Chai & Honey Cheesecake

This week’s post is all about one of my favorite desserts: cheesecake. I love all kinds of cheesecake, from classic, tall New York-style cheesecakes to simple no-bake cheesecakes and light, delicate Japanese-style cotton cheesecakes. The recipe I have for you is for a lesser-known style originating in Spain: the Basque-style cheesecake, or tarta de queso. This cheesecake was created in the 1990s at La Viña, a cafe in San Sebastian, Spain, owned by chef Santiago Rivera. This cheesecake has no crust and is characterized by the intensely dark, burnished top produced by a very hot oven. Often referred to as “burnt cheesecake,” the real thing is anything but: a delicate, thin outer layer gives way to a creamy, decadent, and custardy interior.

Another great thing about this cake is how simple it is to make; toss all the ingredients in a blender, mix until smooth and homogenous, pour it into a pan and bake. That’s it. My version borrows flavors from one of my very favorite drinks, masala chai. I steep a medley of classic chai spices and Assam black tea in the cream and sweeten the cake with honey, lending it an aromatic and subtly spiced flavor that’s warm, comforting, and perfectly complements the richness of the cake. This is one of those desserts that’s so much more impressive than you’d think from the effort you put into it. Just about 20 minutes of active time and you’ll have an impressive and gorgeous cake that’s just as comfortable alongside a cup of tea as it is at the center of your dinner party dessert table.

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History

The precise origin of cheesecake depends on your definition of “cheesecake.” Although a custard of commercially-stabilized cheese sitting atop a graham cracker crust is a relatively recent invention, humans have been sweetening cheese and pairing it with pastry for many hundreds of years. The oldest known recipes resembling cheesecake derive from ancient Greece and Rome. Several recipes for “cheesecakes” (whether these are truly cheesecakes is debatable) were documented in Roman senator Cato The Elder’s “De Agri Cultura.” One such recipe, libum, instructed the reader to “Bray 2 pounds of cheese thoroughly in a mortar; when it is thoroughly macerated, add 1 pound of wheat flour, or, if you wish the cake to be more dainty, ½ pound of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with the cheese. Add 1 egg, and work the whole well. Pat out a loaf, place on leaves, and bake slowly on a warm hearth under a crock.”

Eventually the English got hold of the cheesecake idea and started baking cheese-based custards with pastry crusts (sound familiar?). When the dessert finally makes its journey west to the United States, it slowly diverges from the English style, with cottage cheese (or other fresh, soft cheese) being replaced by extra-rich American cream cheese and the pastry crust being ousted by a bed of crushed graham crackers, the result of some cunning marketing by Nabisco. At long last, after many, many variations, the cheesecake we know today is born.

The Recipe: Chai & Honey Basque-style Cheesecake

Ingredients:

170g (¾ cup) heavy cream

2 bags of black tea, preferably Assam

15 cardamom pods

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

A 3-inch piece of ginger, sliced

3 cloves

5 large eggs

250g (1 ¼ cups) granulated sugar

60g (¼ cup) honey

¼ teaspoon of ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, preferably Vietnamese

¼ teaspoon of nutmeg, preferably freshly grated

½ teaspoon Morton Kosher salt, or 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal

3 8oz packages of cream cheese

To make the cheesecake:

Combine the cream, tea, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, ginger, and cloves in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Bring just to a simmer, turn off the heat, and let steep for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, press on the teabags to release any liquid back into the pot and discard the bags. Transfer the cream and spices to a container and set aside in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight. The longer you let this sit, the stronger the spice flavor will be.

Preheat your oven to 500°F. Line a 9-inch cake pan with at least 2-inch sides (a springform pan is preferable here) with two overlapping pieces of parchment paper, crumpling it to allow it to settle into the corners of the pan. The parchment should completely cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Fold any overhanging edges of paper around the sides of the pan away from the cake.

Place the eggs, sugar, honey, ground spices, and salt in a blender or food processor. Pour the cream mixture into a sieve and strain into the egg mixture. Blend on low speed until homogenous, a minute or two. You may need to increase the speed to get things going, but do not set the speed to any higher than medium. Blending too fast will incorporate air and alter the texture of the cake. Add in the cream cheese and blend until completely smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is becoming blackened, the cake is puffed and jiggly but not quite fluid, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the cake registers at least 170°F. In my oven, this takes exactly 25 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. The cake will keep, wrapped airtight in the fridge, for 3 days.

Resources:

Parks, Stella, Santos Penny de los, and J. Kenji López-Alt. Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Recipe by Charlotte Rutledge, and Rossi Anastopoulo. “Basque-Style Cheesecake (Tarta De Queso).” King Arthur Baking. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/basque-style-cheesecake-tarta-de-queso-recipe.

Stradley, Linda, and Brenda. “Cheesecake History.” What's Cooking America, November 22, 2018. https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/cakes/cheesecake.htm.