The restaurant is a long-time favorite for locals and tourists alike, but now even more so because of their scrumptious cheesecake: a jiggly cheesecake, creamy in the center, with a caramelized top, with a rich cream cheese taste. Imagine the Japanese cotton cheesecake with a denser cheese ratio, creamier, barely any flour at all, but keeping the jiggly and melt-in-your-mouth sensation. It's such a good cheesecake that it's one of the Best 10 Cheesecakes of Spain.
Now, many of us aren't able to travel to San Sebastian to enjoy this heavenly cheesecake, so the chefs at Restaurante La Viña have actually shared their original recipe! Some food experts say that the recipe's actual results are very much alike the original cheesecake served at the restaurant. Moreover, it's a very forgiving recipe, with very few ingredients, little preparation time and only 40 minutes of baking.
So let's get cheesecaking!
Their original recipe yields a whopping 12 servings and weighs 2 kilograms! So I have adapted it to fit into a nice 18 cm diameter springform cake pan to enjoy with you family.
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 200 gr of granulated sugar [1 cup]
- 500 gr of cream cheese (I use classic Philadelphia, at room temperature) [17.5 oz or 2 cups and 2 tbsp]
- 3 tsp of all purpose flour
- 250 ml whipping cream or heavy cream (at room temperature) [1 cup]
- Some lemon zest (totally optional, I just like how citrus pairs with cream cheese!)
Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven at 210ºC [410ºF], top and bottom heat, turn on the fan function if you want the top to caramelize evenly.
2. Prepare an 18 cm cake pan: take a piece of parchment paper, scrunch it up and put it under running water to wet it. Get rid of excess water and unscrunch it, now line the cake pan with it.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together 3 eggs with the sugar. You can even use a whisk if you do not have a hand mixer or an electric beater.
4. Add in the cream cheese and start beating at low speed, until it's roughly incorporated. At this stage, lumps are completely normal.
5. Add in the all purpose flour and beat until there are not flour lumps.
6. Mix in the heavy or whipping cream and beat until smooth, try not to overbeat at this point.
7. Optionally, you can add some lemon zest for a citrus aroma, the original recipe doesn't have any, but I like to add a bit. Mix until incorporated.
8. Pour the batter into the lined cake pan and bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the top is dark brown and well caramelized.
Depending on your oven you may need to leave it longer, and also, you may need to rotate the cake half-way through baking to encourage even baking. In my case I had to rotate it because one of the sides of the cheesecake was browning more quickly than the other. You can turn off the oven when the top looks dark brown, or even burnt at the edges. You can take out the cake immediately or leave it to cool off with the oven opened. The cake will be jiggly at the middle, do not worry about this!
If you like a creamier cheesecake, do try cooling it off at room temperature for 3 hours, when you serve it, you'll see the center is almost like melted cheese, creamy and smooth. If you prefer a firmer cheesecake let it sit at least 5 hours.
I think this cheesecake tastes the best after fully chilled in the fridge, it has a stronger cream cheese taste when refrigerated and the coolness of the cheesecake is a blessing during a hot summer afternoon!
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