Burnt Basque Cheesecake

Spanish Basque La Viña style cheesecake

Any day at any time is the perfect time for a piece of La Viña Cheesecake. Did you know that the name comes from a small restaurant called La Viña, in San Sebastian, in the North of Spain, which has been cooking this tart for almost 28 years? For me, it's the perfect dessert. I love a slice of this oven-baked cheesecake with a burnt  touch on top and a soft filling.

Ultimately there has been a lot of talk about La Viña Cheesecake. It seems that when the Japanese visited San Sebastian, one of the famous stops was at La Viña restaurant to try the famous cheesecake and now it has become an #instagram and #TikTok trend.

Now tell me, which cheesecake do you like the most, a creamy cheesy baked or the one chilled on the fridge with a crunchy cookie base?

Today I will show you how to cook this cheesecake, using only use a few ingredients and baking. The result of this cake is utterly delicious, has to be baked at a high temperature so it gets slightly burnt and soft in the middle, and let me tell you a secret, once you try you are going to making it a thousand times!!

What do you need?

✅1 bowl to mix the ingredients

✅1 whisk or a kitchen mixer 

✅1 18cm round cake tin like #alansilverwood 

✅1 piece of baking paper

Ingredients

✔ 3 eggs
✔ 450g creme cheese ( I usually use Philadelphia)
✔ 175g caster sugar
✔ 15g cornflour
✔ 200ml double creme

Method 

Set your oven at 210°C on the top and the bottom (not the fan) and prepare your round baking dish. Cut a round baking paper to the same diameter as the base of the tin. You also have to cut another layer of baking paper to put it around the tin. 

Add the eggs and the sugar into the mixing bowl and whisk well with either a kitchen mixer or kitchen robot if you have or use a good whisk instead.

Mix for a few minutes until you see the mix turns into a pale yellow colour. See the image below.

Then add the rest of the ingredients; cornflour,  double cream, and cream cheese. I used #Philadelphia cheese.

Mix well again with your mixer until you have a fluffy and shiny cream.

Now it's time to bake. Pour all the mix into the tin and bake in the middle of your oven for about 45 to 50 minutes at 200°C with the bottom and the top of your oven as this is the best way to make it rise.

Check the cake after 40 minutes to test it with a cake tester or a long knife to see if it has been cooking through. If the surface of the cake looks a bit burnt put on top a piece of foil paper to protect it and continue to bake for 10more minutes if needed.

In this version of the Basque cheesecake, the middle of the cake can be a bit on the underdone side and it is perfectly fine or even better!

Let it cool entirely so you can remove it from the tin. This part can be a bit tricky to do as it is a cake that cooks just with the liquid mixture without any base layer.

Here you can see how it looks in the middle. 

Let me know if you can resist to finish the entire cake 😋