This refined recipe for chocolate Basque cheesecake is SO SIMPLE with the most impressive results. Find a detailed step-by-step with tips and tricks below or skip right to the recipe and get baking! This cheesecake does not miss.
I’ve always felt like making a cheesecake, at home, from scratch was rather unreasonable. You mean to tell me I’m supposed to break the bank on dairy products and eggs, pour them all into a leaky bottom pan, cover than pan in foil that rips if a sharp word is spoken, AND THEN place that whole precarious operation in WATER and somehow get that into A HOT OVEN? Honestly? I’ve run the numbers (aka, tried to bake more than one cheesecake this way) and my stats aren’t great. I blame foil, and a general skepticism which is why this salted caramel cheesecake pie has been my go-to cheesecake until I discovered this Basque beauty.
Basque Cheesecake, as you might expect, come from a restaurant named La Vina in San Sebastian, Spain. Unlike it’s American cousin, Basque cheesecake is made without crust, without a fussy water bath, and at a high temperature to caramelize the top. It feels like a magic trick It’s truly so much more simple than it appears and I want it to make cheesecake bakers out of all of us – I promise.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this Chocolate Basque Cheesecake:
• cream cheese at room temperature
• unsweetened cocoa powder
• melted chocolate
• granulated sugar
• espresso powder
• heavy cream
• large eggs
• vanilla extract
• salt
• This cake is baked in ungreased parchment paper and 6-inch round 3-inch tall cake pan. The sides and size of the cake pan are important for the structure of the chocolate Basque cheesecake so there are no substitutes.
Start by beating softened cream cheese with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment in a large bowl. Just beat the cream cheese around to make sure it’s entirely softened and pliable.
Beat in the sugar, followed by cocoa powder and espresso (or coffee powder). It’s best to work any lumps out of the cocoa and espresso powder with the back of a spoon or by pressing the powders through a fine mesh strainer. Coffee and chocolate lumps are hard to work out of the batter once they’re in there.
Whip in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth and well combined.
Stir the melted chocolate into the batter mixture followed by heavy cream. The batter should feel entirely irresistible at this point.
Spoon the thick chocolate batter into an ungreased 6-inch pan lined with ungreased parchment paper. I like to crinkle the parchment paper so it fits into the edges of the pan better but you should do what you think is best.
What we do know is that this is a million times better than a springform pan.
The chocolate Basque cheesecake bakes at 450 degrees F for 25 minutes which feels like an insane thing to do to a cheesecake, but trust the process. The cake will bake to puffed and burnt across the top and maybe split across the side – that’s perfect. That’s beauty. But the cake isn’t done after it comes out of the oven. Time in the fridge is part of the baking process just as much as the oven, and we’re talking at least four hours in the refrigerator – hot from the oven, still in the pan and paper.
Once the cheesecake is baked and cool baked, shimmy out of the pan, peel the paper away and top with whipping cream whipped to soft peaks.
Because I can’t leave well enough alone and because fall fruit is GORGEOUS and doesn’t get enough credit, we’re really going for gemstone colored bounty once the cake is baked.
This is one of those cheesecake recipes you’ll have in your life forever, starting now. This is your dinner party trick – every time.
The texture is silky smooth, chilled, forkable chocolate mousse.
The creaminess is liable to bring a tear to your eye.
And I know – I KNOW it sounds like I’m overstating a lil 6-inch cheesecake but I trust you’ll make one for yourself to find out I’m not.
xo
PrintMini Burnt Chocolate Basque Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the cheesecake:
- 2 blocks (16 ounces, 450 grams) full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 7 ounces (200 grams) 70% dark chocolate
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 heaping tablespoon (9 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted if clumpy
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, sifted if clumpy
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy cream
For the whipped cream:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Top with fresh fruit like figs, currants, pink-inside apples, persimmon slices, pomegranates – anything that feels lovely and autumnal.
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a 6-inch round cake pan with 3-inch tall sides with a piece of parchment baking paper. Press and fold the paper into the edges of the pan, leaving a few inches of paper to hang over the sides of the pan.
- In a small bowl, melt chocolate in the microwave in 20 second bursts, stirring in between, until melted and glossy. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using electric hand beaters, beat cream cheese until spread around the bowl and smooth. Beat in the sugar until well combined. Beat in the cocoa powder and espresso powder until smooth and free of lumps.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the melted chocolate. Add the cream in two batches, beating to combine thoroughly.
- Pour the thick batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-28 minutes until burnt across the top, puffed up towards the edge of the pan, and just slightly wobbly. Turn off the oven. Open the oven door and wedge a wooden spoon in a kitchen towel into the door to prop the oven open and allow cake rest in the warm oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove cake from the oven and immediately transfer it to the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- To make the whipped cream, in a medium bowl with clean electric hand beaters, whip cream, sugar and vanilla extract to soft peaks. Transfer to a small bowl, cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve the cheesecake.