Chocolate Basque Cheesecake

A deliciously rich, creamy and intensely chocolatey, this Chocolate Basque Cheesecake has a beautifully burnt top, a smooth and creamy centre, and a rich chocolate flavour. Based on the classic recipes from Spain, this recipe with a chocolate twist is incredibly easy to bake.

If you love the classic burnt Basque cheesecake, and you adore chocolate, you will adore this more indulgent chocolate version as well.

Notes from The Patisserie

Basque cheesecakes are known for the deeply caramelised and basically burnt exterior, whilst also achieving an irresistibly creamy centre – unmatched by any other dessert. Until a traditional basked cheesecake, it doesn’t have a biscuit base, and is baked at a far high temperature to create the wonderful dessert.

For this chocolate version, I played with my regular Basque cheesecake recipe, but made it ridiculously chocolatey instead. As mentioned already, it’s a very easy dessert to make, and really goes against most rules of baking which gives it a charm, as well as the taste.

This recipe has only 7 ingredients, it’s easy to prepare, you don’t need a water bath, easy for prepping ahead, and delicious served as it is, or with some extra style.

Ingredient Notes & Swaps

As this is only seven simple ingredients, it’s really easy to do – but make sure to check out the full recipe in the recipe card below:

• Soft cheese – Using full-fat soft cheese is essential for achieving the rich creamy texture that you are after. You can use and brand of soft cream cheese, supermarket own or not – but I do prefer to use Philadelphia personally.
• Sugar – I switched from using caster sugar to light brown soft sugar for the natural caramel tones – but also, caster sugar is still great. Sometimes the brown sugar can leave an ever so slight grain if it’s a larger crystal version
• Cream – Double cream (or heavy cream if you’re not from the UK) is best – as full-fat is always best for baking. You can however swap it to soured cream, if you prefer a tangier taste to your cheesecakes. Do not use single cream as the fat content is too low
• Eggs – I use medium eggs in my baking so I use four eggs, but you can use three large eggs instead
• Vanilla – an optional ingredient, but it brings balance to the flavour in my opinion – I love vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
• Cocoa – the cocoa powder replaces the plain flour typically found in the cheesecake. Cocoa is drying, and can sometimes be lumpy, so make sure to sieve it if needed to prevent lumps
• Chocolate – using dark chocolate gives the cheesecake a rich flavour, but the rest of the ingredients stop it being bitter. Swapping to milk chocolate is possible, but it does make the cheesecake incredibly sweet

Top Tips for making this recipe

Even though this recipe is very easy to actually make, there are a few tips that I find create success every time.

• Room temperature ingredients – make sure your soft cream cheese, cream and eggs are all at room temperature. If any of them are cold, it can make the chocolate seize and turn lumpy which you do not want
• Cooling the chocolate – make sure the chocolate has cooled before using – too hot can cause problems
• Don’t over bake it – on this occasion, a wobble in the cheesecake is best for the end texture. It will set as it cools.
• Don’t worry about the paper – these desserts are meant to be a little rough and ready, so don’t worry if the parchment paper is crease – I really do just scrunch it up, and then press it into the side of my deep 8″ tin
• DO NOT WORRY – you can make this recipe in a blender – chuck it all in and blend. Or, you can mix it in a bowl with a spatula/whisk. Just combine, pour and bake!

Storage and freezing

This Basque cheesecake is suitable for storage in the fridge for up to 3 days. 

The cheesecake will also freeze perfectly – I recommend slicing first, and then freezing so that you don’t need to defrost the entire cheesecake (unless you want to of course). It can freeze for 3+ months