- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on "Preppy Kitchen,"
we're making a Basque cheesecake.
So let's get started.
To make this delicious cake,
we'll need room temperature cream cheese, eggs, heavy cream,
a little granulated sugar, a touch of all purpose flour,
some salt and vanilla.
We'll be baking the cake in a nine inch spring form pan
lined with some parchment paper.
First off, set that oven to 400 degrees
and make sure that the rack is like towards the middle,
middle to upper third.
Now we're gonna line our nine inch spring form pan
with parchment paper.
Unlike a New York cheesecake,
there is no crust at the bottom.
It's all cheesecake.
So just press it down, get it all the way towards the edge.
Excess bits like this, you do not want it staying up.
So just fold it down.
And the reason is, a Basque cheese cake
has a signature caramelized look.
It almost looks like it's burnt,
but the top has all these delicious sugars that it has taken
on a caramel color and you get a really beautiful depth
of flavor while the inside has this gooey, amazing,
super soft texture.
So one piece of paper lengthwise,
and one piece of paper crossed over to make like a cross.
And this way you're pan is totally gonna be clean
when you pop it out.
Nothing's gonna stick or burn.
All done. Set it aside.
And now, grab a mixer.
You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer, either will work.
Today, using a stand mixer.
So in the bowl of your stand mixer,
fitted with the paddle attachment,
we're gonna add a bunch of the ingredients.
However, before you do that,
it is so important that you really double check
and make sure things are actually room temperature.
Room temperature butter, pretty firm actually.
It's not falling apart.
Room temperature cream cheese should be very soft,
because cheesecakes have a very delicate texture
and you will notice if there are lumps
of cream cheese hanging around.
You don't want that to happen.
It should be silky smooth throughout.
And to make that happen,
your cream cheese needs to be really soft
before you get started.
So let's open it up.
This cream cheese has been hanging out on
the counter for a few hours,
but it's a cold winter day and it's just too firm still.
So go ahead on half power,
microwave it for like some ten second spurts
just until it's nice and like soft, warmed up.
And now it's so soft, made a big difference.
We're gonna pop this right into our mixer.
Give it a little headstart and just cream it up.
Now let's add the remaining ingredients.
We have one cup or 200 grams of granulated sugar.
Three quarters of a teaspoon of kosher salt.
It's gonna add some contrast to your cheesecake.
And two teaspoons of a nice vanilla.
Vanilla and cream cheese are a match made in heaven.
Now we're gonna mix this up until it is nice and creamy.
And yes, you're definitely gonna be scraping
the bowl down a couple of times.
And notice that I'm mixing on medium-low speed,
because you don't want to pump a bunch of air
into this cheesecake.
In fact, you never want to whip a cheesecake on high
with a whisk attachment, for example.
So many little air bubbles that are gonna expand
when the cake bakes, cracking galore.
So low speed, you're mixing things without frothing them up.
Here, that's looking good.
I'm just gonna scrape the bowl down.
Really excited to share this recipe because I'm actually
part Basque as well.
My mom is from Mexico,
but she has some relatives down the line
from the Basque region of Spain.
We're gonna mix this up for about three minutes.
So in the meantime, we just crack some eggs into a bowl,
so we're nice and ready.
And there's not gonna be one single shell
in this cheesecake.
We need four eggs, and these should
also be room temperature.
Whenever you make a cake, cheesecake or regular,
you don't want to have ice cold ingredients going
into your batter.
Just to show you, this is the texture we have now.
It is silky smooth and really wonderful.
Still mixing on medium-low.
I'm gonna add the eggs in one at a time.
Let it incorporate. Make sure that everything is mixed up.
And scrape the bowl down at least halfway through the eggs.
And I know you're gonna be tempted to just crank it up,
go on high.
Nice and low. Just be gentle with this batter.
Scraping the bowl down,
and you can come and take a look.
This is really uneven at the moment.
Streaks of yellow, streaks of white.
See those streaks, it's very lumpy right now.
We're adding the rest of our eggs in. Just take your time.
This cake is so easy and the payoff comes from
that wonderful texture.
Last egg.
I'll give this a scrape down.
In the meantime, I'm just gonna let the mixer run
for a while, so everything mixes up, takes its time.
I'll do a dish.
Beautiful lemony color from those yolks.
Now we're gonna gather two tablespoons of all purpose flour
and sift it in while that mixture is running on low.
This flour will give the cake a little bit of structure
and help hold it together.
Back to running on low.
Just gonna gently tap it in.
Every single cheese cake will have a couple lumps.
A couple lumps are okay. Don't worry about it.
If you're really like not feeling it,
you could pass it through a sieve, but that's like,
I don't know, only if it sparks joy for you.
Now, we're gonna measure out 360 mL,
or one and a half cups of heavy cream.
And while this is mixing on the low,
I'm just gonna drizzle it in.
This is a creamy, luscious cheesecake.
And just don't think of it as burnt cake. No, no, no, no.
It's really just the outside that has that caramelization.
We're actually gonna pull this out of the oven
when it looks like it's not fully set.
This dessert is gonna have dairy in it,
no matter how you slice it because of the cream cheese base.
But if you wanted to skip the milk,
you could use like a thicker coconut milk.
However, it'll have a significant coconut flavor to it, so.
Okay. This batter looks so beautiful.
It's very thin and liquidy.
However, what's this?
A whole bunch of unmixed nonsense at the bottom.
So give this a little swirl in the mix.
And we're gonna mix this on low until everything
is nicely incorporated.
I wish you could see, almost no air bubbles in here.
It's really like a smooth liquid.
Silky smooth cheesecake batter coming up. Oh my gosh.
Wait till you see the pour on this.
Always resist the urge to like scrape your beater down
when you're making cheesecake,
because there will be some like random thicker bits on top.
This cheesecake is gonna bake in this pan,
but make sure you have a baking sheet out as well.
One final check of the paper.
Just make sure everything is in place.
Now we're ready to pour.
And look at this texture.
These bubbles are not our friends,
but we're gonna fix that up, don't you worry.
Even though we were so careful,
there are bubbles hanging around.
Don't worry about it. Just grab a kitchen towel.
We're gonna tap this gently.
Don't try and get all the bubbles out.
That's a fool's errand. Okay.
Place this onto a lined baking sheet just in case.
Also makes it easier to handle.
Into the oven 400 Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes,
or until it's golden and domed.
It's gonna be really puffed up.
Allow it to cool to room temperature,
and then refrigerate for at least five hours uncovered
up to two days.
It'll look like this and be amazing.
Remove the ring. Carefully unwrap your cheesecake.
Just like that. You're ready to enjoy.
This looks amazing and caramelized.
Wait till you see the inside.
I'm so excited for this bite.
That is unreal.
Oh my gosh, it's so creamy and delicate on the inside
with a wonderful depth of flavor from that caramelization.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you liked this video,
check out my cheesecake playlist.