Burnt Basque Cheesecake recipe by Charlotte Ree
There’s nothing a kilo of cream cheese can’t fix and this burnt basque cheesecake does not need a single thing added to it.
I cannot stop baking this cheesecake. It’s a cake so good it will make you cry. A cake that is so perfectly imperfect, I long to bake it again and again and again because life is like that – perfect in all of its imperfections.
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RECIPE: Burnt Basque Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1kg cream cheese, at room temperature
- 300g caster sugar
- 6 free-range eggs, at room temperature
- 500ml thickened cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 80g plain flour
Method
- Line a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper. (There is no art or precision to this, I simply tear two sheets of paper and crisscross them so the paper extends above the height of your chosen tin.)
- Preheat the oven to 200C. Beat the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition to combine.
- With a large spatula, scrape down the side of the bowl before adding the cream and vanilla and mixing to combine. Scrape down the side of the bowl once more, add the flour and mix to create a silky smooth batter.
- Pour into your tin and bake for 65-70 minutes, until you see the cheesecake’s deliciously darkened top. Remove from the oven. The cake will still wobble as though it is undercooked, but as it cools it will harden. Leave it in the tin for 10 minutes before removing it to cool completely. Serve at room temperature, on its own.
- This is a cake that is impossible to stuff up because it’s a cake that wants nothing more than to be burnt and blistered, cracked and crinkled, and yet still comes through in a cloud of captivating creaminess.
- This cake does not need a single thing added to it.
This is an edited extract from Heartbake: A bittersweet memoir by Charlotte Ree (Allen & Unwin).