Small Win: Ladies and gentlemen, the white chocolate basque cheesecake
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WHY BASQUE CHEESECAKES ARE THE BEST
I know that many people have strong opinions about cheesecake and, at the risk of becoming unpopular, I’ll tell you one of mine: the biscuit base is unnecessary.
For years I saw it as a necessary evil — a stable base for the cheesecake cream that had to sit on top of it. I didn’t appreciate the fact that it would become increasingly soggy over time, or that it made cheesecakes sweeter and more cloying than they needed to be, but I tolerated it.
And when people stated that they liked a thick biscuit base? Honestly: baffled.
Fast forward to the pandemic and suddenly the Basque cheesecake — which hails from the gastronomic capital of San Sebastien — was doing the rounds on social media, and to my total delight: NO BISCUIT BASE. After all these years it turned out that the biscuit base wasn’t even a structural necessity. Mind blown.
The more I learnt about the Basque cheesecake, the more I fell in love.
A Basque cheesecake offers all the rich, unctuous indulgence of a cheesecake but is not too sweet — actually, I would say that it straddles sweet and savoury in the way that salted caramel does.
There is sugar in a Basque, for sure, but there isn’t a lot. And the tang of the cream cheese (plus whatever other soured dairy is used) resonates clearly. Cream cheese is already salty but extra salt is added. Then it’s baked at an aggressively high temperature so that it develops a burnished burnt top that delivers both visual and flavour contrast.
It’s for all of these reasons that a Basque cheesecake can absolutely handle the addition of a white chocolate ganache.
I loved Milky Bar as a kid but there’s no denying that white chocolate is unrelentingly sweet and cloying. Not in this recipe! Here, the addition of white chocolate is just perfect.
Finally — and this does feel relevant given how time-poor and overwhelmed we all are by the world and by life — a Basque cheesecake is much more rustic than a classic cheesecake, so it’s quicker and more straightforward to make. Which is to say that it wins on both flavour and convenience.
THE MILKY BAR BASQUE CHEESECAKE
Serves 8–10
Good to know
The best/closest flavour to Milky Bar comes from Menier white cooking chocolate — I strongly recommend it (I usually find that I can get hold of it in big Sainsbury’s stores or online at Ocado)
Be bold when baking this — you want to take it out of the oven when it still has a very decent wobble in the middle. This cheesecake is much better underbaked than overbaked — trust the process.
An overnight rest in the fridge is essential for the best texture
Serve the cheesecake cold from the fridge to ensure a clean slice
This is delicious by itself or add some macerated strawberries or raspberries alongside
Ingredients
For the ganache:
200g (7oz) white chocolate, finely chopped — Menier, ideally
360ml (12fl oz/11/2 cups) double (heavy) cream
For the cheesecake:
840g (1lb 14oz) full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese (3 x 280g/10oz family packs)
100g (31/2oz/scant 1/2 cup) full-fat creme fraiche
140g (43/4oz/2/3 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
4 large eggs
40g (11/2oz/3 heaped tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tsp flaky sea salt
2 to 3 tsp vanilla bean paste, to taste
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Equipment
20cm (8in) springform cake tin (you can afford to fill the tin very close to the top!) — it will also work in a 23cm (9in) tin, but I prefer a deeper slice
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan/240°C/475°F/gas mark 9.
Press a large piece of greaseproof paper roughly into your springform tin (this doesn’t have to be neat or elegant – just make sure that the greaseproof reaches up and slightly over the sides).
Make the ganache. Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl. Gently heat the double cream in a saucepan until hot, then pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until fully melted. Set aside.
In a large bowl briefly whisk together the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth, then add in the sugar and whisk until dissolved. (When using a whisk, the aim is to combine everything, not whisk air into the mix – so avoid any sort of ‘whipping cream’ action.)
Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the white chocolate ganache.
Sift the cornflour into a separate small bowl, then add the salt. Add 2–3 large spoonfuls of the cheesecake mix and whisk until there are no lumps. Add this thicker mixture back into the main cheesecake mix (use a spatula to ensure you don’t leave any behind), then whisk together.
Lastly, add the vanilla and lemon juice, and use a spatula to ensure that everything has been fully combined.
Pour the mix into your prepared tin and bake until puffed up, blackened on top and reasonably jiggly in the middle.
The reality is that the baking time will vary a lot depending on the fierceness of your oven, so this is one to trust your instincts on. Start checking from the 30-minute mark – I usually take it out around the 30 or 35 minutes mark. Rest assured that a good wobble in the middle is okay as the white chocolate ganache helps it to firm up in the fridge.
Allow to cool to room temperature (do not remove it from the tin!) and then store it in the fridge overnight. This cheesecake is best sliced and eaten straight from the fridge so that it holds its set.