, which slowed down heat transfer during the baking step. 

If I extended the cooking time, I probably could achieve the burnt colour for the top of the cheesecake at the expense of the jiggly texture. Hence, I ended up with a lighter-coloured crust. Also, the caramelisation appeared uneven, with the part of the cheesecake directly under the oven's heating element turning dark brown and the rest achieving a more golden brown colour.

My version of the burnt Basque cheesecake

The cheesecake had a rough and firm texture, which I attributed to the pancake mix. The Lehi Mills pancake mix contains hard wheat flour—a strong bread flour containing high concentrations of gluten—lent structure to the cheesecake. The roughness, I think, was caused by my decision not to sift the pancake mix prior to adding to the batter (Step 6). I ended up liking the rough texture because it added bite to the cheesecake. Taste-wise, Daddy and I liked the sweetness level of the cheesecake but Anna and Mommy found it to be too sweet. So for my next round of baking this dish, I'll reduce the sugar content.

The burnt Basque cheesecake was a success with my family. It appears that I'll prepare this again.

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