Izah Azahari
Being a woman, a certain time of the month often gets you craving for dishes and delicacies, and at one point I longed for something orange and cheesecake.
So I found a fusion of both. My best-friend, Pinterest, led me to qiuqiufood.com’s recipe of the most delicious Orange Basque Burnt Cheesecake.
With “sharing is caring” in mind, here’s the recipe that helped fulfill my cravings.
Experienced bakers would know the origins of the Basque cheesecake, but for people like myself, a quick search over the Internet revealed that it originated in 1990 in San Sebastian, Spain, and is called “burnt” cheesecake due to its rich dark surface.
Admittedly, I have never been one to successfully bake any kind of cake on the first try, but the recipe and directions were so straight to the point and simple that I was able to follow it step by step.
The original recipe on the website said that to make a six-inch cake, all you need are 250-300 grammes of cream cheese, two large eggs, 150-200ml of whipping cream, 85 grammes of sugar, eight to 10 grammes of pastry flour or corn starch and a zest of one orange.
As I only have an eight-inch cake pan, I had to adjust the amount of ingredients I use into the recipe to avoid a thin cake. Instead, I used 400 grammes of cream cheese, two large eggs, 270ml of whipping cream, 113 grammes of sugar, 13 grammes of corn starch and of course zest from one orange would still be enough. But you can opt for two oranges for a stronger flavour.
Make sure to soften the cream cheese at room temperature before starting so you don’t have to wait too long.
With the ingredients, mix the sugar and orange zest in a bowl and leave it for about 10 minutes.
To make the flavours infuse together, add the softened cream cheese. Beat with a hand mixer until the cream cheese is light and fluffy. I used a stand mixer instead and it provided the same results.
Then add the eggs one at a time, combine and mix. At low speed, pour in whipping cream and gently mix it to get a smooth texture. Sift in the pastry flour or corn starch and stir well.
Once the mixture is all done, line your baking pan with parchment paper and make sure to leave the paper higher than the top of your pan to avoid spillage when it’s baking in the oven. Set your oven to 220 degrees Celsius and bake the mixture for about 25 to 40 minutes – or until it is showing golden brown on top.
If you like the cake to be jiggly, less bake time is needed, but more bake time will give it a firmer taste. If you are not a big fan of orange, you could try this recipe with lemon zest instead, or take that component out of the ingredients and it will still give you a deliciously light cheesecake.
Knowing the basic measurements of the cake is also key, and you can adjust as you like depending on the size of the cake pan. You can also serve the cake with a side of dark chocolate, or top it off with whipped cream and sprinkles as a quick birthday cake.
At this point, I would like to wish all the avid readers of Borneo Bulletin a Happy New Year 2022 and may this year bring us all good tidings.
