Traveling alone can be hit or miss in terms of the company you keep. (Read my rant on 22-year-old Australian backpackers here.) So I was pleasantly surprised when I came away from my trip to San Sebastian with some truly amazing new friends.
Halfway through my trip I decided to venture up to the French Basque country just across the border. After an unfortunate bus journey from Biarritz to Bayonne, where I had accidentally booked my hotel, I ventured down to Ascain where Susan Creamer, the COO of San Sebastian Food, invited me to a traditional Irish Sunday roast at her home.
It’s always a treat to get to step into someone’s home when traveling. And our 9 hour lunch under her fig tree was a particularly sweet taste of Susan’s world. We drank Rioja and Irish coffees and pisco sours and talked all about food and Basque living. Susan’s best advice: I should find a nice Basque boy and marry him immediately. Which made me think she was not only an Irish transplant in Spain, but also Jewish.
The whole cast of characters from San Sebastian Food joined us at the table. We put our heads together to come up with this gluten-free cheesecake recipe using fresh figs, which should just be coming into their own in Susan’s backyard.
I’m so thrilled to share this cheesecake recipe.
Xo
Phoebe
Gluten-Free Cheesecake with Fresh Figs and Honey
Ingredients
For the base:
- 6 ounces crushed gluten-free cookies (150 gr)
- 4 ounces mascarpone cheese (125 gr)
- 3 tablespoons butter (40 gr) melted
For the cake:
- 1 pound soft cream cheese (500 gr) at room temperature
- sugar (125 gr)
- 6 ounces cream (200 ml)
- 2 ounces mascarpone cheese (50 gr)
- 1 tablespoon of gelatin (4 sheets)
- 8 fresh figs halved
- ¼ cup organic honey
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl combine the crushed cookies, mascarpone and butter. Mix them until a dough comes together. Press the cookie mixture into the bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
- In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, cream and mascarpone and gently stir together.
- In a small bowl cover the gelatin with just enough boiling water to cover. Add it to the cheese mixture.
- Pour the cheese mixture on top of the base through a strainer and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.
- Arrange the raw figs on top and drizzle with the honey.
Nutrition
If you make this, tag @phoebelapine and #feedmephoebe - I'd love to see it!
Wow! So gorgeous! I want to dive into that cheesecake.
Stunning Phoebe! Fun using cookies in the crust.
yes! i need to investigate more with different brands to use.
beautiful shots, phoebe! this looks almost too delicious to eat…almost!
almost indeed! Aiala is such a wiz with food styling. Wish I could make my recipes normally look this pretty.
I’m going to print out the photo and eat it anyway.
I just went on vacation …reading your blog! Thank you for taking me along! I’m going to make this glutin-free cheesecake for Rob’s birthday next week. Thank you, amazing Phoebe! xo
yay Debbie! I’m so glad. You’ll have to let me know how it turns out. I translated the recipe from metric system, so some of the amounts might be a little inconvenient for US ingredient packaging. But it’s a no-bake recipe, so should be fine. Hope Rob loves it! xx
Totally bummed I missed this week as figs are one of our favorite summer time indulgence. This recipe for cheesecake looks (and sounds) amazing!
Are they in season on the west coast too? i never know how these things vary from coast to coast! thanks for stopping by Denise 🙂
I plan on making this gorgeous looking cheesecake for a dinner party this weekend….can it be made in advance, then brought to room temp and topped? Thanks, Vicki
I believe so, Vicki! I’ve never done it, but I’m sure that would be fine. Let me know how it goes! xo
Hi Phoebe. The cake was really good, and easy to make, although I had to do some last minute conversions. For example, I learned that 1tbsp of gelatin powder equals 4 sheets. That seemed to work fine. My crust seemed a bit too buttery/cheesy but no one complained! I prepared it the night before, put it in the freezer for 30 minutes before serving, then decorated it with the figs and honey. It looked gorgeous and sliced very easily. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Vicki – thanks so much for the feedback! I will definitely update the recipe to say 4 sheets. Since Aiala lives in San Sebastian, I had to do some conversions, but wasn’t sure about the gelatin. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed it! xo
Gorgeous photos… and DELICIOUS looking cake! May experiment with some sort of almond flour crust… any tips?
DEFINITELY! These two recipes include my go-to’s.
https://feedmephoebe.com/gluten-free-pumpkin-tart-recipe/
https://feedmephoebe.com/lemon-tart-recipe-healthy/