This dessert originates from La Viña, a cafe in the resort town of San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. In 1990, Chef Santiago Rivera embarked on an experiment to make a new type of cake every day. Eventually, he developed the Basque cheesecake recipe. Unlike creamy, dense New York-style cheesecake, Basque cheesecake is crustless with a light, souffle-like interior and a scorched, caramelized top.
This recipe can be made in your food processor, stand mixer, or by hand. Now I filled 12 x 5cm deep muffin tins for this recipe, but if you’d like a creamier consistency, then I’d recommend you fill only 6 muffin tins that provide you with double the depth. I’ve also listed the basic instructions for the Granadilla Coulis and Chocolate Ganache if you’re curious about trying it with these toppings (I’d totally say YES!)
The Granadilla Coulis: Remove the pulp from 6 large granadillas. Add the granadilla pulp, 1/4 cup castor sugar, and 1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice to a small saucepan. Bring to medium heat and simmer for 5-10mins or until the sugar has dissolved. If you’d like the mixture to be thicker then mix 2 tsp cornstarch with 1 tbsp water and add it to the coulis while it’s simmering. Set aside and allow to cool
Chocolate ganache: Add 100g chopped 70% dark chocolate (or chocolate of choice) to a bowl and pour over 100ml warm heavy cream (that’ll depend on how runny you’d like the ganache to be) – feel free to add the more warm cream to the chocolate until the desired consistency has been achieved.
Ingredients
- 500 g full-fat cream cheese room temp
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temp
- ½ cup heavy cream room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp regular flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Cut large squares of non-stick baking parchment paper. One square per cheesecake. *The square must be big enough to prevent the cheesecake from overflowing when they're baking.
- Add cream cheese and sugar into a mixing bowl (or food processor) and mix/blend until creamy.
- Add the egg, salt, heavy cream, and vanilla and blend until creamy.
- Add in the flour and stir with a spatula until blended. *Do not use a blender for this step and you don't want to overmix the ingredients.
- One at a time, add the parchment paper to a muffin pan. Use your fingers to press the baking parchment paper down as best as you can into the edges of the muffin pan. Fill each muffin round with enough cheesecake mixture to reach just below the top of the pan. Use a small spoon to press the cheesecake mixture into the crevices of the paper. Before placing the muffin pan in the oven, shake the pan a bit or bang it lightly on the countertop to remove any excess air bubbles.
- Place in the oven for 30-45 minutes. Start watching at the 25-minute mark. They are ready when the tops are browned but not burnt, despite the name of the dish. If you're using regular muffin tins (cm depth) then I'd recommend you bake them for 25mins and switch your oven setting to grill and bake until you have the desired colour. Remember you want them heavily browned but to still jiggle once you've removed them from the oven.
- Let the cheesecake fully cool to room temperature for 30 mins-1hr. The tops will sink in a bit, but this is perfect if you'd like to fill the indentations with chocolate ganache or a fruit coulis.
- Once they've reached room temp, place them in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours. *You can add the chocolate ganache or a fruit coulis on top before placing them in the fridge or you can do this just before serving - this depends on if you'd like the sauces to stiffen up a bit (which I personally prefer).