basque burnt cheesecake II

basque burnt cheesecake II

• 18 Nov 2019

Yes, you're absolutely right. I have made a basque burnt cheesecake before. When I made the cheesecake I used cream cheese but I wanted to remake it with cottage farmers cheese because that's what my Mum always used when she made her famous cheesecake. I bought some farm cheese during the weekend and almost fainted when I realised how much I'd paid for it. Who knew cottage farmers cheese was more than twice the price of cream cheese?



I cut the slab of farm cheese in half and stashed a portion in the freezer for later and used a mixture of 2 cheeses in the filling.




I also changed the base recipe. The past few months I've been trying to make a perfect sponge roll but so far have had nothing but disasters. The first one wouldn't detach from the baking paper so went straight into the compost bin. The second one was more successful but cracked when I rolled it. I put it in the freezer until I worked out the best way to use leftover sponge cake other than in a trifle. I read online that you could use spongecake crumbs to make a cheesecake base so that's what I did.



I can't get the perfectly burnished top I see online when I make the cheesecake. I think it's the combination of a slow gas oven and a much lower sugar content in the filling. Next time I might glaze the top of the cake with egg yolk halfway through the bake, but then again maybe I won't. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17cm cheesecake. If you'd like to make a 23cm cheese cake, just double all the ingredients and bake for the same length of time. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional gas oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Basque Burnt Cheesecake II
Base
60g sponge cake, crumbled
¼ cup almond meal
15 gm unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a 17cm spring-form pan, then line with baking paper making sure the paper comes at least 2" above top of pan on all sides. In a food processor whiz the sponge cake crumbs with the almond meal until combined. Drizzle in the butter and process until it forms a soft mixture. Press the mixture into the base of the tin, bringing it slightly up the sides. Bake for 15 minutes or until the base is lightly golden. Set aside to cool while you make the filling.

Filling
250g cottage farm cheese
125g cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup caster sugar or to taste
Pinch salt 
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs plain flour
3 large eggs 
100 mls  cream 

Method
Place a rack in middle of oven; increase the oven temperature to 200°C. Place pan on a baking sheet.

Place the cheeses, sugar, salt vanilla and plain flour in the bowl of a food processor and process. Add eggs and cream and process until the mixture is combined. The cottage cheese has quite a grainy texture so don’t expect the mixture to be perfectly smooth.

Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake cheesecake until deeply golden brown on top and still jiggly in the centre ~ 50 minutes. If the top is a bit pale, increase the temperature to 220°C and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool before unmoulding from the tin. The cheesecake will rise dramatically then fall, this is normal. Let cool completely before carefully peeling the baking paper from sides of cheesecake. 

The cheesecake can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill but be sure to let the cheesecake sit for several hours at room temperature to remove chill before serving.



 
I had a slice last night and it tasted just like Mum's so I'm glad I have a bit of the cottage cheese in reserve because I'll be making this again.

I can't believe how Christmas has snuck up on me. I've just started my Christmas shopping and I've been busily baking for Christmas Week.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian