Earl Grey Burnt Cheesecake
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Creamy and rich with subtle earl grey tea flavor and fragrance, this delightful Earl Grey Burnt Cheesecake is a perfect dessert for your afternoon tea.
Have you tried Earl Grey flavored baked goods before? I have done this with my previous Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies and they taste so good. They made me hooked with earl grey tea ever since. This actually motivated me to experiment adding earl grey flavor to my latest Basque Burnt Cheesecake recipe.
Tips for Making Earl Grey Burnt Cheesecake
If you have not tried making a Basque Burnt Cheesecake before, you will have to trust me when I say it is probably one of the easiest cheesecake to bake for beginners. It consists of several ingredients only and there is no special technique involved for making this. Maybe the hardest part is to wait for the cheesecake to chill before serving. But let me tell you some tips to achieve the greatest result.
1. Do not boil the heavy cream
I add the earl grey flavor by infusing loose earl grey tea with hot heavy cream. The effect of acidity on the milk proteins is accentuated by heat, which is often why dairy products curdle when heated. Heavy cream with higher fat content is not as likely to curdle if you reach boiling point. But if you try to go with less fat content you will probably get curdling once the cream boils. For safe, I usually just heat the heavy cream just until before it reaches the boiling point or until it starts to simmer.
2. Use loose-leaf tea for more flavor and aroma
For the earl grey tea, I used the loose leaf tea form instead of tea bags. The difference between loose leaf tea and tea bags are numerous, and it goes far beyond the surface. The leaves used in most bags are actually the dust and fannings from broken tea leaves. Finely broken tea leaves have lost most of their essential oils and aroma. More importantly, most tea bags constrain the tea leaves, keeping them from expanding to their full flavor and aroma potential. That is why I love using loose leaf tea for making baked goods because it is fresher and more flavorful.
3. Weight the infused heavy cream
Maybe you get curious about why you need to weigh the cream twice in this recipe. In the original Basque Burnt Cheesecake recipe, we used 270gr heavy cream. The problem is the heavy cream evaporated during heating and the loose leaf tea absorbs so much liquid after the infusing process. After it had cooled down, I strained the infused heavy cream and weighted it back. Somehow I ended up with 170gr infused cream. When using whole loose leaf tea, the leaves absorb more water. It also depends on the brand of your tea leaves because some may also absorb more or less liquid.
The amount of heavy cream you need to add is probably more or less depending on the heating process and what kind of tea you use. But in the end, you should end up with 270gr earl grey infused heavy cream. If you use less than that, your burnt cheesecake will probably end up too dense and dry
How Much Earl Grey You Need for the Recipe
There are hundreds of different popular tea brands out there. They have a range of flavors and textures that appeal to different people from floral to strong to sweet. I find that the best teas for making baked goods are those that have flavorful, strong, and complex flavor. You will need strong tea, especially when combined with cream cheese because cream cheese tastes pretty strong in burnt cheesecake. If your tea does not taste as bold, the cream cheese flavor will end up overpowering and covering up the mild taste of tea.
For this recipe, I used 15gr loose earl grey tea. It is about 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons in volume and the amount of tea works for me. I know that is a lot of tea for a recipe, but that amount only enough to create a subtle earl grey flavor for each bite of cheesecake. As I have told you in the upper paragraph before, the cream cheese tastes strong and you need bold tea flavor.
Someone even tagged me that she made burnt cheesecake with 5 tea bags and it did not taste like earl grey at all. Just to let you know that 1 tea bag is about 1.5-2 grams so I assume that she used about 7.5-10 grams of earl grey tea. Moreover, let me remind you that tea bags are less flavorful and aromatic than loose leaf tea, so you will probably need to add more if you are using tea bags.
Based on my past experience, a good indicator to know if your earl grey cheesecake will work is to see the color of the raw batter. Well-infused earl grey cheesecake will have a slightly brownish color (earl grey color) instead of yellowish cream cheese color. Do you see that light brown color compared to my previous Burnt Cheesecake recipe? That is how I know that this cheesecake recipe will surely have that earl grey taste.
More Cheesecake Recipes
Do you love cheesecake? I have some cheesecake recipes that you will love!
- Blueberry Crumble Cheesecake
- No-Bake Avocado Lime Cheesecake
- Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake
- No-Bake Thai Tea Cheesecake
- No-Bake Blackberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 430 gr cream cheese, room temperature, softened
- 120 gr castor sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 270 gr heavy cream, or more (*see Notes)
- 15 gr loose leaf earl grey tea
- 20 gr cake flour
Instructions
- Heat heavy cream and loose earl grey tea in a medium saucepan with low-medium heat until simmer (do not boil). Steep the tea for 15 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
- Weight the infused heavy cream back. Add more cream if necessary until the weight reaches 270 gr. (*see Notes)
- Preheat oven to 465F/240°C. Line a 6-inch/15cm round cake tin with 2 layers of parchment papers, making sure the parchment comes at least 2-inch/5cm above the top of the pan.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, add flour and 1/4 of the infused heavy cream and mix until a paste is formed. Add the remaining infused heavy cream a little by little into the flour mixture until well combined and smooth.
- Beat together the cream cheese and flour mixture until well combined. Pour the mixture to the prepared tin.
- Bake cheesecake until deeply golden brown on top and still very jiggly in the center for about 30-35 minutes.
- Let it cool in the tin completely to allow the cheesecake to set. Remove from the baking tin. Enjoy at room temperature for gooey center or place into the refrigerator for the firm center.
Hi if I want to make a 9″ cake, can I just increase all the ingredients in proportion and the baking time? Have you had any experience making a bigger cake? Thank you!
Hi Katie,
Just double the ingredients if you plan to bake it in a 9″ baking pan. I am not that sure of the baking time you need. Just make sure you keep on eye of the cake when it is in the oven. When the top looks golden brown, just take the cake out of the oven.
Hi Jaja,
Can we add some finely grind earl grey into the batter? This should make the earl grey flavour stronger?
Thanks
Hi Christine,
Sorry for the late reply. I think you can do so, but make sure not to add too much or the cheesecake will not be smooth and become gritty.
A good amount of earl grey flavor here.
Thanks for the super simple instructions and tip to reweigh the heavy cream post-steeping. For a reference point, I ended up using 10 earl grey tea bags in place of the 15g loose leaf and it was perfect!
I dont understand ar first you said heat 300gr heavy w earl grey than left 170gr n weight to 270gr? I tot 300gr have been infuse w tea already?
The heavy cream evaporated during heating and the loose tea leaves kinda absorbed so much liquid. It depends on your tea leaves brand because sometimes some tea leaves absorb more water. In my case, the tea leaves absorb so much liquid and after straining and weighting it back, I ended up with 170gr infused heavy cream. The recipe is actually modified from the original Basque Burnt Cheesecake from https://jajabakes.com/basque-burnt-cheesecake/ and the recipe needs 270gr heavy cream that is why I added more 100gr heavy cream to make it even. It depends on your situation how much heavy cream addition you need, but overall the infused heavy cream must weight 270gr at the end.
thank you for pointing it out and I have added some additional notes in the instructions.