Savoury Cheesecake Recipe: 10 years in the making!

I remember my first savoury cheesecake, it was 10 years ago at the Warehouse Cafe in Birmingham and I vowed to go home and make one. Well it wasn’t until a few days ago that I finally did it and I’m really happy with outcome, it’s really rich, velvety and totally indulgent. I looked at a few different recipes; some use geletin or agar agar to set it but I didn’t want a raw cheesecake because then it just seems like a load of cream cheese plonked onto a base. That meant it it had to be baked but I also had to decide what cheese to use.  Most recipes use cheese I don’t have access to in France, so I used a regular cream cheese, a fromage frais mousse (13% fat), Cantal (a white hard cheese similar to cheddar) and some crumbled hard goats cheese. Finally the base…many recipes use a breadcrumb mix but I wanted it to be gluten free so instead I used gluten free oats. Most recipes just use melted butter to bind the oats together but I find this rather bland. I added an egg to the give the base extra bite and a bit of cantal cheese but you could use Parmasam or Pecorino instead.

As this savoury cheesecake is so rich it really needs to be served with something sharp or acidic. It works really well with roasted balsamic beetroot but you could also try an onion marmalade, chutney or pesto.

Here’s the recipe:

Base:

175g gluten free oats

1 egg

35g melted butter

50g grated Cantal (or parmasam/cheddar)

Filling:

Use 500g in total of soft cheese, I used 300g of full fat cream cheese and 200g of fromage frais (13% fat), but you could use Ricotta.

70g grated Cantal and another 30g to sprinkle on top (but cheddar would be fine)

100g crumbled/grated goats cheese or feta

3 eggs

Method:

Firstly begin with the base. Mixed together the oats, egg, butter and cheese and push down into a 20cm lined springform tin

Next mix together all other ingredients and pour over the oats

Sprinkle the remaining cantal on top.

Place in the oven for 40 minutes at 180C or until the cheesecake is springy to touch and golden on top.

If you don’t fancy making this recipe yourself, why not come to us and I’ll make it for you!  Get in touch to arrange your stay,