Basque cheesecake with hazelnuts and chocolate

This wonderfully creamy Basque cheesecake with hazelnuts and chocolate is the perfect autumn dessert. Intensely fragrant with roasted hazelnuts, it combines two timeless flavours: hazelnuts and chocolate. There are no shortcuts here – you could simply add a Nutella-style spread, but that’s not what this cheesecake is about. Instead, we make our own hazelnut paste and use good-quality chocolate, without any unnecessary ingredients. The result is completely irresistible. Perfect for all hazelnut lovers!

Ingredients for the Basque cheesecake with hazelnuts and chocolate:

• 900 g full-fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia
• 300 g caster sugar
• 300 g hazelnuts
• 150 g dark chocolate, 70%
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs
• 400 ml double cream
• 40 g plain flour
• generous pinch of salt

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan or in the oven at 180°C, stirring occasionally. Remove the brown skins – they come off most easily if you wrap the nuts in a paper towel and rub them between your hands. The skins can make the cheesecake taste bitter. Place the peeled hazelnuts in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth, liquid paste, about 8 minutes of continuous processing. The nuts will first become finely ground, then turn into nut butter and, after several more minutes, into a fairly smooth, oily liquid. The exact time will depend on your food processor.

Chop the dark chocolate and melt it in a bain-marie or microwave. Leave to cool slightly, but keep it liquid.

Prepare a 25 cm springform tin (or a tall 23 cm tin). Grease the tin with butter and line it with baking paper, allowing the paper to extend at least 5 cm above the rim.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until thoroughly combined and the sugar has dissolved. Add the vanilla, whole eggs and salt and mix until smooth. Add the hazelnut paste and mix until incorporated. Add the double cream and melted chocolate and mix until completely combined. Finally, sift in the flour and mix briefly until smooth. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the prepared tin.

Bake the Basque cheesecake at 200°C for about 50–60 minutes.* Remove from the oven and leave to cool. The surface, or at least the edges, should be deeply browned, while the centre of the hot cheesecake should wobble noticeably when the tin is gently shaken. The cheesecake will rise considerably and then sink slightly, leaving higher edges.

Chill in the fridge for 8 hours – only then will the cheesecake reach the proper consistency and be ready to slice.

The Basque cheesecake with hazelnuts and chocolate can be stored at room temperature, but for longer storage or during hot weather, keep it refrigerated.

NOTE: Some recipes recommend baking this cheesecake for only 40 minutes, switching off the oven when the centre is still very wobbly, for an even creamier result. The shorter the baking time, the creamier the centre will be. Traditionally, the very centre can have an almost custard-like consistency, which makes the cheesecake difficult to slice neatly. Be careful not to underbake it too much, however, as the centre should not remain liquid once cooled. A shorter-baked cheesecake will also be less deeply browned on top; you can briefly place it under the grill for 30–60 seconds, watching it very closely, or switch to the fan setting towards the end of baking. Personally, I could probably bake this cheesecake for slightly less time, but we prefer it this way.

Enjoy!