Montchis Cakes: the best cheesecake you can order at home?
At Traveler.es we are cheesecake fans . We have traveled the country in search of the best, we have taught you how to prepare them at home and, every time we find out about one that is really worth it, we have to come running to tell you about it. And precisely for this reason we are here today, because within the tartil universe, we have found a true jewel: a creamy, flavorful cheesecake , where each ingredient and preparation process has been highly selected so that you fall in love with love at first bite.
They are the Montchis Cakes , a true taste scandal that you have to try right now. do where do they come from? What makes them so special? And the most important, how can we test them? We talked to its creator, Javier Montes , which has revealed to us how this universe was born and how it is growing.
Smells from the photo...
Javier didn't start making cheesecakes out of nowhere one day. He studied at the Luis Irizar Cooking School in San Sebastian and his career in restaurants has been extensive. At the age of 18 he went to work abroad and since then he has not stopped. restaurants of Switzerland, France, Belgium and across the pond (in Peru or Argentina ) have been some of his fates, but he never forgot his beginnings. “ I worked in Zuberoa and it was there that I gradually acquired the notion of the importance of a cheesecake ”, he explains to Traveler.es.
Before the pandemic broke out, he had planned to ride an ecovillage project in La Vera but, like everyone else, he stayed locked up. The best therapy? Cook. But beyond opting for the salty world, he did it for the sweet and, in this case, for a cheesecake . Then he remembered the recipe that one day his partner and friend shared with him Carlos Hernández del Río, now chef at ConSentido in Salamanca . "In his day he passed it on to me and from there I went making variants until I arrived at my own recipe," he points out. “I cooked it with what I had at home, I uploaded it to Instagram and I didn't even eat it. I sold it, and with what I got from that first one, I bought to make more... Thus until today, when we have sold almost 6,000 cakes ”, He shares and continues:“ in the most bitter moment of the year, we were looking to sweeten ourselves ".
The creamy surprise inside
They were born Montchis Cheesecakes . "Cheesecake is no longer a fashionable product, but something that is here to stay," he emphasizes. What started with a timid sale, soon became quite a claim. He began to prepare them at home, but as the orders grew he had to change to a workshop . “When we had sold about 100 cakes, we set up an Instagram, we created a brand image, a website... And word of mouth did the rest. We have been growing organically, simply betting on the product".
What he has achieved is, betting on a single product, make it a benchmark . His cheesecakes are one of those with a perfect finish, which hides a surprise inside, a brutal creaminess. “We use some cheeses that are the bomb, we have been improving the formula to maintain that sponginess and creaminess in the center ”, he explains.
And if the recipe is important, even more so the raw material with which to make it . “You can have the best recipe in the world, but if you don't control what you use, it won't come out. To formulate a good cheesecake you have to know the cheeses very well beforehand. You have to know how to work with its proportions of fat and water...”, he explains. “ We work with cream cheese and fresh cheeses, but always with dairy rennet, which allow us to have a creaminess, but always keeping notes of cheese and grass. ". The result? A practically perfect balance. It is one of those that taste like cheese and have its optimum point of sweetness . “We put very little sugar, only 10% based on the total volume of the cake . We sweeten it, but we don't kill the rest of the flavors."
Javier Montes, creator of Montchis Cakes
There is more, because in addition to the cheesecake, there is also they have another blue cheese . "We use Savel de Airas Moniz, a Galician blue cheese from Jersey cows that allows us to that the taste is not very invasive, but it does taste strong . It is not as pungent and spicy as a Cabrales, but it maintains notes of grass (these cows graze at altitude and the higher the grass, the better)”, Javier tells us.
They also give you the possibility of preparing your own Montchis at home, with a DIY cake . "It is an interactive proposal in which the client can be part of the process," says Montes. For it You get the cookie for the bottom, the liquid mixture of cheeses, a mold and the instructions to make it just as they do. . It is worth mentioning that all the cakes have the option of being prepared for coeliacs.
What will come next? They are in the process of incorporating keto cakes (special to be able to eat them in this diet in which they change the sweetener). In addition, they are going to launch a cake of cheese with yuzu . "Japanese citrus gives it a very fresh touch and as we grow more, we will incorporate other possibilities," shares Javier.
Now that we have created a tremendous desire for you to ask for it, how to do it? They are ordered through their website and accept orders with a minimum of 24 hours in advance. They deliver them from Wednesday to Saturday inside the M-40 and soon they will start working with delivery platforms . The cheesecakes are sold in two sizes: medium, 1.5 kilos (32 euros); small, 1 kilo (21 euros). The same with the blue cheese (medium 35 euros / small 23 euros) . The best? That keep in the fridge for 4-5 days , although once you receive them, resisting them is very complicated.
His philosophy is that it be a cake available to everyone . For this reason, they have created a Horeca channel that will allow the cake to be sold in restaurants. "Having created a corporate identity that says a lot about us and has its vibe, we have made the leap to restaurants". But it will not be anywhere, because if something characterizes them, it is by choosing places that are in tune with their own philosophy "We have decided to work with places that have their own personality and that, in some way, are emblematic", clarifies Javier. For the moment, the chosen ones have been La Mina Tavern, in Chamberí and the Double Brewery , both traditional places that pamper the product, just as they do with cakes.
Beyond the dessert moment in restaurants, they also sell the Montchis in quava , the artisan cheese space of Martín Afinador and, shortly, in the gourmet shops of Doña Tomasa, both in Madrid and in Cantabria.
Are we possibly before the best cheesecake you can order at home ? We don't doubt it for a second.