🍰 San Sebastián cheesecake
San Sebastián cheesecake, also called Basque burnt cheesecake, is a crustless cheesecake baked at a very high temperature until the top is deeply caramelised, almost black. Inside it stays creamy and soft-set, like a baked custard. Made from cream cheese, cream, eggs and sugar, it is served in wedges at room temperature, with its rustic cracked edges on show.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg cream cheese, at room temperature
- 250 g sugar
- 5 eggs
- 400 ml cream
Method
- Heat the oven to 220 °C and line a 23 cm tin with two crumpled sheets of baking paper rising above the rim.
- Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth, then add the eggs one at a time.
- Stir in the cream until the batter is smooth and pour it into the tin.
- Bake for 50–60 minutes until the top is very dark and the centre still wobbles. Cool completely before slicing.
How to make it lighter
- Cut 12 thin slices from the cake instead of 8 large ones.
- Serve a slice with fresh berries rather than sauce or ice cream.
- Share a slice in a café — a restaurant portion is often 150 g or more.
History
The burnt Basque cheesecake was created in the early 1990s at La Viña, a bar in San Sebastián's old town, and its recipe is usually credited to the owner Santiago Rivera. It spread worldwide in the 2010s and is now on café and restaurant menus far beyond Spain.
Count it in one photo
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →