Basque "Burnt" Cheesecake

I love cheesecake and the the burnt appearance of this impressed me; curiously, this cheesecake has no crust. If you don't feel like spending the 20 minutes and $17 to make this, you can order chef José Andrés version for only $109! :-)

I compared recipes from four sources, ignored the outliers, and took ideas from each; the ingredients and execution were quite similar. The Guardian provided terrific detail but used a smaller springform pan than mine, while Cooking Issues seemed too hot (the comments said as much). Bon Appetit and Tasting Table were nearly identical. I like the idea of the tartness of The Guardian's creme fraiche so I use a mix of heavy cream and sour cream here. Below, we add a bit of Salt for American cream cheese since the Basque version is a little saltier; the Flour or Cornstarch prevents weeping.

The original quantities are for a 10-inch / 25-cm diameter 6-cm high springform pan. For just the two of us, I got a 16x4-cm pan and scaled the recipe to 40%, but it's shorter (27% capacity, not 40%) so this recipe does NOT fit (a 20x4-cm  or 18x5-cm pan should accommodate this).

10in/25cm pan   16cm

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2   Lb  900 g  360 g  Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temperature

1.5 C   330 g  132 g  Sugar

5         5      2    Eggs

1   C   235 g   94 g  Heavy Cream

1   C   240 g   96 g  Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche

1   tsp   3 g  1.2 g  Kosher Salt (for American Cheese)

2   Tbs  15 g    6 g  All Purpose Flour (or Corn Starch)

Grease the springform pan with butter, and line it with parchment, with extra height about an inch above the sides. You can make strip around the outside and a separate disk for the bottom, or you can just press in a large sheet and smooth out the edges: the rough and rustic edge is a trademark of this cake, and  after trying to fit the sides and bottom separately, I can see why most preparations just layer perpendicular sheets!

Trying to fit separate bottom and side strips was a pain

Combine Cream Cheese and Sugar in a stand mixer, and mix slowly until smooth and sugar is dissolved, scraping down as needed, about 4 minutes.

While mixer is running, add Eggs one at a time until each is thoroughly incorporated.

Add the Heavy Cream, Sour Cream, Salt and Flour, and mix until smooth, another minute.

Pour into prepared springform pan, and chill about 30 minutes so that the center heat will be delayed (this may not be necessary).

Preheat oven to 400F / 200C, then put cake pan on a cookie sheet (to catch drips) and bake for about 50 minutes, less for the smaller pan. The top should look quite brown, even though the center will remain jiggly. If not, leave it in another 10 minutes and check; repeat as needed. The temperature of the center should be 140F / 60C. My total time was 70 minutes, and my probe always measured near boiling, even though the cake was quite jiggly, not sure what I'm missing.

Remove from the oven and let cool, it should "gel". 

Remove from the springform pan and take off the parchment.

Serve warm or cool.