Japanese Cheesecake

Yahoo, I finally made it! This was my third try of baking this very soft and yummy cheesecake.   I know the appearance is not the usual that you see in bake shop like the top of the cake is golden brown.  It was perfect to me because it did not cracked!! What about the taste? It was really really cheesecake.  My hubby ate 2 slices in less than a minute hi hi.

On my first try, I didn’t have cornstarch and my egg white mixture isn’t good.  The second time I made it was just a few days ago.  My cake cracked!  Hmm, in the middle of baking, I pulled out the cake from the oven cos I saw the top was already turning brown and might end up like burned on top.  I should have covered the cake pan with foil beforehand.  As a result, there was a sudden change in temperature and that’s one of the reason why it cracked.  Other reason might be, I over-beat the batter mixture with cream cheese-butter-milk with flour-cornstarch-lemon juice-yolk mixture.  Though it cracked in fairness it tasted really good!


Ingredients:

• 3 egg white
• 3 egg yolk
• 125g cream cheese
• 1 oz butter
• 1.5 fl oz fresh milk
• 1 oz cake flour
• 1/2 oz cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 2.5 oz granulated sugar

Procedure:

1. Prepare two dry bowl.  Separate cold egg white and yolk.  Cover the two bowl with plastic and set aside at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes.
2. Prepare a broiler.  Melt butter, cream cheese and milk.  Mix well.  Set aside to cool.
3. Grease 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom and side of the pan with grease proof baking paper or parchment paper.  (I only lightly greased the bottom and sides of cake pan).
4. Pre-heat oven at 160C or 325F.
5. In bowl of melted cream cheese mixture, add the flour, cornstarch, salt and lemon juice.  Mix with hand mixer.  Lastly add the yolk and mix again.  Do not over mix the batter.  Set aside.
6. In bowl of egg white add the cream of tartar.  Using electric mixer, whisk the egg white until foamy.  Add sugar gradually until soft peak form.  Set aside.
7. Go back to cream cheese with flour mixture.  Add 1/3 of egg white mixture and mix well.  Add the remaining egg white mixture then cut and fold.
8. Pour into the prepared 8-inch cake pan, cover the pan with foil.  Prepare another larger pan and pour the reserve hot water from broiler just halfway up from the cake pan.  Place the cake pan over the larger pan with hot water.
9. Bake cheesecake in water bath for 30 minutes.  After baking time, place a wooden spatula at the door of the oven (refer to photo) for 15 minutes, set timer.
10. Pull out the cake pan carefully from oven.  Let it cool completely then place a serving plate on top of the cheesecake pan and carefully turn over for the cake to release.

My cheesecake was inspired by Diana’s dessert.   There's a big chance that I would try to bake other kind of cheesecake! :-)