Matcha Cheesecake for Cafés: Baked, Basque and No-Bake Recipes, How Much Matcha, Colour and Shelf Life

Matcha cheesecake can use the same matcha as your lattes, and it shows off a green cross-section. But the baking method changes the colour and texture a lot, and it uses eggs and cream cheese, so a café needs to decide on heating, cooling and shelf life too. We checked official recipes from tea companies, a cooking school and a dairy farmers’ organisation, and documents from authorities in the US, Japan and Singapore.

3 styles of matcha cheesecake

Matcha cheesecake comes in 3 styles: baked at a lower temperature, Basque with a burnt top from a hot oven, and no-bake, set with gelatin. In every style, the matcha is mixed into the cream cheese batter.

Baked and Basque

A baked cheesecake has a biscuit base and is baked slowly at a lower temperature. The recipe from Senbird Tea, a US tea company, bakes the base at 165°C for 10 minutes, then lowers the oven to 150°C and bakes the cake for 55 to 65 minutes in a water bath. The recipe from Kusmi Tea, a French tea company, also bakes at 150°C, for 50 to 60 minutes.

Basque cheesecake is known as the cheesecake of La Viña, a bar in San Sebastián, Spain. The city’s tourism office names La Viña as the place where this cheesecake was invented, and describes it as a family bar opened in 1959 whose cheesecake has become a classic of the Old Town. The La Viña recipe on the same tourism office page uses no base: the batter goes into a tin lined with dampened baking paper and is baked at 210°C for about 40 minutes.

Source: San Sebastián Turismoa, “Por qué la ‘San Sebastian cheesecake’ conquista el mundo” (in Spanish) https://www.sansebastianturismoa.eus/es/blog/comer-beber/4775-por-que-la-san-sebastian-cheesecake-conquista-el-mundo

The recipe on that page serves 10 to 12: 1kg cream cheese, 7 eggs, 400g sugar, 1.5 tablespoons flour and 500ml cream. It is rested for at least 4 hours after baking, and the page says the baking paper removes the need for a biscuit or pastry base.

No-bake

A no-bake cheesecake is set in the refrigerator with gelatin dissolved into the cream cheese. The recipe from Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), a Canadian dairy farmers’ organisation, bakes only the base, at 160°C for 10 minutes, and chills the unbaked filling for at least 4 hours (ideally overnight). It uses no eggs, so the egg cooking temperatures below do not apply.

Matcha amounts in official recipes

In 4 official recipes that give both the matcha and the cream cheese in grams, matcha was about 1.3 to 3% of the cream cheese. In the 3 that give a number of servings, that works out to about 1.5 to 3g per slice, about the same as or a little less than the 2 to 3g used in one hot matcha latte.

4 recipes compared

The percentages are our calculation: the weight of matcha divided by the weight of cream cheese. Some recipes give matcha by volume. Kikkoman’s UK site uses 1 tablespoon of matcha for 250g cream cheese, and Yunomi, a Japanese tea retailer, uses 1 teaspoon for 120g. The weight of a spoonful of matcha changes with how it is sifted, so these are not in the table.

Changing the strength layer by layer

The DFC recipe splits the batter into 2 bowls, mixes 5g of matcha into one and 10g into the other, and layers a lighter and a more intense layer. If the batter is split in half, the lighter layer is about 2% and the intense layer about 4% (our calculation). Because one cake holds 2 strengths, it also works as a test for how much bitterness you want (our suggestion).

Source: Dairy Farmers of Canada, “Matcha Cheesecake” https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/node/44031

The filling in this recipe is 1 sachet of powdered gelatin (7g), 60ml water, 500g room-temperature cream cheese, 150g sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 5g matcha for the lighter layer and 10g matcha for the intense layer.

Setting your shop’s standard (our approach)

All 4 recipes, baked, Basque and no-bake, fall within about 1.3 to 3%. Start by baking one cake at around 2%, then move up or down in 1% steps based on colour and bitterness. That lets you set your shop’s amount with few test bakes. Matcha ratios across other sweets are compared in Matcha for Baking.

Mixing matcha in without lumps

The official recipes use 3 steps: disperse the matcha in the sugar, sift it and make a paste with a little liquid, and strain the batter. Cream cheese batter is heavy, and matcha added straight in tends to leave specks.

Disperse in sugar, then beat

The ICE recipe uses a whisk to disperse the matcha through the sugar and break up any clumps, then beats that sugar with the cream cheese. At the end, the batter goes through a sieve to remove any lumps of cream cheese that did not mix in.

Sift and make a paste

Senbird Tea calls sifting the matcha a critical step. It whisks the sifted matcha with 2 tablespoons of the cream into a paste, then adds the rest of the cream and mixes it into the batter. Kusmi Tea also says to sift the matcha without exception, to avoid small pockets of bitter powder.

