Canarian · Dessert · From the menu Travesía
Flor de Guía cheesecake, fig, honey
Queso de Guía, higo, miel
A baked cheesecake made with queso de Flor de Guía, the sheep's cheese curdled with thistle flower that only comes from the north of this island. Figs roasted alongside, honey at the end.
Flor de Guía is curdled with cardoon flower rather than animal rennet, which gives it a faint bitterness that stops a cheesecake being cloying. It is the one dessert on my menus that could not be made anywhere else. Use the tierno or semicurado, not the aged one, and cut the quantity with cream cheese so it sets.
Ingredients
- 350 g queso de Flor de Guía, tierno or semicurado, rind off
- 400 g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 200 g caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 250 ml double cream
- 20 g plain flour
- A pinch of salt
- 8 ripe figs
- 2 tbsp honey, plus more to serve
- A thread of olive oil
Method
- Heat the oven to 210C. Line a 22 cm springform tin with two crossed sheets of baking paper, crumpled first, letting them stand well above the rim.
- Grate or crumble the Flor de Guía and beat it with the cream cheese and sugar until there are no lumps at all. This takes longer than you think.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating just enough to combine each. Do not whip air into it.
- Fold in the cream, then the flour and salt, sieved over. Pour into the tin.
- Bake 40 to 45 minutes. The top should be deeply browned, almost burnt at the edges, and the middle should still wobble like a set custard when you shake the tin.
- Cool at room temperature for at least three hours. It will sink in the centre. That is correct.
- Halve the figs, sit them cut side up in a small tray with the honey and a thread of olive oil and roast 10 minutes at 200C until they slump and the juices catch.
- Serve the cheesecake at room temperature, never fridge cold, with the warm figs and their syrup.
Serve it with. A small glass of malvasía, sweet, cold.