Caramel Basque Cheesecake

Hellllooooo November! This year has absolutely flown by. Between my new job and watching the baby grow each day, I can honestly say time flies when you’re having fun. Can we just slow the clock down a little? Is that possible? Baby Frank is not so much of a baby anymore, he’s growing into the cutest toddler/little boy ever. We just witnessed his first steps recently! But he is still more comfortable crawling. Baby steps. We’ll get there. He’s been such a joy to be with, we got very lucky. 

I hope everyone had a safe and candy-filled Halloween! We were a little dissappointed in the lack of trick or treaters, but I hear from a lot of people that it’s all about “trunk or treat” these days. A little sad that the standard trick or treating is dying out a bit, but I suppose we are ever evolving. We stayed in, and handed out some full size candy to the few kids who did come by, and little Frank was a skeleton. The cutest skeleton ever! But I may be biased…

We are well into Thanksgiving planning! And Christmas too! Does anyone already have their Christmas tree up? I am getting mine out next week! Hoping we can manage to keep it up with a very curious toddler.

You see a lot of pumpkin during this time, and trust me, I LOVE pumpkin. But I thought I’d switch it up a bit, and offer a recipe that I think would be perfect all year round. Basque cheesecake is a Spanish style cheesecake that is part cream cheese, part cream, and no crust. It is baked at a very high temperature which caramelizes the outside and the inside stays nice and extra creamy. It took me about 4 tries to get this recipe right, and I really hope you can try it out for yourself! It’s light, not too sweet, and has a nice caramel flavor that goes so well with the tangy cream cheese. Swap out your plain cheesecake for this one, perfect for any celebration! Holiday baking is upon us, friends. Happy baking!

Caramel Basque Cheesecake

Yield 9” springform pan

Cream cheese, room temp. 2 lbs.

Sugar 1 cup, divided

Cream 1 ½ cups

Flour 2 Tbsp.

Salt ¼ tsp

Eggs 4

Vanilla 1 tsp

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large saucepan, heat ¾ cup of sugar on medium heat. Microwave the cream for about 1 minute, just so it’s a little warm when you add it to the sugar. Use a silicone spatula to stir while the sugar cooks down. Once it’s fully melted and amber in color, drizzle in a little cream and stir. Continue to add the cream and stir until the cream is fully incorporated. If the caramel seizes up, just continue to stir over heat until the sugars have fully melted again and you have a smooth caramel. Once complete, set aside and cool in the pan.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese. Add in sugar, and sifted flour. Scrape down sides as needed. Add in cooled caramel cream, a little at a time, then vanilla. Add eggs last, one at a time, until fully incorporated.

Spray a 9” springform pan with non-stick baking spray. Pour filling into pan, and bake for 30 minutes. The cheesecake will have caramelized on top and will still appear a little liquid in the center. Take the cheesecake out and cool it at room temperature for 30 minutes, then chill for 1-2 hours. Enjoy!