Japanese cheese cake is yet another wonderful yoshoku, or Western-influenced, dish that evolved with the introduction of foreign imports like dairy cream cheese. Many countries have their own rendition of cheesecake; most are basically custards that are thickened with eggs and sweetened with honey or sugar. The resulting texture is very rich, creamy and dense.
Unlike those types, Japanese cheese cake is light and airy with an almost soufflé-like texture. The reason for that is the basic recipe is somewhat similar to a soufflé. It uses whipped egg whites as the leavening agent, little to no flour and only a little cream cheese. With less flour, sugar, eggs and cream cheese than the American version, the Japanese cheese cake has fewer calories and less fat and carbohydrates. (I haven’t actually done the nutritional calculations since it seems like an obvious deduction.)
If you’re expecting a dessert that resembles an American-style cheesecake, you will be disappointed—or pleasantly surprised. It needs no added flourishes, but if you feel so compelled, you can sprinkle on some powdered sugar, fresh berries or a drizzle of chocolate sauce. I've seen the same batter used to make large cupcakes, too.
Japanese Cheese Cake
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup baker’s sugar (superfine), divided use
¼ tsp. salt
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
½ tsp. cream of tartar
¼ cup cake flour
¼ cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
boiling water
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with non-stick cooking spray, and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat cream cheese until softened. Continue beating and add 1/4 cup sugar gradually. Slowly add milk. Then, add egg yolks, salt, flour, cornstarch and lemon juice; beat until smooth.
In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar and ¼ cup sugar and whip until soft peaks form. Add some of the whipped egg whites to the cream cheese mixture and blend (this step is called “lightening the batter.”) Then, carefully fold in the remaining whipped egg whites into the batter.
Pour this into the prepared cake pan. Place this pan into a larger baking pan and then put both of them into the middle oven rack. Into the larger pan, pour in boiling water from a kettle until the water level comes up to the halfway point of the cake pan. (this is called a bain marie or water bath.) Do not get water into the cake batter. The cake will rise above the edge but not fall over.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (remember this Japanese version is more like a cake than a custard.) Turn off the oven and let the cake cool gradually for about an hour, opening the door ajar after the first 15 minutes. The cake will settle quite a bit after it cools.
Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 |
Every evening, on the way home from office, I will think and ponder what cakes or pastries that I will bake after my dinner. Then I'll try to recall what else is left in the fridge or the cabinet that might expire soon. My list of to-bake are just endless! There are so many items I want to try, but just didn't have the time to do it. Yesterday evening, I decided to use my cream cheese. Even deciding on the recipe for cream cheese was difficult. Cannot be too difficult to bake, cannot take up too much as I only have an evening of time...blah blah...
Finally, I settled on Alex Goh's Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. The result was just perfect! Too good to be true! My family just love it! I shall try different flavours in the next few days! :)
Ah-ha! It's Rayquaza! He came to see if my Japanese Cotton Cheesecake is good enough to be considered "Japanese"!
Post Mortem: For the benefits of those who are interested to know what is water-bake, here is a picture for sharing. I hope this is clearer now.
As promised, here is the recipe from Alex Goh's "Fantastic Cheesecake".
Ingredients:
(A) 160g Cream Cheese, 25g Butter, 120g Milk
(B) 40g Flour, 30g Cornflour
(C) 4 Egg yolks
(D) 4 Egg whites, 1/8tsp Cream of Tartar, 100g Sugar, pinch of Salt
Method:
1. Grease and line the bottom of two 20-cm oval pans. Wrap outside of the pans in foil.
2. Place (A) in mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until thick. Remove it from double-boiler.
3. Add (B) and mix until well combined. Add (C) and mix until well blended.
4. Whip the egg whites in (D) until foamy. Then add the remaining (D). Continue whipping until soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step (3).
5. Pour the cheese filling onto the prepared oval pans. Bake in water bath at 160C for 40-45 minutes or until well incorporated.
6. Remove cake from the oven. Remove the cake from the mould immediately. Set aside to cool.
Finally, I settled on Alex Goh's Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. The result was just perfect! Too good to be true! My family just love it! I shall try different flavours in the next few days! :)
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Look who is hiding behind??
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Ah-ha! It's Rayquaza! He came to see if my Japanese Cotton Cheesecake is good enough to be considered "Japanese"!
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Post Mortem: For the benefits of those who are interested to know what is water-bake, here is a picture for sharing. I hope this is clearer now.
As promised, here is the recipe from Alex Goh's "Fantastic Cheesecake".
Ingredients:
(A) 160g Cream Cheese, 25g Butter, 120g Milk
(B) 40g Flour, 30g Cornflour
(C) 4 Egg yolks
(D) 4 Egg whites, 1/8tsp Cream of Tartar, 100g Sugar, pinch of Salt
Method:
1. Grease and line the bottom of two 20-cm oval pans. Wrap outside of the pans in foil.
2. Place (A) in mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until thick. Remove it from double-boiler.
3. Add (B) and mix until well combined. Add (C) and mix until well blended.
4. Whip the egg whites in (D) until foamy. Then add the remaining (D). Continue whipping until soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step (3).
5. Pour the cheese filling onto the prepared oval pans. Bake in water bath at 160C for 40-45 minutes or until well incorporated.
6. Remove cake from the oven. Remove the cake from the mould immediately. Set aside to cool.
Japanese Cotton Cheesecake with Fresh Fruit Topping
And the night before she left, we had a simple Mother's Day celebration at PhongMun Restaurant Sg. Siput.
