Sunday, October 26, 2008

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake


Actually this recipe has been on my "must-do" list for the longest time, yet I've always have some other things that will crop up and stop me from baking this. It could also be some of the not-so-successful reviews that I read about this recipe that made me 'procastinate' and hesitate to try it. But I'm very glad that I finally baked it today, as it turned out to be my almost-perfect baked cheesecake!

I followed closely to one of the reviewers' comments that gave a very clear step-by-step preparation, and it works well!



Ingredients/ Method

140g fine sugar
6 eggs, separated
1/4tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
2 tbsp lemon juice
grated lemon zest (optional)
60g cake flour/ superfine flour (i accidentally used self-raising flour)
20g cornflour
1/4tsp salt (again, i accidentally omitted)

1) Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double-boiler. Cool the mixture.
2) Sift the cream cheese to avoid lumps and to achieve smooth texture.
3) Add in lemon juice and egg yolks using wire whisk, mix well.
4) Add in flour and corn flour into the cream cheese mixture, a little at a time, until well mixed.
5) In a separate bowl, beat the egg white till foamy, then slowly add in cream of tartar.
6) When egg white mixture reaches soft peak, add in sugar slowly and continue to beat until you reach stiff peak.
7) Take 1/4 egg white mixture and add into cream cheese mixture, mix well.
8) Fold the remaining egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture, do not overmix.
9) Pour mixture in 8' cake tin and lined the bottom and side with baking paper.
10) Bake at 160 deg C for 1 hour 20 min in water bath. (PS. The last 10 mins, I switch to bottom heat only, to prevent the cake top from over-brown.)

The cake lives up to its name - cottony, soft. I've got rave feedbacks and for once, I gave myself a 'band 1' pass! Definitely a keeper!



7 comments:

Hooney said...

Good for you! A "band 1" work! I have to try it some time but I dont understand how you bake it in water bath.

quizzine said...

By water bath, just put the cake tin in another tray with water when baking. Let me know when u try out yours ;-)

Aimei said...

This looks so soft and cottony!

Jermaine said...

Hello! I think you mean "sift the flour", not "sift the cream cheese" :)

quizzine said...

Hi jermaine,
I really sift the cream cheese mixture as there was some small lumps even after melting them.
Of course, the flour has to be sifted as well.

Passionate About Baking said...

Hi quizzine,
I just realised you also made the japanese cotton cheesecake! I made mine the first time last week! It was really good too! Yours look very nice too! I might also want to try it one day. The top is so flat, so nice. :p

quizzine said...

Hi pab, as usual, 'baked-minds' think alike! U shld try this out if you like those cotton soft cheesecake that you get from the bakery. I'll try out yours too!