Yield: 1 x 10 inch Cheesecake
| Ingredients | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Graham Cracker Crumbs | 250g | |
| Granulated Sugar | 32g | |
| Salt | 3g | |
| Unsalted Butter | 135g | Melted |
| Cheesecake | ||
| Cream Cheese | 907g | Room Temp |
| Granulated Sugar | 173g | |
| Brown Sugar | 173g | |
| Roasted Sweet Potato | 450g | Pureed |
| Cinnamon | 3g | |
| Ginger | 2g | |
| Nutmeg | 1g | |
| Eggs (large) | 6 | |
| Buttermilk | 70g | Or Sour Cream |
| Heavy Cream | 330g | |
| Vanilla | 10g | |
| Salt | 6g | |
| AP Flour | 30g | |
| Topping | ||
| Mascarpone | 220g | Cold |
| Powdered Sugar | 40g | |
| Browned Butter | 70g | Room Temp |
| Vanilla | 5g | |
| Salt | 2.5g | |
| Heavy Cream | 170g | Cold |
Procedure:
- Sweet Potato is the predominant flavor, so the most important step is to do a good job roasting your sweet potatoes. Preheat the oven to 400⁰ Fahrenheit. Poke a bunch of holes all over the outside of about 4 medium sweet potatoes, and wrap them in aluminum foil. Roast them at 400⁰ for roughly an hour and a half. This should naturally caramelize the sugars and starch in the sweet potatoes.
- Once the sweet potatoes are out of the oven, leave them wrapped in the foil for an additional hour, then unwrap them to cool completely. This steams the skin away from the flesh of the potatoes, so they can be peeled more easily, and creates the best texture. Any time I want to make/serve sweet potatoes, this is the process I use.
- If you have Graham Cracker sheets, weigh them out, put them in a plastic bag, and beat them with a rolling pin or your fists until they resemble crumbs. Combine the crumbs with the sugar and salt, then pour the melted butter on top and mix with your hand until everything is evenly coated in the butter and looks like wet sand.
- Add the sandy mix to the bottom of your pan and press it down evenly, just on the bottom, not up the sides. Bake this at 350⁰ Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes until resolidified, fragrant, and slightly deeper in color.
- You can start making the cheesecake layer while the base is in the oven, it does not have to be completely cool. You only need a stand or hand mixer for this first step, the rest can be done with a rubber spatula.
- Add the cream cheese and both sugars to a large bowl and mix on a low speed for 4 minutes, to completely smooth out the cream cheese and incorporate the sugars. With some elbow grease, you can also do this step by hand, just be thorough about making sure there are no lumps in the cream cheese.
- Take your roasted, cooled, and peeled sweet potatoes and puree them so it’s the texture of baby food, or orange apple sauce. You want this as smooth as can possibly be for the best cheesecake, I do this with a stick emersion blender, but a food processor, or blender will also work. Add the puree and spices to the cream cheese mix, and thoroughly mix by hand so there are no streaks in the batter.
- Now add your large eggs, 2 at a time, being sure to completely mix them into the batter before adding the next eggs. Make sure you’re scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you do this.
- Add your buttermilk, heavy cream, and vanilla and thoroughly mix again. Finally add the salt and AP Flour and mix again until completely smooth (no flour lumps).
- Pour the cheesecake batter directly on top of the base we prepared earlier, it is okay if it’s not completely cool, but it shouldn’t be ripping hot.
- Bake the cheesecake at 450⁰ Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350⁰ for a further 45 minutes. The cheesecake should have a heavy wobble to it, but move as one solid unit, not just a jiggly underbaked center.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely, the dark, roasted surface of the cheesecake is the signature of this style of cheesecake, and pairs beautifully with the roasted sweet potato flavor, and browned butter topping.
- For the Topping, which is also optional, add your cold mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer or in a bowl with a hand mixer. Mix this on a medium/low speed until everything is just completely smoothed out. Mascarpone is incredibly easy to over-whip, so don’t overthink it.
- Add your browned butter to this and repeat, until everything is just smooth and incorporated. Finally add your cold cream and mix with the paddle attachment on medium speed until firm enough to hold it’s shape on the top of the cheesecake.
- This only takes a minute or two, the mascarpone will help support the heavy cream, so watch it carefully, and do not walk away.
- Decorate the top of the cheesecake with our brown butter topping however you prefer. You can simply leave the cake in the springform, spread the topping, and then remove the ring for simplicity.
- Refrigerate the cheesecake at least 12 hours before cutting, and it will cut perfectly into 12 slices. I decorate the top of mine with Candied Pecans.
Special Instructions / notes:
A normal basque cheesecake does not have a base, but I enjoy the flavors and textures of the graham cracker crust in this application. You can leave it out if you’d like, but make sure you line the pan with parchment if you do.
For a 9 Inch Springform Pan, multiply all ingredient amounts, by .82. For a 8 Inch Springform Pan, multiple all the ingredients by .65. You may need to adjust bake time at 350⁰ by about 3-4 minutes per inch that you remove from my original recipe.