Ate 6 dishes and a cheesecake for dessert.
I knew she loves fruits, and cakes with fruits will be a lovely choice for her. And she has told me before she don't like canned peaches. I don't want to make a vanilla sponge to go with the fruits, that will be so ordinary. So, I thought and thought, what should I do for the base? Oreo Crust with no bake oreo cheesecake, or oreo crust with baked cheesecake, or sponge (Duh!!!! ). Baked or no baked oreo cheesecake will be too heavy for Mike's family who are not fond of desserts right after meals. And then I saw on Blessed Homemaker's , she made a Japanese Cheesecake. Yeah, that type of cheesecake will not be heavy, but nice enough not be boring. So, I took out my favourite cheesecake cookbook and tadah!!! There is the recipe and I have everything on hand.
Adapted from Alex Goh's Fantastic Cheesecake.
I didn't want to do it in 2 ovals, so I only made 75% of it and did it in a 8 inch round. I got a 2.5inch cake in the middle and a 2 inch on the sides and that's after it has shrunk. Oh yes, this cake will shrink, Alex said it will and it did, so don't fret about it being shorter than when it was fresh out from the oven.
Japanese Cotton Cheesecake Recipe
125gm cream cheese
90ml milk
15gm butter
30gm flour
24gm cornstarch
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
75gm sugar
Topping:
1/2 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water
150ml whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
Mixed fresh fruits, mango, strawberries, kiwifruit and blueberries1 Tbsp instant jelly
100ml water
1 tbsp sugar
1. In a heavy saucepan, cook cream cheese, milk and butter until thick and smooth. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven at 160C. Boil some water.
3. After the cheese mixture has turned warm and mix in both flours. Stir with a whisk until smooth.
4. Put egg yolks into the cheese mixture and stir until well combined.
5. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks, add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff (soft droopy peak that will hold its form).
6. Fold 1/4 of egg whites into cheese mixture, and then another 1/4 of the egg whites.7. Pour the cheese mixture into the remaining egg whites and fold.
8. Pour batter into a lined pan (you can just line the base and grease the sides, it's not a must to line the sides as well.Springform or regular pan will be fine, but spring form's base must be wrapped.)
9. Place cake pan into a slightly bigger, shallower pan. Fill the bigger pan with boiling water and put in oven to bake at 150C for 45 minutes.
10. Unmould cake immediately upon removal from oven, if not, the cake will shrink a lot. (If you're using a regular pan you can release the sides by running a knife between the cake and pan, and leave the cake in the pan to cool down).
To make topping
1. Put water into a heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin onto water. Wait for 2 minutes. Either heat it by double boiling or zap it in the microwave on high for 25 seconds. Leave gelatin mixture to cool down totally.2. Freeze mixing bowl and beaters for 5 minutes. Remove mixing bowl and pour in cold whipping cream.
3. Beat whipping cream until visible streams can be seen. Pour in cooled gelatin mixture and sugar and beat until stiff peaks. Do not overbeat.
4. Mound whipping cream onto cooled cake. Top with diced mixed fruits. Chill cake in freezer for 10 minutes while you make the jelly topping.
5. Put water and sugar into a small saucepan, on medium heat, bring to a boil. Put in instant jelly powder and stir until fully dissolved. 6. Remove cake from freezer and glaze fruits with instant jelly solution. The jelly will firm up upon contact with the cold fruits.
7. Return cake to fridge and chill for another 2 hours before serving.
Verdict: Mother in Law was happy to see the cake and took pictures of it. She loved the cake, saying that it was cheezy but light. The cream with fruits add a nice touch to it. Everybody who ate this cake, although full with rice, still found this cake to be nice. Hehehe... sometimes when things only seem tasty when you are hungry, it might not be tasty at all, just because you are hungry. But when things still seem tasty when you are full, you can guess how nice it is :)
Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake
265ml UHT Fresh milk
85g Butter
250g Cheese cream
40g Plain flour
35g Corn flour
7 nos Egg yolks
7nos Egg whites
3/4 tsp Cream of tar tar
125g Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla flavour
Method:
- Boil milk and butter, lower fire than add in cheese cream, use hand whisk to stir till smooth. Add in plain flour and corn flour mix well. And finally add in egg yolks and vanilla flavour, mix cheese cream mixture till thick and transfer to large bowl and leave to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites, cream of tar tar and sugar till peak form. Use a spatula to fold egg whites in two batches to cheese cream mixture.
- Pour cheese cream mixture to a lined 9" square cake tin and steam bake at 150C for about one hour 15 mins.
265ml UHT Fresh milk
85g Butter
250g Cheese cream
40g Plain flour
35g Corn flour
7 nos Egg yolks
7nos Egg whites
3/4 tsp Cream of tar tar
125g Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla flavour
Method:
- Boil milk and butter, lower fire than add in cheese cream, use hand whisk to stir till smooth. Add in plain flour and corn flour mix well. And finally add in egg yolks and vanilla flavour, mix cheese cream mixture till thick and transfer to large bowl and leave to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites, cream of tar tar and sugar till peak form. Use a spatula to fold egg whites in two batches to cheese cream mixture.
- Pour cheese cream mixture to a lined 9" square cake tin and steam bake at 150C for about one hour 15 mins
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