There was a time when cheesecakes used to intimidate me to no end. Making them I mean,I did just fine eating them ! Maybe It had to do with the exhaustive list of dos and donts that accompany most recipes.
Thats no longer the case thanks to the fussfree Burnt Basque cheesecake ( try it out if you havent !) and this easy peasy ( dare i say fool proof ?)recipe that gives a great all-be-it more classic cheesecake. But I always find the Japanese cheesecake very fascinating. They are so fluffy and jiggly and seem like sponge cake + cheesecake rolled into one!
Japanese cheesecake is also called cotton cheesecake or cloud cheesecake and these aliases alone let out the secret of the texture of these soooper soft cakes . They have this wiggle when you shake the plate . So oddly satisfying ! They also are called soufflé cheesecakes because of the manner of their preparation – beating egg whites , incorporating the yolks and then baking in a water bath. Plus they do rise a lot like a souffle and are just as light and airy.
And these cheesecakes have a lot less cream cheese than others . And less sugar so each bite is a lot less sweet compared to a usual cheesecake . I added cinnamon to the batter because I just felt like it . And it made the cheesecake more season appropriate but just skip it to make this a plain cheesecake.
I know “melt in your mouth ” is a cliche but in this case…..
Cinnamon Japanese cheesecake
Ingredients
- 160 grams or about 2/3 cup cream cheese
- 60 ml or 1/4 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 42 grams or 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 30 grams or 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon corn flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 50 grams or 1/4 cup castor or granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 120 C / 250 F.
- Prepare a 6 inch round pan . Butter the pan well and line the bottom with parchment . Also , line the side with a strip of parchment at least 2 inches higher than your pan. This is optional but makes it easier and is needed if your pan is less than 3 inches in height.
- Put about 3 cups of water to boil . You will need this for the water bath
- Separate your eggs into yolks and whites
- In a saucepan , measure out your cream cheese , butter and milk . You can do this in a double boiler ( ingredients in a bowl and the bowl placed over a saucepan with some water) to be extra careful.
- On low heat , stir or whisk well until its all melted and smooth
- Take off heat , cool for a minute . Whisk in the yolks , one at a time or bit by bit.
- Whisk in the vanilla.
- Add or sift the flours and cinnamon.
- Whisk until smooth
- In another bowl, Beat the egg whites until frothy
- Continue beating while adding the sugar slowly ( or in 3-4 additions)
- Beat until you have firm peaks and the egg whites (meringue ) don't move when you upturn the bowl
- Whisk in about 1/3 rd of the meringue into the earlier made mixture of other ingredients .
- Fold in or gently whisk in the remaining meringue in 2 additions until the mixture is uniformly coloured (no streaks of white)
- Pour into the prepared pan and run a knife through the batter ( to remove any air pockets)
- Place this pan in a bigger pan . Pour the boiling water into the bigger pan so that it is at the level of at least half the height of your smaller pan . This is your water bath (Bainmarie)
- Place this water bath (with the cheesecake pan ) into the oven and bake at 120 C / 350 F for 55 to 60 minutes.
- Switch off the oven , and keep the door open for about 10 minutes. Then remove the water bath from the oven and the cheesecake pan from the water bath. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes
- Gently unmold the cheesecake by first removing the side parchment and then upturning onto a plate or your hand. Remove bottom parchment and place straight side up on a serving plate
- Serve warm or chill for 1-2 hours !
Notes
So like I said , the cinnamon was an after thought but the flavour was pretty good. You know what they say about sugar and spice ? In this cinnamon japanese cheesecake atleast , they go together pretty nice !