Butternut Cheesecake
This roasted Butternut Cheesecake, aka Basque Burnt Cheesecake, is an exquisite delicious “better than pumpkin cheesecake” dessert, served with a maple cream. It’s light, airy, and makes its own crust. This baked cheesecake is both elegant and hearty, and the best for any fall or holiday dessert!
This butternut cheesecake is amazing for the holidays—it’s lighter, more flavorful, and even better than pumpkin cheesecake or regular cheesecake. It’s a Basque-style cheesecake that makes its own crust, and is perfectly browned on top. With cracks and all, it’s very common to serve a crustless cheesecake this way!
Butternut Cheesecake
For Thanksgiving this year, give our creamy, Butternut Squash Cheesecake a try. It’s so good, each bite melts in your mouth. You may have heard of a burnt Basque cheesecake, that is light and airy, but this recipe today is also sweet and tangy, and the crust is out of this world.
What is a burnt cheesecake?
My daughter Abby’s version of Burnt Cheesecake, originally created by Spanish chef Santiago Rivera, eliminates the fussy steps of crust making and baking in water. In fact, the purpose is to develop delicious caramelized flavor on the outside—cracked tops are also welcome.
We served this for Thanksgiving back in 2021. The addition of warm spices and pureed butternut (or pumpkin) put an autumn spin on this classic, simple recipe. We’ve also enjoyed our Sweet Potato Cheesecake many, many times!
Why I love this recipe
- It’s the perfect holiday dessert (swoon!)
- Move over pumpkin, and make room for butternut squash (great for the non-pumpkin lovers).
- You can serve it with a scoop of ice cream, but our Maple Whipped Cream is the best!
Gather these ingredients
While you use canned pumpkin puree in this recipe, you get a more unique flavor with the roasted butternut squash. Both will have the same consistency though.
- Cream cheese
- Mascarpone cheese
- Sour cream
- Maple syrup
- Brown sugar
- Granulated white sugar
- Heavy whipping cream
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- Maple extract
- Eggs
- Roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin puree if you have to substitute)
- All purpose flour
- Cinnamon + cloves + allspice + nutmeg + salt
Maple Whipped Cream
- Heavy whipping cream
- Powdered sugar
- Maple extract
- Vanilla extract
How do you make Butternut Cheesecake?
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 10’-12’’ springform pan. Prepare two large sheets of parchment, about 16’’x12″, large enough for each to line about 2/3 of the pan and overlap in the center. Press down one sheet of parchment to cover two thirds of the bottom, and pleat the sides to fit the inside of the pan—the paper should go about 1 1/2-2’’ around the pan. Repeat with the second sheet, then lightly spray the inside of the parchment. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, and salt. Set both aside.
- Cream together the cream cheese, mascarpone, and sour cream until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the maple syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar mixture. Mix together on medium speed until sugar begins to dissolve—about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, then add the whipping cream, vanilla, almond, and maple extracts; mix until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on medium speed, until incorporated; wait 15 seconds in between each egg. Scrape down the sides, then add the butternut squash puree. Mix on medium until well combined. Finally, sift in the flour, spices, and salt mixture and mix until combined. Scrape the sides one last time to ensure there are no lumps, then pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan gently on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles from the bottom.
- BAKE: Place on the center rack in the oven for 45 minutes, then spin 180 degrees and bake for 15-30 minutes more—there should be a slight jiggle in the center of the cake (a diameter of about 2’’ before you take it out of the oven to cool on a rack).
- COOL: Allow the cake to cool to room temperature for at least 4 hours before serving—preferably, allow the cake to chill in the refrigerator overnight.
- Serve at room temperature, or chilled with maple whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Tips and substitutions:
- When making a cheesecake, it is essential to have all the ingredients be room temperature, or the cheeses will clump and leave you with an uneven texture (and we want fluffy, smooth cheesecake!)
- Additionally, make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl in-between mixing to ensure you’re not left with unincorporated patches of cream cheese and mascarpone.
- To soften cream cheese and mascarpone, microwave on 20-30% for about 10 second intervals until room temperature (be careful not to melt it!)
- You can replace the butternut squash with pumpkin.
- After roasting the squash, mash it and place it in a strainer over a bowl and let any excess moisture drain off.
- You will need 1 1/4 cups of butternut squash puree.
- Optional to make regular whipped cream (leave out the maple).
How to serve Butternut Cheesecake
Allow the cake to cool to room temperature for at least 4 hours before serving—preferably, allow the cake to chill in the refrigerator overnight. A dab of the maple cream is amazing, or you can always serve with vanilla ice cream. Both are amazing. Serve room temperature, or chilled!
Serve a turkey lasagna soup with sweet potato biscuits, and this amazing dessert for the ultimate fall dinner!
This season, there are just too many things to be thankful for! No matter what challenges we all face, we don’t want to take our blessings for granted. From good health, to a place we call home—I’m so thankful for friends and family!
I hope you find comfort and inspiration in the recipes I’ll be sharing this week and next, leading up to Thanksgiving. I’ll be posting a roundup of recipes to try this year, too, so stay tuned!
More cheesecake recipes you may want to try:
Get the Recipe:
Butternut Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 16 oz cream cheese, softened
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese, softened
- 8 oz sour cream, room temp
- ½ c maple syrup, room temperature
- ½ c brown sugar
- ¼ c granulated white sugar
- ¾ c heavy whipping cream, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract, optional
- ½ tsp maple extract
- 6 eggs, room temperature
- 1 ¼ c butternut squash, roasted and pureed (or pumpkin puree)
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- 1 ¼ tsp salt
Maple Whipped Cream
- 1 ½ c heavy whipping cream, cold
- ⅓ c powdered sugar
- ½ tsp maple extract
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a 10’-12’’ springform pan. Spray with nonstick spray. Prepare two large sheets of parchment, about 16’’x12", large enough for each to line about ⅔ of the pan and overlap in the center. Press down one sheet of parchment to cover two thirds of the bottom, and pleat the sides to fit the inside of the pan—the paper should go about 1 ½-2’’ around the pan. Repeat with the second sheet, then lightly spray the inside of the parchment. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, and salt. Set both aside.
- Cream together the cream cheese, mascarpone, and sour cream until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the maple syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar mixture. Mix together on medium speed until sugar begins to dissolve—about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, then add the whipping cream, vanilla, almond, and maple extracts; mix until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on medium speed, until incorporated; wait 15 seconds in between each egg. Scrape down the sides, then add the butternut squash puree. Mix on medium until well combined.
- Finally, sift in the flour, spices, and salt mixture and mix until combined. Scrape the sides one last time to ensure there are no lumps, then pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan gently on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles from the bottom.
Bake the cheesecake:
- Place on the center rack in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, then spin 180 degrees and bake for 15-30 minutes more—there should be a slight jiggle in the center of the cake (a diameter of about 2’’ before you take it out of the oven to cool on a rack). Remove the cheesecake from the oven.
- Allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature for at least 4 hours before serving—preferably, allow the cake to chill in the refrigerator overnight.
Make the whipping cream:
- In a medium bowl, add the heavy cream and whip until almost thick. Then add in the powdered sugar, and both extracts. Mix until combined.
Serve the cheesecake:
- Serve at room temperature, or chilled with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Notes
To bring eggs to room temperature, crack into a metal bowl and place over a bowl of warm (not hot) water.
For cream cheese and mascarpone, microwave on 20-30% for about 10 second intervals until room temperature (be careful not to melt it!).
For whipping cream, maple syrup, and sour cream, heat on 20-30% in 8-12 second intervals until lukewarm. Reposted from November 2021.
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