Bring the cream cheese to room temperature

Senbird Tea says cold cream cheese forms lumps that are nearly impossible to mix in, and tells you to take the cream cheese, eggs and cream out of the refrigerator at least 2 hours before starting. Kusmi Tea says at least 30 minutes, and DFC also uses room-temperature cream cheese.

Baking and matcha’s colour

The dark colour of a Basque cheesecake is on the surface. The green inside depends on the colour of the matcha before baking and on the light after baking. How matcha changes colour is covered in Matcha for Baking.

Temperature inside and matcha’s colour

In a 2022 study that heated green tea powder, the powder clearly changed from green to yellow when it reached about 97 to 114°C. ICE’s Basque cheesecake is done when a thermometer shows the centre at about 71°C (160°F). The surface is exposed directly to the hot oven, and the centre is done at a lower temperature. The study heated powder alone in a microwave, under different conditions, so test the inside colour in your own oven.

Check the matcha’s colour before baking

Senbird Tea writes that matcha that has turned yellowish-brown gives a dull colour and a stale, bitter taste. Kusmi Tea also says good matcha gives an intense colour. The more you want the cheesecake to look green, the more it matters to use freshly opened matcha with a bright colour.

Showcase lights

Yamamasa Koyamaen, a matcha company in Kyoto, explains that matcha fades in light, and that a matcha cake displayed under showcase lights for a long time loses its colour. A cut face exposes more surface to the light, so display only what you will sell that day (our suggestion).

Heating and cooling

For baked and Basque cheesecakes, which contain eggs, measure the centre temperature against the 71°C (160°F) that the US FDA recommends for dishes containing eggs, and cool within set times after baking. We did not find a standard specific to cheesecake in the official documents we checked.

Centre temperature

The FDA’s egg safety page says casseroles and other dishes containing eggs should be cooked to 160°F (about 71°C), checked with a food thermometer. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) manual on hygiene for large-scale cooking facilities says to confirm and record that the centre of heated food reaches 75°C for at least 1 minute. This manual applies to facilities that serve the same menu to 300 or more people at a time, or 750 or more a day.

A Basque cheesecake is left soft in the centre, so do not judge by baking time alone. Check with a thermometer in the centre (our suggestion).

Cooling speed

The FDA Food Code (a model hygiene code for US food businesses) says cooked food that needs refrigeration must be cooled from 57°C to 21°C within 2 hours, and from 57°C to 5°C or below within a total of 6 hours. The MHLW manual says to aim to bring the centre down to around 20°C within 30 minutes (or around 10°C within 60 minutes), and to record the times cooling starts and ends.

In the official recipes, Senbird Tea cools the cake in the oven for 1 hour, and ICE cools it at room temperature for at least 2 hours, before refrigerating. These are home recipes, so in a shop, check with a thermometer that cooling stays within the authorities’ times.

Refrigeration and shelf life

We did not find any official document that gives a number of days for cheesecake, so set a shorter period in your shop based on the US Food Code’s upper limit (a maximum of 7 days at 5°C or below), and record it. Of the recipes we compared, only Senbird Tea gives a number of days, for home use.

Refrigeration temperature

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) recommends refrigerating food containing eggs below 4°C, and the Food Code holds cold food at 5°C or below. The MHLW manual says food not served within 30 minutes of cooking should be kept at 10°C or below until served. The FDA says cooked egg dishes should not be left out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours, or more than 1 hour when it is above 32°C (90°F).

Date marking

The Food Code says refrigerated food made in a shop and kept for more than 24 hours must be marked with the date by which it is eaten, sold or discarded, for a maximum of 7 days at 5°C or below, counting the day it was made as day 1. The FDA’s consumer page advises using leftover cooked egg dishes within 3 to 4 days. Senbird Tea says, for home use, that the cheesecake lasts 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container or tightly wrapped, but this is not written as a shop standard. 7 days is an upper limit, so also check the labels of the cream cheese and cream you use when setting your shop’s number of days. Chilling and date marking for a cold dessert made with eggs are also covered in Matcha Tiramisu.

Allergens and gelatin

Matcha cheesecake usually contains milk, egg and wheat, and for no-bake, also check where the gelatin comes from. Cream cheese and cream contain milk, the flour in the batter and the biscuit base contain wheat, and baked and Basque cheesecakes contain egg.

Allergen labelling

The La Viña recipe has no base, but the batter contains 1.5 tablespoons of flour. DFC’s no-bake cheesecake uses no eggs, but its base uses graham crackers (wholemeal wheat biscuits). No base does not mean no wheat, and not baking eggs does not mean no egg, so check each ingredient. The allergens that must be declared in Singapore, Thailand, the US and Japan are in the table in Matcha Tiramisu.

