Molly Makes Burnished Basque Cheesecake

Anybody else try and like, face plant into this right now?

[upbeat music]

Today, we're gonna burn a cheesecake.

We're gonna do my burnt basque cheesecake,

which is a recipe that I developed after a trip to Spain

to San Sebastian to the temple of basque cheesecakes,

it's called La Vina

and the thing that's so freakin' great about this recipe

is that it's the anti-cheesecake,

which means it gets cooked at very high heat

and you burn it.

It will crack, it will brown,

there's no crust, there's no water bath.

It's the easiest cheesecake and consequently,

the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had.

Into the stand mixer, I'm going to paddle

a shit ton of cream cheese.

This is two pounds of cream cheese.

Philadelphia's finest.

So this has two pounds of cream cheese

and one and a half cups of granulated sugar,

and I am just paddling this on low.

This is a 10 inch spring form pan

and I'm gonna grease it with some butter

and then we're gonna line it with parchment

in a kind of a wackadoodle way

but that's what's gonna give this cheesecake

a really interesting ridged edge

which you'll see when it comes out of the oven.

But for now, it's gonna look like

I'm just cramming a bunch of parchment

really messily into a pan,

which is what I'm doing.

So normally, the first thing you would do is

make a crust and press that into the pan and blind bake it.

This is a crustless cake and

I don't miss the crust in this cake

because it gets so burnt on the outside

that you develop some of that crust-like dark flavor

without actually making a crust.

Two pieces of parchment.

You can kind of fold to create some pleats

so that it stands up well.

So really don't need to be a perfectionist about this.

As I said, it's the anti-cheesecake.

We don't fuss over it, we just go for it.

We're gonna cook this cheesecake at a really high heat

which means that it's gonna really rapidly rise.

You'll see when it comes out of the oven,

it's gonna be puffed up

and then as it cools, it will fall.

But you want to have enough support through the parchment

as it's rising in the oven

so that's why we do this double layer of parchment.

Alright, back to the cream cheese.

You'll see recipes for this online.

This one differs from other recipes

for burnt basque cheesecake in the sense

that I added in some vanilla and some salt to it

which you don't often see

because there's a lot of neutral fat in this cake.

There's a lot of cream cheese

and there's a lot of heavy cream

and I think that it needs a little bit of something

to bring all of that flavor out.

Okay, so this has been mixing for just a couple of minutes.

You can test by just putting it between your fingers

and if you don't feel any grit, from the granulated sugar,

then you know that it's dissolved.

Now the eggs.

So there's a lot of egg in here,

and a lot of egg white in here

and that's what gives the cheesecake

all of the lift in the oven

and subsequently results in a really light, fluffy texture.

If you've ever had Japanese cloud cake,

it's not unlike that.

So, one egg at a time.

Beating until each of them is combined,

before adding another.

Okay, so the first one's incorporated, in with another

and then I'm gonna scrape down the sides

because I can see that some of that cream cheese

still hasn't been incorporated with the egg.

You could do this with an electric hand mixer as well,

just on medium-low speed.

Two cups of heavy cream.

That's a lot of heavy cream, I don't know what to tell you,

other than that it's delicious.

Then one teaspoon of vanilla extract, as I said,

it's not a traditional ingredient but I think it helps

build a lot of flavor in this cheesecake,

and then one teaspoon kosher salt

which is doing the same thing.

Okay, so we're mostly incorporated and now,

I'm gonna sift one third a cup of flour, right into this,

and this just helps bind the cake ever so slightly.

It's not a cakey cheesecake, it's a custardy one,

but you need a little bit of flour for structure.

It's Friday. Why do we shoot on Friday?

My brain is fried.

My brain is Fridayed.

So this is the consistency

that we're looking for in the batter

and then we're gonna pour it right into the pan,

and you're gonna see that some of the batter gets caught

into some of those folds and that's all just fine.

Smoothing it out a little bit.

So we're going into a 400 degree oven on the center rack,

for about 60-65 minutes.

We'll keep an eye on things.

We're 20 minutes in, this cake is no where near being done,

but I just want to see what it looks like at this stage.

It hasn't developed any color yet

and it looks more along the lines of what you expect

a New York-style cheesecake to look like.

But we're gonna throw it back in there

and let it go for at least another 40 minutes.

Okay, so it's been about an hour

and I think that the cheesecake is sufficiently burnt,

so let's go check it out.

Yeah. I mean I just love the fact that

I get to burn this thing.

Here we are.

So, not only are you looking for deep dark color all over,

but you're looking for good jiggle.

This is approximately how much jiggle you're looking for.

It's not a joke, this is a real indicator in the recipe.

So this has risen probably four inches

and as it cools now, it's gonna collapse and fall

and compress into a shorter cheesecake.

We have waited patiently

and the cake is now room temperature,

so I can remove this spring form pan

and then you'll just peel away the parchment

to reveal that beautiful burnish crust,

and then we eat it.

I'm so excited about this right now.

Look at that beaut.

I'm telling you this is literally this,

easiest thing I've ever done in my life

and it's also the most impressive.

Okay, cheesecake time!

[upbeat music]

Mmm.

[laughing]

Delicious!

That's why I like it, it's breaking all the rules.

[Chef] All the rules.

I like to break rules.

It's so light.

So light and fluff.

So fluffy.

My mistake is I always eat, I eat so much of this so fast

and then I always--

It's kind of deceivingly light,

like it's actually a gut bomb,

even though it's quite light on the palette

so you kinda have to take it easy.

Er, four.

What?

It's two pounds and they're each half a pound.

So it's four bars of cream cheese

and two cups of heavy cream.

We are not [beep] around.

[Chef] That is not right.

I'm just shocked by the amount of cream cheese.

Andy hasn't had this much fat ever in his life.

No, I have, just not in the form of dairy.

Anyway. [claps hands]

Thank you.

Thank you guys.

Thanks Molly. I take mine for later.

I'll just keep on drinking.

[sighs]

What a party.

You know, just overwhelmed by that huge party we just had.

So truly, it couldn't be easier.

I think it's kind of a show stopper

because it's dark brown on the outside

and bright white on the inside.

It's really, really, really hard to mess it up

and it's really, really, really delicious.

It looks relatively smooth in here,

I'm not gonna. [pans clanging]

Happy Friday, everyone!

Geez Louise!