Why Did My Basque Burnt Cheesecake Not Become Burnished On Top During Cooking?

Our answer

Nigella's Basque Burnt Cheesecake With Liquorice Sauce (from COOK, EAT, REPEAT) is a baked cheesecake that is different from Nigella's other baked cheesecakes as it is baked quickly in a hot oven, rather than gently in a water bath. The cheesecake puffs up as it bakes and becomes brown on top. It is best eaten as soon as it has just cooled, as it still has a light texture.

The top usually becomes golden to chestnut brown on top during baking. We assume that the cheesecake was baked for the correct amount of time and was risen and almost soufflé-like when it was removed from the oven. There may be a couple of reasons why the cheesecake doesn't become a very deep brown on top. The first and most likely reason is that if the baking parchment (parchment paper) protrudes too much above the top of the springform pan then the "collar" created by the extra paper shields the top of the cheesecake slightly from the heat of the oven and will cause it to brown less. You can trim any excess baking parchment down so that there is only a very small amount rising above the top of the springform pan. The other possible reason is that a fan oven can lead to a slightly less brown top as there may be no direct heat source directly over the top of the cheesecake, though this can very much depend on the model of oven and the cheesecake is still delicious even if it is just pale golden brown on top.