Gelatin and halal

The DFC recipe uses 7g of gelatin for 500g of cream cheese. In the 4 ingredient categories that MUIS sets out in its certification conditions for food shops (Eating Establishment), gelatin, like flavourings, is in the highest-risk category, High, and needs a halal certificate from MUIS or a body MUIS recognises. Cheese and dairy products, including cream cheese, are Medium-High, which needs a questionnaire and, if necessary, a MUIS-recognised certificate or a laboratory analysis report. How certification works and which documents to ask suppliers for are covered in Halal Matcha.

Matching grade and cost per slice

A slice of matcha cheesecake uses about 1.5 to 3g of matcha, about the same as or less than the 2 to 3g in one hot matcha latte, so moving up a grade does not make a large difference per slice (our calculation). Think about the grade separately for baked and unbaked cheesecakes.

Which grade

Yamamasa Koyamaen suggests processing grades up to its No. 1 for baked doughs, and drinking grades for uses such as cream that bring out the aroma as it is. Among the cheesecake recipes, Senbird Tea recommends culinary grade and ICE uses ceremonial grade, so there is no fixed grade. A no-bake cheesecake shows the matcha’s aroma and colour as they are, so starting with a drinking grade makes the difference easier to see (our approach). What the grades mean is covered in Matcha Grades.

Working out the matcha cost per slice

Matcha cost per slice = buying price per 1kg ÷ 1,000 × grams of matcha per cake ÷ number of slices. For the official recipes that give a number of servings, the matcha per slice is as follows (our calculation).

If you dust matcha on top, weigh that too and add it. Matcha per latte is compared in How to Make a Hot Matcha Latte. Besides matcha, include cream cheese, eggs, cream, sugar, the base and packaging in the cost, plus what you throw away unsold within the shelf life you set. How matcha prices are set is covered in Matcha Price, and recipes for a cold dessert that uses the same matcha in Matcha Ice Cream.

Omakase Matcha supplies matcha from Uji, Yame, Shizuoka, Kagoshima and Miyazaki, with orders from 1kg and up to 3 samples. To compare colour and bitterness in test cheesecakes, request matcha from Samples.

Sources

• San Sebastián Turismoa, “Por qué la ‘San Sebastian cheesecake’ conquista el mundo” (in Spanish) https://www.sansebastianturismoa.eus/es/blog/comer-beber/4775-por-que-la-san-sebastian-cheesecake-conquista-el-mundo
• San Sebastián Turismoa, “Bar La Viña” (in French) https://sansebastianturismoa.eus/fr/establecimientos/la-vina-bar-3/
• Institute of Culinary Education, “Matcha Basque Cheesecake” https://www.ice.edu/blog/make-matcha-basque-cheesecake-recipe-right-now-really
• Senbird Tea, “Matcha Green Tea Cheesecake Recipe” https://senbirdtea.com/blogs/recipes/a-matcha-green-tea-cheesecake-recipe-worth-celebrating
• Kusmi Tea, “Matcha cheesecake: the recipe” https://www.kusmitea.com/en/blogs/tea/matcha-cheesecake-the-recipe
• Dairy Farmers of Canada, “Matcha Cheesecake” https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/node/44031
• Kikkoman UK, “Matcha cheesecake with fruity gems” https://www.kikkoman.co.uk/recipes/detail/matcha-cheesecake-with-fruity-gems
• Yunomi.life, “Matcha Cheesecake Recipe” https://yunomi.life/en-gb/blogs/tea-info/matcha-cheesecake-recipe
• Wang et al., “The Effect of Microwave Radiation on the Green Color Loss of Green Tea Powder,” Foods (2022) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9407078/
• Yamamasa Koyamaen, “加工用抹茶・他パウダー（業務用・製菓用）” (Matcha and other powders for processing, in Japanese) https://www.yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp/product/for-processing.html
• Yamamasa Koyamaen, “抹茶の取扱い” (Handling matcha, in Japanese) https://www.yamamasa-koyamaen.co.jp/matcha/basic/handling.html
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “What You Need to Know About Egg Safety” https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/what-you-need-know-about-egg-safety
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “FDA Food Code 2022” https://www.fda.gov/media/164194/download
• Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “大量調理施設衛生管理マニュアル” (Hygiene manual for large-scale cooking facilities, last revised 16 June 2017, in Japanese) https://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-11130500-Shokuhinanzenbu/0000168026.pdf
• Singapore Food Agency, “Are Raw Eggs Safe to Eat?” https://www.sfa.gov.sg/food-safety-tips/food-risk-concerns/risk-at-a-glance/raw-eggs
• MUIS, “Halal Certification Conditions: Eating Establishment Scheme (Category 1) Version 4.2” https://go.gov.sg/hcc-eec1-v4-2