Recipe: Easter baking - Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

I'm ever amazed by how the Japanese just has a knack for taking everything that the rest of the world does, and making it look better, work better and taste better.

The ingredients are simple: cream cheese, cake flour, eggs, fresh milk, sugar. Simple ingredients. Extraordinary results. Hours later, I reap what I had sowed earlier on: a billowy-soft, moist cheesecake, just the way the Japanese makes them (albeit mine is uglier, not bad for a first attempt lah).

I had been wanting to make this for a long time now. Just so happened, as I was on a hunt for baking websites/blogs, I came across Sprinkle Bakes! My oh my, why hadn't I seen this site before. Beautiful pictures, beautiful works of gastronomical art. *sings* Thank God I found you, I was lost, lost without you...

So credits to Sprinkle Bakes for the recipe, and do check out the rest of the author/artist/baker-extraordinaire's website for more pretty recipes!

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Recipe adapted from Diana's Desserts

Yield: One 8" cheesecake

Note:  Do not substitute homemade cake flour (regular flour mixed with cornstarch) for this recipe.

9 oz. cream cheese (one 8 oz. brick plus 1 oz. of another brick)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup fresh, whole milk

6 eggs, room temperature - whites and yolks separated

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup extra fine granulated sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp. cake flour

3 tbsp. corn starch                                 

Melt cream cheese, butter and milk in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Stir occasionally to break up cream cheese and combine the ingredients.  Remove bowl from heat and allow to cool. Mixture will be thick.  If lumpy, use a whisk to vigorously beat the mixture until smooth. Set aside.

When mixture has cooled, fold in the egg yolks, flour and corn starch.  Fold until thoroughly incorporated.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy.  Add the cream of tartar and mix again, gradually adding the extra-fine sugar a little at a time until soft peaks form.  Note: Soft peaks:  mixture should be white and opaque, and meringue will fall onto itself when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.

Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold together until well incorporated.  

Pour into an 8-inch round spring-form pan that has been lightly greased and lined (sides and bottom) with parchment paper.  Place a piece of aluminum foil over the top of the cake so it does not brown.

Bake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes.  When timer sounds, bake for an additional 10-15 minutes with the oven door cracked.

Carefully remove pan from water bath and let stand until cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.  Remove spring-form ring and serve.

Notes:  

• Substitutions are not recommended for this recipe.  Be sure to use whole milk, cake flour and extra-fine sugar.  If you can't find extra-fine sugar, grind regular sugar finer in a food processor.  
• One tablespoon of lemon juice may be added to the cooled cheese/butter/milk mixture for flavor.
• Sprinkle matcha green tea on finished cake, or top with fresh fruit for serving.

Soft peaks! So proud of myself, first attempt at manual whipping. Boy, my arms hurt, buckets of sweat dripped. But it was worth it. :)

Oh lighter than air Japanese cheesecake, I will make you again, and when I do, you'd look so much prettier. I P.R.O.M.I.S.E.