One of the most unique and delicious desserts in the world, basque cheesecake is an absolute showstopper. The best part about it: It’s incredibly easy to make. Just mix together the ingredients and throw it in the oven until it’s burnt. No skills or experience required. The only hard part is resisting the urge to eat that extra slice (or two).
Jump to RecipeWhy Should You Make it at Home?’
It’s Cheaper
First of all, a 7-inch basque cheesecake from a nice dessert place will cost $40-$50 dollars. The ingredients that it costs to make it at home add up to a total of $14.12! That’s a third of the cost!
It’s EASY
When it comes to baked goods, MOST of the time I would rather pay a professional to make it rather than attempt to bake at home. Baking most things from scratch is very difficult to do right without any prior experience. But this doesn’t apply to Basque Cheesecake. Basque cheesecake is one of the easiest baked goods to make from scratch.
How to ensure PERFECT cooking
If anything can go wrong in this recipe it’s either underbaking or overbaking the cheesecake. Here are a few tips to ensure that you get perfectly cooked cake every single time.
- Work with room temperature ingredients – Letting the cream cheese, heavy cream, and eggs warm up at room temperature a few hours before mixing will not only make it easier to mix, but also bake more evenly in the oven.
- Check the temperature. The center of the cheesecake should read about 155°F (68°C) for that nice custard center.
- If you don’t have a thermometer, some good visual cues to follow are:
- A very dark brown (burnt) top
- A jiggly and wiggly center
- Solid set cake around the edges of the pan
Easy and Delicious Basque Cheesecake (Naturally Gluten Free)
8
servings30
minutes45
minutesIngredients
1.5 pounds cream cheese
1 ½ cup sugar
5 eggs
½ cup heavy cream
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 475F convection with rack in the middle of the oven
- Line a 7-inch springform cake pan with parchment paper, making sure that parchment fully covers all the sides of the pan.
- Add softened cream cheese and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Mix until smooth and no lumps remain.
- In a bowl, add the 5 eggs. Whisk until completely smooth.
- Slowly add the beaten eggs to the cream cheese mixture. Fold and stir constantly, until fully combined and the batter is completely smooth.
- Add the cream, salt, and vanilla. Stir until completely smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the bottom of the pan to the countertop to pop any air bubbles. Trim off any excess parchment paper sticking out over the sides of the springform pan.
- Bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes or until the top is very dark. The edges should be set but the center should still be very jiggly. The center of the cake should read about somewhere around 155°F (68°C) for a softer center. Remove from the oven. Let cool at room temperature for a few hours then cover and cool in the fridge for at least an hour before slicing.
Ok…I’m going to trust you. Your recipe is very different from other Basque cheesecakes, number of eggs ratio to cream cheese, amt of cream, and no flour. I’ll let you know!
Hi, thank you so much for this recipe! For this cake, do I keep the same time and temperature if my cake pan is 9 inches instead of 7 inches?
You’ll probably need to bake it for less time. Hope it goes well!
How did it come out. I only have a 9 inch pan otherwise I will adjust the recipe
Have you tried separately beating the egg whites to give a bit more structure?
The directions state to preheat oven to 475 convection. Did you use a convection oven to bake your cheesecake? I have a regular oven so I am just wondering if I need to adjust the temp.
Thank you for the recipe
If you don’t have convection, 500F regular bake should work similarly
Hi Matt,
I made this cheesecake a couple days ago. This is the best cheesecake ever! My friends loved it. Thank you experimenting and perfecting this!!
Hi Matt,
I made your Basque Cheesecake today for my friend’s birthday. It worked out great! I changed a few things. I didn’t have cream so replaced with same amount of maple syrup. I didn’t add sugar. The sweetness was just right. I didn’t let it get too burnt, just a nice dark brown, lighter in the centre. I served with raspberry sauce I made by heating 2 handfuls of berries with some sugar (1/8 c.) and stirred into fresh berries (from my garden). Thanks for your video and recipe!
Not sure if your comment is satire or not but if it isn’t… You didn’t bake this cake then, did you?
I followed your instructions and it is now in the fridge, I have to wait another half hour before trying it. It looks great so hopefully it has worked 🙂 thank you for the recipe 😇
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the great recipe! I used 1/3 the recipe and baked it in a 6-cupcake tin w/ paper liner for 7min in the toaster oven at 450F.
Best,
Simeon
Hiya, I was wondering if the baking time needs to differ for different sized baking pans e.g. 10inch instead of 7inch. Thanks!!!
Yes baking time will be very different for a larger size pan. I would check the temperature around the 30 minute mark.
Made this today, and despite the fact that I only had a 9″ pan and no working thermometer, it still came out amazing. Thanks for doing all the work!
How long did you cook it? I also only have a 9” pan.
