Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

japanese cotton cheesecake

A cake I absolutely adore and that’s saying something since am not a cheesecake lover. I waited months for my birthday to come just to order this from a baker friend and relished it. So when I saw this challenge posted by my baker friend Anuja I did the happy dance.

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Now there are many recipes out there but u are always left in doubt if it would work or not. So when ur handed a tried and tested recipe on a platter, you have to give it a shot.

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Everything went as planned but I did make a huge error. I made a mistake of not going as per my ovens heating temperament and followed the recipes instruction. The middle rack created havoc with the cake and I had to wing it with the rest of the baking time. Thanks to Mani Vinaik who kept advising me. I would have given up if it wasn’t for u. The cake is good but I feel could have been softer and that’s because I didn’t bake it as it should have been.

But I do know what not to do the next time. And yeah. I do make everything look pretty

japanese cotton cheesecake

Recipe from Anuja Sule’s http://www.simple-baking.blogspot.in

Ingredients:

125 grams cream cheese

110 grams amul fresh cream

3 egg yolks (room temperature)

3 egg whites (room temperature)

70 grams caster sugar

40 grams all purpose flour

30 grams cornflour

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 th teaspoon cream of tartar (or salt)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Method:

Preheat your oven at 160 degree celsius. Line a 6 or 7 ing baking pan with parchment paper. No need to grease it. Set it aside.

Sift the all purpose flour and cornflour, set aside.

Melt cream cheese and cream over a double boiler (or in a microwave) . Cool the mixture.

Once the cream cheese mixture is partly cooled, add in the egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon juice and mix until incorporated.

Add in the sifted all purpose flour and cornflour. Mix well until incorporated. Run the mixture through sieve once, to get rid of any lumps.

Make the meringue, whisking egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. You can beat with a stand mixer or handheld mixer. Add in the sugar and whisk until SOFT PEAKS form.

Take 1/3rd of the meringue and fold into the cheese mixture, then fold in another 1/3rd of meringue. After that,  fold in the remaining 1/3rd meringue. FOLD GENTLY. Once you are done, if the total volume of the mixture is almost unchanged while it’s texture is foamy and smooth and free of bubbles, then you have got it right.

Place the baking pan into a large baking tray (with high sides) and pour hot biiling water into the tray, upto 1/2 the height of pan.

Place it on central rack of your oven and bake at 160 degree Celsius for 40-50 minutes, until the cake top is golden brown. Then lower the temperature to 140 degree Celsius and continue baking for 20-30 minutes more.

Once the cake is baked, turn off the oven, slightly open the oven door and leave the cake inside for about 15 minutes. The cake will shrink a little and pull away from the sides of the pan. Now you can take it out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and let cake cool completely on the rack.

Refrigerate the cake for atleast 4 hours or overnight,  before serving.

 

*Notes:

# If the cake rises too high and sinks in the oven, that means the baking temperature or upper heat is too high, or cake is placed too close to upper heat.

# If the cake doesn’t rise or is too dense or chewy, it happens due to improper beating if eggs or wrong folding technique that deflates the air bubbles.

# It’s normal that the cake will shrink about 1/2 inch to 1 inch after cooling. If the cake rises, yet shrinks significantly after being taken out of oven, then it means that it is under baked or another reason is, over mixing the egg white mixture with the cream cheese mixture.

# If there are cracks on surface, it happens due to lack of sufficient water in water bath, or too high upper heat. But don’t worry, most if the cracks will settle down once the cake cools down.