Basque Cheesecake

Welcome back!

Today, we have a recipe for a really cool cheesecake! This is known as the Basque Cheesecake, which hails from - you guessed it - the Basque region in Spain. This region is very interesting because of its unique language and its location in the Pyrenees, but evidently, it's also interesting because of its food! This was also super popular in East Asia a couple years back, and our recipe is probably closer to something like that. This is not to be confused with the Gateau Basque, which is from the French Basque region, and is completely different - it's a cake.

Basque Cheesecake

Makes a 7" cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 8-ounce boxes cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cake flour

Directions:

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar. Make sure it's nice and smooth. The softer your cream cheese the better.
One at a time, add in each of the rest of the ingredients and mix smoothly so it's even and homogenous.
Take two sheets of parchment paper in an x-shape and press it into your baking pan. You can use the bottom of the pan to press down the parchment paper. Press firmly on the sides to try to get the edges to be even; though not necessarily smooth.
Pour the batter into the baking pan.
Bake in the oven at 400°F until the top is thoroughly browned, about 40 minutes. You can cover the top if you feel like it's too dark towards the end.

Honestly, this is a pretty standard cheesecake in terms of what you put in it, but as for the way you cook it, it's quite different, and you can tell that by the picture - the burnt and sunk look of the cheesecake is actually the way to do it! In fact, the "messier" or more rustic it is, the better; it's supposed to be a pretty home-y recipe.

-Chefpo

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