Mia Bakes: Burnt Basque Cheesecake

Yes, after contemplating about it for so so so long (I first came across a youtube video of this cake waayyy before it started appearing in our local cafes/bakeries, and had wanted to try it back then) I finally tried it. 

The (once very) trendy Burnt Basque Cheesecake, which ended up being more golden then burnt. 

But anyway, let's get over with the ingredients to get started!

To get 1 small 5' - 6' cake, you'll need:

227g cream cheese, soften

(I used Cowhead, if you're using Philadelphia then 250g is fine too) 

45g sugar 

(I mixed 15g stevia and 15g icing sugar) 

1 tbsp honey

100ml whipping cream

2 medium eggs

10g all purpose flour

First up, pre-heat your oven to 220 degree Celsius. It's very important that you pre-heat your oven first because of the higher than usual temperature you need to get, plus it takes literally just minutes to put your cake batter together. If you're quick enough, you might even finish the batter before your oven is pre-heated! >.<
Anyway, after getting the oven out of the way, line your cake pan with a piece of parchment paper. There's no need to line it to size, but just roughly push a square/rectangular sheet of parchment into your pan and let the edges fold onto itself at the sides of the cakepan.

Do keep around 3' of overhang upright (shown in picture)  to 'catch' the cake as it rises in the oven during baking.

Now, making this cheesecake can't get any easier, and you can easily make it in 1 bowl.
First up, beat your soften cream cheese in a large bowl to loosen it up before beating in the sugar until well combined. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is well combined.
To the mixture, add in the honey and whipping cream and mix again before finally adding in the flour and mixing until you get a homogeneous mixture.
Pour the mixture into your lined cake pan and let it bake in the oven at 220 degree Celsius for 10 minutes, before reducing the temperature to around 200 degree Celsius and bake until the surface of the cake is browned/burnt to your liking.

After the cake is done, leave the door of your oven ajar and allow the cake to cool completely before letting it chill in the fridge overnight (or at least 4 hours) for the cake to set.
Do take the cake out from the fridge and allow it to come up to room temperature before eating though. 

Tadaa~ 

Rich and creamy with a slightly caramelised taste at the "burnt" edges, it's no wonder there's so much hype for this cake! 

If you're after the molten, lava centre effect, perhaps you can tuck into the cake once it's cooled and without chilling in the fridge, but don't quote me for this as I've not tried it. 

And I don't really understand why would you want a molten centre for this cake either, this is no cheese tart nor chocolate cake. 

edit: I've made a lower calorie version (and added biscuit base) using Ricotta HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Biscoff Baked Cheesecakes

Very recently, I got a taste of Bloomsbury Bakers' speculoos cheesecake (thanks to CL!) and it was so good! Well, coming from someone who doesn't really like cheesecakes (especially no bake cheesecakes), this can only mean that it was absolutely divine! I mean, how can you go wrong with speculoos, right?
And so, the ever-so-gluttony me decided to try recreating my own version of the speculoos cheesecake!

So let's get over the ingredients, so we can get started!

You'll need:

For the cookie base
15 pcs of biscoff cookies
5 pcs of butter cookies
(I used tiger original bisuits because I wanted to use them up)
30g unsalted butter, melted
a pinch of salt

For the filling
200g cream cheese, soften
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
60ml whipping cream
15g plain greek yogurt
60g biscoff spread
(I used crunchy, but you can use smooth and add more crushed biscoff)
a pinch of salt
5 pcs of biscoff cookies, lightly crushed

recipe adapted from delish.com

First up, fill your oven's baking tray with water (enough to cover up to half the depth of your muffin tin) and pre-heat it to 160 degrees celsius (or 325 degrees fahrenheit).

Next, to prepare the cookie base, pop the biscuits into a ziplock bag and crush them well using a rolling pin. Add in melted butter and salt, and toss them until the consistency resembles wet sand. It should hold together when you apply pressure, so if they don't, just add more melted butter.
Evenly distribute the cookie mixture into 12 standard size muffin/cupcake tins and press them down until they're evened out and well compacted and set them aside.
As you can see, instead of 12 standard cupcakes, I've made 6 standard + 12 mini instead.
That'll work too.

In a clean bowl, beat the cream cheese with a handheld mixer or a balloon whisk to loosen it up before beating in an egg and vanilla extract until well combined. Then, mix in the whipping cream and greek yogurt until well combined before mixing in the biscoff spread. Finally, fold in the crushed biscoff cookies and you're ready to assemble!

Evenly distribute the filling into the 12 muffin tins with cookie base. You may crush up more biscoff cookies and sprinkle them over the top of your cream cheese filling before sending them into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Check if your cheesecakes are done by lightly pressing down on the surface and if it holds up (doesn't matter if it's slightly jiggly), it's done!

I've decided to do without anymore added sugar as the biscoff spread is sweet enough for me. However, if you'll prefer a sweeter baked cheesecake, you may add more biscoff spread or beat in a tbsp or two of castor sugar into the cream cheese before adding the egg and vanilla extract. :)

Just like any other baked cheesecakes, these yummies should be chilled at least a few hours (or preferably overnight) in the fridge before you sink your teeth into one! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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