At the risk of sounding cliched, I’m not a dessert person. Something sweet to finish a meal? Sure, but I rarely find myself thinking back on a dessert after the bill’s been paid. There will be times where dessert is the destination (a gelato bar or a patisserie) but often in restaurant kitchens – even great ones – dessert is an afterthought.
This is not the case when it comes to Sonny’s Basque cheesecake. While Sofika Boulton and her team manage to impress with every dish at the tiny suburban diner, there’s something particularly exciting about the final course. A modest wedge of perfectly tempered cheesecake, with a dark top and, well, not much else. No sauce, no crumb, no coulis, no garnish. Just cake.
There must be magic at play in the Sonny’s kitchen, because this is a cheesecake that seems to defy logic. Boulton tells me otherwise, but I can’t quite come to grips with an internal texture that presents like a gooey wheel of camembert but dissolves in the mouth like rich mascarpone cream. A burnished top adds a hint of bitterness, smoke and charcoal, but it’s far from overpowering. It simply breaks down against the cake’s soft centre, adding to the mousse-like texture.
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SUBSCRIBE NOWBoulton tells me it’s time and detail that ensures this cake comes out right every time. Eggs are added one at a time and passed through a fine chinois, and the same shelf in the oven is always used to bake the cake for just 18 minutes before a lengthy cooling period and overnight refrigeration.
Most Basque cheesecake recipes include a portion of flour to avoid a wet, collapsing mess of a cake. It’s a cheap and reasonable insurance policy. Boulton’s recipe – a culmination of many months of trial and error – contains no dry ingredients at all, the payoff being a satisfying velvety texture.
And she’s omitted more than just flour. There isn’t any citrus zest or fruit to complicate things, nor that obligatory but entirely unnecessary dash of vanilla extract. This is baking in its simplest form – and less is so much more.
On my visit to Sonny’s, dessert wasn’t anywhere on my radar, yet days after I’m still thinking about that Basque cheesecake. I’ve never been one of those people concerned or offended by the textures of certain foods, but this cheesecake may lead me to have an aversion to anything less than perfect when it comes to baked cheesecake in the future.
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