Mini Basque Cheesecakes
What is there to say
While these may not be the most burnt cheesecakes of the Basque variety, they are a still full of fun. The ingredients play just as important of a role as the burning does. The creme fraiche adds needed tang and the orange adds a distinctive orange flavor. That’s really all there is to it. It’s not a complicated recipe and the ingredients can be scaled up for a normal size cheesecake if you so choose.
Enjoy!
Serves 6
Necessaries
Parchment Paper
6 ~4oz ramekins
Ingredients
16oz cream cheese (2 blocks) softened to room temp
8oz crème fraiche, at room temp
2 whole eggs
85g cane sugar
75g heavy cream
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest
Recipe
Cut out 6~ 6x6 inch pieces of parchment. Fold and press the parchment pieces into each ramekin. It’s ok if it’s not uniform, but you want the papers to be as flush to the sides as possible.
In a bowl, whisk (either by hand or with an electric mixer, the cream cheese and crème fraiche until well combines and not lumpy. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, heavy cream, eggs, flour, salt, and vanilla until smooth. Pour the liquid mixture into the cream cheese/crème fraiche bowl and whisk to combine. Add orange zest and combine. Don’t overmix but make sure the lumps are gone.
Transfer mixture into a container with a pourable spout. Pour the batter into each ramekin. It should fill to about ½ inch below the rim. Don’t pour past the rim.
Preheat oven to 425
Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. They will soufflé and begin to brown. After 25 minutes turn the heat to 500 and bake for 10 more minutes to allow it to brown and caramelize.
Because these are smaller it will take less time to brown. So keep an eye on it. If the cheesecakes bake for too long it could become dry and grainy.
Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes in the ramekins. The cheesecakes will sink into the middle during this time and we want that. Use the parchment paper to remove the cakes from the ramekins. Leaving them in the ramekins will allow too much steam to build up and become soggy.
Let cool completely until room temperature. Once completely cooled transfer to the fridge and let chill overnight. I find these are much better with an overnight chill.
Please enjoy!
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