The Kitchen
Miso caramel brown butter pretzel cheesecake
Pretzels add a salty element to balance the sweet alongside the miso, and the latter also gives you that umami depth. Browning the butter isn’t essential, but it does bring the Maillard reaction into play, adding another layer of flavour
Ingredients · Servings 12 slices
- 100g butter melted, plus extra for the tin
- 75g pretzels
- 175g golden caster sugar
- 750g soft cheese
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 300g dulce de leche from a tin or jar
- 1 tbsp white miso plus 1 tsp for the topping
- 3 eggs
Method · 1 h 30 min
- Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Butter a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Heat the butter in a pan until it stops foaming and turns a nutty brown, then take it off the heat and leave to cool a little. Tip the pretzels and 25g of the sugar into a food processor, add the brown butter and blitz until you have a mixture that looks like wet sand. (Alternatively, bash the pretzels in a bag with a rolling pin and stir in the butter.) Press the mixture firmly into the base of the tin, then chill.
- Scrape the soft cheese into a large bowl with the remaining sugar, the flour, vanilla extract, 3 tbsp of the dulce de leche and 1 tbsp miso. Beat until completely smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until you have a thick custardy mixture. Pour this over the pretzel base and bake for 50 mins or until there is just a slight wobble in the centre. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in the oven to cool for an hour, then chill until needed.
- When you’re ready to serve, loosen the cheesecake from the tin and remove the base, or serve directly from the tin base. Stir the remaining dulce de leche sauce with 1 tsp miso and a large pinch of flaky sea salt, then spoon this over the cheesecake, swirling it with the back of a spoon. Will keep at room temperature for a couple of hours and chilled for up to three days.
- 100g buttermelted, plus extra for the tin
- 300g dulce de lechefrom a tin or jar
- 1 tbsp white misoplus 1 tsp for the topping
- kcal414
- fat26g
- saturates16g
- carbs38g
- sugars29g
- fibre0.1g
- protein8g
- salt1.11g
Method
- step 1Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Butter a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Heat the butter in a pan until it stops foaming and turns a nutty brown, then take it off the heat and leave to cool a little. Tip the pretzels and 25g of the sugar into a food processor, add the brown butter and blitz until you have a mixture that looks like wet sand. (Alternatively, bash the pretzels in a bag with a rolling pin and stir in the butter.) Press the mixture firmly into the base of the tin, then chill.
- step 2Scrape the soft cheese into a large bowl with the remaining sugar, the flour, vanilla extract, 3 tbsp of the dulce de leche and 1 tbsp miso. Beat until completely smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until you have a thick custardy mixture. Pour this over the pretzel base and bake for 50 mins or until there is just a slight wobble in the centre. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in the oven to cool for an hour, then chill until needed.
- step 3When you’re ready to serve, loosen the cheesecake from the tin and remove the base, or serve directly from the tin base. Stir the remaining dulce de leche sauce with 1 tsp miso and a large pinch of flaky sea salt, then spoon this over the cheesecake, swirling it with the back of a spoon. Will keep at room temperature for a couple of hours and chilled for up to three days.
