Recipe · Nº01 Ube
Ube cheesecake
A baked cheesecake with a buttery biscuit base and a soft purple filling. The color and flavor come from our ube powder, which we stir into warm milk first so it dissolves properly.
- 30 min hands-on
- 20 cm tin
- 12 slices
The recipe
One 20 cm cheesecake.
This is a New York-style cheesecake. It's dense without being heavy, and the sour cream gives it a slightly tangy edge. Ube has a mild flavor, so we keep the vanilla small and let the ube lead. Take the cream cheese, sour cream and eggs out of the fridge an hour before you start. You spend about 30 minutes on it, and the oven and fridge do the rest.
- 01
Heat the oven and line the tin
Heat the oven to 160°C (320°F) without fan, or 140°C with fan. Line the base of a 20 cm (8-inch) springform tin with baking paper. Put a roasting tin of hot water on the lowest rack. The steam helps keep the top from cracking.
- 02
Make the base
Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs and mix them with the melted butter and sugar. Press the crumbs firmly into the tin with the bottom of a glass. Bake for 10 minutes, then let it cool while you make the filling.
- 03
Bloom the ube
Whisk the ube powder into the warm milk until smooth and leave it for 10 minutes. The paste thickens and turns a deeper purple as the powder takes up the milk.
- 04
Mix the filling
Beat the cream cheese with the sugar, cornstarch and salt on low speed for about a minute, until smooth. Add the ube paste, sour cream and vanilla and mix until the color is even. Add the eggs one at a time and stop mixing as soon as each one has disappeared. Beating adds air, and air is what makes a cheesecake crack.
- 05
Bake
Pour the filling onto the base and tap the tin on the counter a few times to bring up air bubbles. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes. It's ready when the edge is set and the middle 5 to 7 cm still wobbles like jelly when you nudge the tin.
- 06
Cool slowly and chill
Turn off the oven, prop the door open with a wooden spoon and leave the cheesecake inside for an hour. Run a thin knife around the edge, let it come to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Overnight is better.
- 07
Serve
Release the tin and cut the cheesecake with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry. Top it with the whipped cream and a light dusting of ube powder if you like.
Tips for a smooth ube cheesecake
- Always bloom the powder first. Dry powder stirred straight into cream cheese stays speckled and tastes a little floury. Pure ube powder gives a natural soft purple, not the neon shade of cakes made with ube flavoring, because we don't add any coloring.
- Judge the color on a cut slice. The top of a baked cheesecake always comes out paler than the inside. For a deeper shade, use 40 g of powder with 80 ml of milk. We wouldn't go higher than that, because the filling starts to taste starchy.
- Texture is mostly about temperature. Cold cream cheese leaves small lumps that no amount of beating will fix. A hot oven puffs the filling up, and it cracks as it settles again. Bake it low, keep some steam in the oven and let it cool down slowly.
- Speculoos works too. Use speculoos biscuits instead of digestives if you like a little spice with the ube. Use the same weight.
- No springform tin? Line a 20 cm cake tin with two long strips of baking paper in a cross. Once the cheesecake is cold, you can lift it out by the ends.
- A crack is only cosmetic. The whipped cream covers it and the cheesecake tastes exactly the same.
- Taste before the eggs go in. Our ube powder is unsweetened, so all the sweetness comes from the sugar in the recipe. Add a spoonful more sugar to the raw filling if you like it sweeter.
- New to ube? What is ube? explains how it differs from taro, and our guide to baking with ube has the ratios we use for cakes, cookies and batters.
Soft purple, biscuit base
Cut a slice before you judge the color.
Questions
Ube cheesecake questions.
How much ube powder do I need for an ube cheesecake?
For a 20 cm (8-inch) cheesecake we use 30 g of ube powder, bloomed in 60 ml of warm milk. That gives a soft purple filling with a clear ube flavor. You can go up to 40 g with 80 ml of milk for a deeper color. More than that makes the filling taste starchy.
Why did my ube cheesecake crack?
Most cracks come from beating too much air into the eggs, an oven that runs hot, or cooling the cake too quickly. Mix the eggs in on low speed, bake at 160°C with a tray of hot water below, and let the cheesecake cool in the switched-off oven with the door ajar.
Can I make a no-bake ube cheesecake?
Yes. Bloom 25 g ube powder in 50 ml warm milk and let it cool. Beat it with 500 g cream cheese and 80 g icing sugar, then fold in 250 ml whipping cream (at least 35% fat) whipped to soft peaks. Spread it over the same biscuit base without baking it and chill for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
How long does ube cheesecake keep?
Covered, it keeps for 4 days in the fridge. Slices freeze well for up to a month. Wrap them one by one and thaw them overnight in the fridge.
