Wild Garlic Basque Cheesecake
A distant cousin of the famous San Sebastian burnt basque cheesecake, this recipe will be much more at home on your cheeseboard than your dessert plate.
Reminiscent of everyone’s favourite creamy garlic and herb cheese, this savoury cheesecake with its vibrant hue would make a wonderful showstopper at the end of your next dinner party.
Here’s what you’ll need…
900 g Full fat cream cheese
200 g Sour cream
200 ml Double cream
100 g Wild garlic leaves
6 Eggs
50 g Caster Sugar
10 g Maldon sea salt flakes
40 g Flour
Preheat oven to 205℃ fan. Scrunch two sheets of baking paper and, laying them at right angles to each other, use them to line an 20 cm cake tin. The edges should be sticking above the tin - you want it to look rustic!
Blitz the wild garlic leaves with the sour cream. Stir to dissipate some of the bubbles and then leave to one side.
Loosen the cream cheese by beating it down with a spatula. Next add the sugar and salt and stir in until incorporated.
Beat the eggs in a bowl and add bit by bit to the cream cheese, ensuring the mix is smooth after each addition. You want to be adding as little air as possible as you stir.
Sieve the flour into the wild garlic sour cream and then stir until smooth. Next add the double cream into this mixture.
Add the wild garlic mixture into the cream cheese mixture and fold through until uniform.
Pour into the prepared tin from a low height so as not to introduce unnecessary air.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Best to check 5 minutes before it’s due. You want there to still be some wobble in the middle when you remove from the oven as it will continue to cook as it cools.
Leave to cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge to set overnight.