La Viña Cheesecake

This delicious cheesecake recipe was shamelessly plagiarised from Mimo Food, who posted it with permission from La Viña restaurant in San Sebastián, Spain. I stole it so I could make the quantities less gargantuan (halve), Fix an error in the baking temperature (Celsius vs. Fahrenheit) and just ensure that I have somewhere to remember it (It's ungoogleable for me right now).The cake is eye-poppingly sweet and creamy and best served with touches of brown around the edges and "just warm" after baking.

Ingredients:

• 500g Cream cheese
• 4 Eggs
• 200g Caster sugar
• ½ Tablespoon of plain flour
• 250ml Light cream

Method:

Preheat fan-forced oven to 200° Celsius. Line a 23cm (9") spring-form pan with grease-proof paper. The paper should carry about 8cm (3") above the rim of the pan, as the batter will rise in the oven. Hold the paper against the base of the pan, then tease and fold the paper against the rim so it's as flat as you can get. Use scissors  if necessary to trim the excess off.

Break eggs into bowl and beat well. Cut or break the cream cheese into smaller chunks and lightly mix into the eggs (You just need to get things reasonably well-distributed at this stage, not "lump free"). If the cheese is cold, it may be beneficial to soften it in a microwave first, just don't boil or split it (Usually 10-20 seconds).

Stir each remaining ingredient into the bowl individually, starting with the sugar, then the cream and lastly the flour. Combine the ingredients well and then use an immersion blender to eliminate the lumps and create a smooth, thick consistency.

Pour batter into the pan, place it in the center of a thin baking tray or baking sheet and then into the oven. Bake for 40-50 minutes. You need to form some dark brown patches on the surface (These add a lot of flavour), if it colours-up very quickly, you might want to turn it down to 160-180, depending on your oven. Leaving the cake longer in the oven lets it "set" more, but results in a grainier texture. Ideally checking how the cake "jiggles" from time to time after 30-40 minutes can give you a smooth, creamy cake: When it is noticeably thicker, the cake should be just set. The risk is if you undershoot, your cake will be still liquid in the center (Letting it cool and set more might help).

Take the cake out of the oven, remove the spring-form rim and peel back the paper. Let it cool slightly before slicing (It's best when it's still warm, but not hot).