Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Let's make something new! How about a Basque burnt cheesecake?

Basque burnt cheesecakes are generally not literally burned but are deeply golden, with a dramatic look that has likely helped propel their popularity on social media lately.

The creamy, custardy crustless cheesecakes originated at a restaurant called La Viña in San Sebastián, Spain — the capital of the Basque region.

It was created by Santiago Rivera, whose parents opened the restaurant in 1959, and who now owns it himself.

Rivera's cheesecakes are unique not only because they don't have a crust, like American-style cheesecakes, but because they're baked at a higher temperature, creating a deep mahogany exterior.

Traditional cheesecakes are baked at a lower temperature, often in a hot water bath to allow for a more gentle, even heat.

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Basque-style cheesecakes are typically baked at 400-450 F, which paired with a slightly higher cream content makes them brown on the outside before they bake all the way through, resulting in a deeper, toastier flavour and creamy, custardy middles.

The filling of a Basque-style cheesecake is a bit more cream-heavy than a traditional New York-style baked cheesecake, which tends to be firmer and drier.

But the key difference is the baking. The high temperature means as the cake bakes, it sets and darkens quickly on the outside, but not all the way through; it will be very jiggly when it comes out of the oven, and will sink as it cools.

This is usually not something we intentionally do when baking a cake. The same thing will happen if you take a regular layer cake out of the oven and it's not baked through in the middle. But in this case, it produces a dense, smooth, almost crème brûlée-like interior.

Some Basque cheesecakes are more oozy, like a chocolate lava cake, and others are baked longer, resulting in a firmer set.

How long you need to bake yours will depend entirely on your oven — it's something you'll get a feel for. In the meantime, your cheesecake will be delicious even if the first try is softer or firmer than what you're going for. 

Basque-style Burnt Cheesecake

This is a sort of amalgamation of a bunch of recipes out there, all of which are very similar, varying only slightly in their quantities of cream cheese, sugar, eggs, cream and flour.

Being a Spanish dessert, it's often served with a glass of sherry alongside. 

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. cream cheese (four 8 oz/250 g packages)
• 1½ cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 400 F and line a 10-inch springform pan with two sheets of parchment, overlapping the second at an angle so that you get eight points instead of four, letting the edges come up a couple inches above the edge of the pan. 

In a large bowl (or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment) beat the cream cheese and sugar for a few minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl, until smooth and free of lumps.

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Whisk the flour and salt into the whipping cream and pour the mixture in with the beaters on low, then add the vanilla. 

Pour the smooth batter into the prepared pan, place on a baking sheet (if you like) to catch any drips.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top is deep golden and the cake is very jiggly — it should be fairly uniformly jiggly, but not so much as to indicate it's completely set. 

Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan. Refrigerate it if you like, but serve the slices at room temperature for best flavour and texture.

Serves 16.

• Check out Julie Van Rosendaal's full interview on the Calgary Eyeopener below:

• If you make a Basque-style Burnt Cheesecake, we'd love to see it! And if you have a recipe request, let us know! Tweet  @CBC Eyeopener or email eyeopener@cbc.ca.