A Basque cheesecake is baked hot enough to burn the top and pulled while the centre still wobbles. This version makes one base and splits it six ways, so a single bake gives six small cakes with different flavours. They need four hours in the fridge, which is the part that sets the texture.
Spanish · Dessert
Six Mini Basque Cheesecakes From One Batter
One custardy base split six ways with pistachio, oreo, earl grey, comte, chocolate and strawberry. Baked hot for a burnt top, chilled for a molten middle.
- Prep30 min
- Cook20 min
- Serves6
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 500 g | cream cheese , at room temperature |
| 120 g | caster sugar |
| 5 | eggs |
| 2 | egg yolks |
| 20 g | cornflour |
| 360 g | double cream |
| 25 g | pistachio paste |
| 20 g | oreo crumbs |
| 1 g | earl grey tea , plus a tea bag for the cream |
| 15 g | comte , finely grated |
| 5 g | cocoa powder |
| 10 g | dark chocolate , melted |
| 5 g | strawberry powder |
| 100 ml | double cream , whipped, for decoration |
| 1 handful | fruit , for decoration |
Method
- Warm a little of the cream with the earl grey tea bag, steep for 15 minutes, then cool and use it in place of the same volume of plain cream.
- Blend the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, yolks and cornflour on low speed until smooth, then stir in the cream by hand to avoid whipping in air.
- Divide the batter between six bowls of about 200 g each.
- Flavour them one at a time: pistachio paste, oreo crumbs, the tea cream, grated comte, cocoa plus melted chocolate, and strawberry powder. Stir each just enough to combine.
- Line six small tins with crumpled baking paper and pour in the batters.
- Bake at 230C for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are deeply browned and the centres still tremble when the tin is nudged.
- Cool to room temperature, then chill for at least four hours, overnight if possible.
- Whip the cream, colour it if you like, and pipe a little onto each cake with fruit alongside.
Notes
- Low speed on the cream cheese is what keeps the crumb dense rather than airy.
- The burnt top is the style, not a fault; if it darkens before the centre sets, move the tray down.
Ratios and technique checked against 深蓝小米粥 on Douguo (一次性炫6种巴斯克！快乐直接翻倍). The method here is written by Stellaok and the illustration is ours; no text or photograph from the source is reproduced.