This has been the year of trendy recipes. Thankfully the burnt Basque cheesecake being one of them.
Growing up, my mom’s New York style cheesecake was the best thing to grace our kitchen table. It was
dense, lemony, had a nutty crust, and was always topped with sweet cherries. This cheesecake recipe is
basically it’s alter ego. It’s light, not too sweet, has a pressed pie crust, and almost a molten filling. With
the Basque cheesecake, you don’t really care too much about aesthetics. It’s cooked at a very high
temperature, creating cracks, and a nearly burnt top. But that’s what makes it almost foolproof! SO I
had the idea of making 6 inch fruit cheesecakes with adaptions from my mom’s cheesecake recipe and I
came across one of my all-time favorite Half Baked Harvest's blueberry Basque cheesecake and here
we are! The blueberry lemon Basque cheese cake.
Ingredients:
For the batter:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese - room temperature
3/4 cup monkfruit (or granulated sugar)
3 large eggs - room temperature
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups fresh blueberries – washed and dried
For the crust:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup shortening (half butter and half lard)
1/2 tsp salt
approximately 1/4 cup ice water (with a splash of vinegar)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a spring form pan by greasing it and lining
it with parchment paper. If you don’t have a spring form pan, you can also use a tall sided pie
pan, preparing it the same way. You will definitely need parchment paper to lift the cake out of
the pan. In my case, I used two 6inch pie pans for two “mini” cheesecakes.
2. Prepare the crust. Mix flour and salt, cut in shortening with pastry cutter. Add ice water carefully
until all ingredients are combined. Form the dough into a disc, slightly flattened, and let it rest
in a plastic bag or whatever for about an hour.
3. Flour a surface and roll crust out to about ½ inch thick. Drape the crust over the pan and press it
into the pie pan, place it in the refrigerator until the batter is complete.
4. In a medium sized bowl, beat the cream cheese and the monkfruit (or sugar if that’s what you’re
using) until nice and creamy, about three minutes. I used a hand mixer, you can use a kitchen
aide as well.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and ensure it’s fully blended between each egg.
6. Add the cream, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and salt and blend until smooth.
7. Sift the flour into the mixture and blend just until combined.
8. Pour the batter into the pan and place blueberries on top. Some will sink to the bottom, some
will stay on top, that’s totally fine.
9. Place the cake in the center of the oven and bake for 55-60 minutes. The cake should jiggle
when it’s done! Allow the cake to cool entirely before cutting into it.
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