This cheesecake is to die for. I baked it and took it into work for afternoon tea and it was an absolute hit. I had to bring in many copies of the link to the recipe. I have made it twice since.
Thank you
Bro, you’re the GOAT for this!! I made this for my family and friends, and it’s a hit! I’m making it for the 2nd time this week 😂 Thanks!
Hi!
I really enjoyed making this and thought I’d done a good job but the cheesecake has ended up grainy and a bit wet and oily.
I think I baked it too long! Just would love some advice. I was worried it wasn’t “done enough” the edges had only just set and middle was very wobbly.
Overall cooking time was probably about an hour (maybe a little more…).
Let me know any advice you may have and thank you for the recipe! Determined to try again and improve!
Best,
Vick
Were all your ingredients room temperature? It sounds like the mixture has split.
hello!! wonderful recipe!!
if you’re looking for a diabetic friendly version,
i did the exact same recipe except changed:
1.5 cup sugar
to 1 cup splenda monk fruit sweetener !!
i definitely recommend also leaving the cheesecake cool in the refrigerator OVERNIGHT
i am super inpatient and tried it the moment it was cool in room temp and thought, hm it’s kinda grainy and flan like and it was still squishy in the middle
then i let it cool in the fridge for a few hours and thought, okay it’s not as grainy but still flan like and still a little squishy in the middle
THEN i tried a slice after leaving it in the fridge overnight AND THAT IS A CHEESECAKE TEXTURE!!!! and everything was firm!!
and if you’re having issues with underbaked cheesecake, def use a wider cake pan
i used i think an 8in spring form pan and cooked 45 min at 475 F conventional bake in the lower middle rack
this was def a recipe to try!! thank you for your hard work making this recipe!! <3
Hello! Thank you so much for this. I made it last week and it was absolutely delicious. I was hoping you can give me some advice though. After taking out the cheesecake from the oven, to cool, it deflated. The only thing I did differently was that I used a 9 inch vs a 7 inch. I also stuck a thermometer in the center, once top was browned, to make sure it was 155 degrees Fahrenheit.
Any suggestions? Either way thank you!
I made a dairy-free version of this recipe for my lactose intolerant friend! Here are the changes I made in case anybody else is interested:
note: this was for cupcakes, so the baking time and temp will probably need to be adjusted if you are baking it in a 7 inch cake pan.
– 1.5 lb plant based cream cheese (Philadelphia brand worked well for me)
– 1.5 c sugar*
– 6 eggs
– 0.5 c plant based creamer (Country Crock brand worked well for me)
– 0.5 tsp salt*
– 1 tsp vanilla extract*
– butter (for spreading on parchment paper)
*unchanged from original recipe
1) Preheat oven to 410 F (210 C).
2) Combine ingredients as indicated in original recipe.
3) Cut parchment paper into 24 squares that will fit into the cupcake tins, making sure the squares are big enough so some paper sticks over the edges.
4) Spread a thin layer of butter on the parchment papers, then fit the buttered parchment papers into each cupcake tin.
– Add 1 scoop (~1/4 c) of batter into each cupcake tin. You might not be able to fill all 24 cups.
– Bake for 1 hour.
– After removing cupcake tins from the oven, keep the cheesecakes in the tin until they cool. This will help them firm up.
Hey! I’m going to try this recipe this weekend but I’m just curious since this is different from other basque cheesecakes online. How do you think you got away with no flour? I know typically basque cheesecake doesn’t include much – but i’m just curious if you know the science behind it?
Do you think this will work with sweetener instead of sugar? It will be very low carb if so!
(No judgement on people’s carb consumption, just can’t have it myself)
Excellent recipe/instructions. Came out just as written. Only thing different was the internal temp was higher than was expected. I’ve repeated the recipe with 1/4 cup honey added and baked at 450. I look forward to trying your other recipes.
Embarrassing question: can you make ahead and freeze?
Hi Matt,
I made this cheesecake a couple days ago. This is the best cheesecake ever! My friends loved it. Thank you experimenting and perfecting this!!
I made the cheesecake the other day and took it to my son’s house for dessert. It was FANTASTIC!! I’d never even heard of a Burnt Basque Cheesecake until I saw your site. I was a bit nervous making it without flour but trusted you knew what you were doing. Amazing! My son took one bite and immediately said it reminded him of a Creme brûlée. Thank you for posting the recipe.
Hi Matt,
I made the cheesecake and it taste awesome, I cooked it for 45min in 250 degree Celsius fan forced oven. Only thing is when I checked the temperature in the middle at the 45min mark the temp was very high and when cooled it cooked most of the way through
Any suggestions to get the custard look in the centre
I made this with dairy free tofutti cream cheese and only half size and it was amazing!!!
Thanks so much.