Basque Cheesecake Topped with Boba
This Boba Basque Cheesecake is caramelized and cakey on the outside with a dreamy boba cream sauce flowing through the middle. This could be the easiest cake I have ever made. All you need to do to make this yummy and beautiful cake is mixing, mixing, and mixing~
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- hand mixer
- 7 inch non-stick springform pan (See "cake ingredients conversion chart" in text content above if you want to make a 6 inch or 8 inch basque cheesecake instead.)
- Parchment paper
- oven
Ingredients
For making burnt Basque cheesecake
- 350 g cream cheese
- 70 g sugar
- 3 whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 175 g heavy cream
- 10 g cornstarch (or cake flour)
- 4 g vanilla extract (optional)
- 3 g unsalted butter (for greasing the cake pan)
For making brown sugar boba cream sauce
- ¼ cup dried boba pearls (you can use 5-minite quick cooking boba pearls, or follow my brown sugar boba recipe to make homemade boba pearls.)
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ cup heavy cream (about 120g)
- ¾ tbsp sugar (about 10g)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (about 2g, optional)
Instructions
For making burnt Basque cheesecake
- Add 350g cream cheese to a large mixing bowl, use a spatula to cut the cream cheese into smaller cubes to speed up the softening time. Leave the cream cheese and 4 eggs on the countertop for about 30 minutes until they reach room temperature. Poke the cream cheese to check the softness, it should be soft like toothpaste.
- Preheat the oven to 420 °F.
- Use the lowest speed (speed 1) of a hand mixer to whip the softened cream cheese for 1 minute, add in 70g sugar, mix with the hand mixer for about 30 seconds until the cream cheese looks smooth.
- Crack 3 room-temperature eggs into the whipped cream cheese one by one. Every time you add in an egg, mix with the lowest speed of the hand mixer for about 30 seconds until all the egg liquid has been absorbed into the cream cheese before adding the next egg.
- Add 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional) to the mixture, mix with the hand mixer for 10 seconds until there's no yellow egg yolk mark in the mixture.
- Add 175g heavy cream to the mixture, mix with the lowest speed of your hand mixer for 30 seconds.
- Add 10g sifted cornstarch (or cake flour) to the mixture, mix with the lowest speed of your hand mixer for 15 seconds.
- Place a strainer over a large bowl, pour the mixture through the strainer to filter out any lumps.
- Grease a 7 Inch non-stick springform pan with a small piece of butter (or brush with neutral cooking oil).
- Rinse a large piece of parchment paper with cold water, squeeze and shake off the excess water. Line the buttered cake pan with parchment paper. Cut off the extra parchment paper so that the edge of the parchment paper comes about 2" above top of pan on all sides.
- Pour the Boba Basque Cake mixture to the cake pan. Place the cake pan on the upper middle oven rack to bake at 420 °F for 25 to 28 minutes.
- Once the top of the cheesecake looks caramelized brown and the edges are set, take out the Basque cheesecake from the oven to let cool completely at room temperature.
- Cover the cooled Basque cheesecake with food wrap, chill it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally over night.
- Unmold the Basque cheesecake from the cake pan, peel off the parchment paper, place the cheesecake on a serving plate. Optionally serve with brown sugar boba cream sauce on the top, see content below.
For making boba Basque cheesecake
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Add in ¼ cup of dried brown sugar boba pearls, bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cover the lid, simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes if you use homemade boba pearls, simmer for 5 minutes if you use store-bough ready-in-5-minutes boba pearls.
- Transfer the boiled bobas to a large bowl filled with ice water.
- Add ⅓ cup of brown sugar and ⅓ cup of water to a saucepan, stir and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Drain the boba pearls from the ice water with a slotted spoon, add the bobas to the boiling brown sugar water. Stir constantly to prevent sticking, cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until the brown sugar water is thickened into a syrup texture.
- Transfer the bobas with the brown sugar syrup to a bowl. Set aside at room temperature (the bobas will turn hard in the fridge).
- Add ½ cup of heavy cream, ¾ tbsps of sugar, and ½ tsp of vanilla extract into a mixing bowl. Use medium speed of a hand mixer to whip the cream until it's half whipped - the cream can still flow slowly in the mixing bowl.
- Use a small cup or a knife to dig a hole in the center of the Basque cheesecake.
- Fill the hole and cover 60% of the top surface with whipped cream. Add boba with brown sugar sauce to the top. Cut the cake into 8 wedges, serve with coffee or red wine.