Toffee Apple Basque Cheesecake
Benjamina Ebuehi’s Basque cheesecake with an easy autumn spin: a generous topping of lightly spiced toffee apple slices.
Source
Recipe Info
Servings: 12
Prep: 5m
Cook: 1h 10m
Total: 9h 15m (including overnight chilling)
Ingredients
- 750g cream cheese
- 220g caster sugar
- 1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 4 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
- 300ml double cream
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 20g plain flour
- For the toffee apples: 3 eating apples
- For the toffee apples: 60g butter
- For the toffee apples: 80g dark brown sugar
- For the toffee apples: 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- For the toffee apples: 120ml double cream
- For the toffee apples: a pinch of salt
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 240°C (220°C fan)/gas mark 9. Scrunch up two large sheets of baking paper, then smooth them out into the corners of a deep 20cm cake tin.
- Put the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl or stand mixer and beat briefly until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the extra yolk, without beating at high speed so you don’t incorporate too much air. Stir in the cream and salt.
- Scoop about an eighth of the batter into a smaller bowl and sift the flour on top. Mix well so there are no lumps, then scrape it back into the main mixture and stir well to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is very well browned and the cheesecake still has a huge wobble. If the top isn’t dark enough, put it under a hot grill for a couple of minutes.
- Leave the cheesecake to cool to room temperature, then chill in the fridge, ideally overnight. The next day, remove it from the tin.
- For the toffee apples, peel and core the apples, then slice them thickly into eighths. Heat the butter in a wide pan, toss in the apples to coat and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they start to soften around the edges.
- Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir to combine. Once the sugar has melted, pour in the cream and cook briefly until the sauce is smooth. Simmer for a minute, then take off the heat and stir in a pinch of salt.
- Let the apples cool, then spoon them and some of the caramel sauce on top of the cheesecake. Serve slices with extra sauce, if you like.