Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts to eat. But baking traditional cheesecakes is such a pain. First, you need to bake the crust. Then you need to bake it in a water bath. And there’s the dangerous chance water can get into your cheesecake. It’s happened to me before and it might be one of the saddest things ever. Like literal heart and soul crushing.
That’s why I wanted to make a basque cheesecake. Basque cheesecake originates from San Sebastian, Spain at a restaurant called La Viña. The cake has no crust. It’s baked at a high heat for a long period of time until the cheesecake batter caramelizes into a natural crust. The texture is between a cheesecake and a flan. Best part? NO WATER BATH.
This cheesecake was created because of one very good reason: Safeway was having a sale on cream cheese; buy 1 get 2 free! I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to make a basque cheesecake especially since I could save a few bucks. Don’t judge me, cream cheese is expensive, man. Obviously, I had to put my own spin on this cheesecake. This household loves hojicha (not to mention I have a ginormous bag of it) so hojicha it was. Feel free to use a different flavor if roasted green tea isn’t available!
Hojicha Basque Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup heavy cream (only 1 1/2 cup will be used in the cheesecake)
- 3/4 cup hojicha loose tea
- 38 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon yuzu juice
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- Butter, for pan
Directions
- Step 1 Bring the cream to a light simmer over medium heat. Turn off heat and add hojicha. Agitate the tea leaves and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
- Step 2 Measure 1 1/2 cup of hojicha cream to use.
- Step 3 Preheat oven to 400F and grease a 7″ springform cake pan with butter. Line the pan with two pieces of parchment paper with at least 1″ of overhang over the sides.
- Step 4 In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sugar, salt until smooth on medium speed.
- Step 5 Adjust to low speed, add cream and yuzu and mix until fully incorporated. Then mix one egg at a time.
- Step 6 Finally, sift in flour and mix until smooth.
- Step 7 Add batter to the pan. Tap on a surface to release any air bubbles.
- Step 8 Place pan on top of a baking sheet and place in oven. Bake for an hour until the top is dark brown.
- Step 9 Allow to cool completely before removing from cake pan.
You must be logged in to post a comment.