Bake With Me #1: Basque Burnt Cheesecake

Since I enjoy baking and writing so so much, I have decided to start a mini series on this blog dedicated to my baking activities. I don't bake as much these days but when I do... boy there's no stoppin! This is one of the recipes I see floating through my social media feed during MCO. A lot of my friends started their own cake business this year and this was the one cake all of them did.

It seemed intimidating -- like all cheesecake recipes out there. So, I put off the plan of attempting it for quite some time before all those cheesecake posts drove me wild. Funnily enough, by the time I went to look for all the ingredients, there were no cream cheese left anywhere! It took me another two weeks before I could finally get my hands on the last two cream cheese on the shelves. 

The recipe and steps to bake this scrumptious looking cake is, surprisingly, simple -- foolproof even. So go wild with this recipe and enjoy the end product cause I know me and my family did. The first batch was gone in just a few hours, my mistake was not letting it set long enough. So we enjoyed it warm, a bit gooey in the middle but yum. The second time I bake it, I refrigerated it overnight and my oh my, what a difference it made. You can enjoy multiple ways with this one which makes it all the more worth it.

Without further ado, this is the recipe for a basque burnt cheesecake.

Ingredients:

• 500g cream cheese (softened/room temperature)

•150g caster sugar

•4 eggs (lightly whisked)

•250ml whipping cream

•25g all purpose flour

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven for 10 minutes, at 200°c. *

2. In a bowl, lightly beat the cream cheese before gradually adding the caster sugar. Beat until mixture is fluffy.

3. To the mixture, add the eggs in little by little. It may look curdled at first but keep beating the mixture until everything is combined.

4. Add the whipping cream and keep whisking. By then, the batter would have doubled in volume.

5. Next, sift in the flour. Carefully fold it in by using a spatula. 

6. Line you cake tin with parchment paper. Make sure to cover even the sides of the tin. This will make it easier to remove the cake from the tin, unless you're using a spring form cake tin.

7. Lastly, into the oven it goes for 50 minutes, at 200°c.

8. When done, give the cake tin a little push, if it slightly jiggles -- perfect! Let it cool to the touch before removing it from the pan, just pull on the parchment paper and it should be fine. Enjoy it lukewarm or refrigerate it overnight, either way it won't disappoint!

* Since I would usually have the ingredients all laid out before baking, I know I could finish prepping within 10 minutes which is why I preheat the oven before starting. But if you don't want to rush, you could preheat the oven whenever you deem fit.

What's better about this recipe is that it's as simple and basic as it gets. Which means it could be a great base recipe for any flavour you want -- chocolate, matcha or anything really. For once you have the basics down, you can tweak it to your heart's content. Enjoy!

P/s: You probably won't need it but here is my first review upon tasting the first batch.

As I said, this first round, I didn't refrigerate it before munching it down. As soon as it was warm to the touch, I lift the parchment paper from the cake tin and transferred it onto a cake board. Upon removing the parchment paper, you could see the infamous textured edges of the cake, giving it a rustic feel! No need for extra decorations, the cake (fresh out of the oven) itself is a masterpiece.

Honest first review, it has an egg-y taste to it, though not overwhelming... similar to that of an egg tart. The soft texture makes it feel like you're enjoying a serving of mousse. The texture depends on how long you let the cake set, mine wasn't runny but wasn't firm either, in between.

The next one, I actually held off long enough to refrigerate it overnight, promising myself a magical slice for breakfast lol. I knew the texture is going to be firmer but I wasn't sure if there would be any difference to the taste, Imagine the surprise I got when I tasted it, I ate almost half the cake in one sitting. Gone is the egg-y taste and in its place is a cheesecake. Simple and yet so good, I had tears running down my cheeks.

The sweetness matched really well with the tartness of the cream cheese, and to top it off, the slight burnt top of the cake gave it just a hint of bitterness to seal in all the creamy goodness. Perfect, just perfect. 

To be able to enjoy that with minimal effort and ingredients is just a blessing for everyone.