January 16, 2008

Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

After baking the blueberry cheesecake for Kailing, I was left with cream cheese which had to be used as fast as possible, cream cheese being a very perishable dairy product. Several ideas came popping...Japanese cheese cake, cheese chiffon, blueberry cheese tart, cheese biscuits, cheese muffins, chilled strawberry cheesecake....the list goes on...I would often decided on one, and then at the last minute thought of baking something else when I came across some inviting recipes. Then, I will be outweighing the cost and effect involved - opportunity cost such as time involved, ingredients available, hard/easy, high calorie; effect - will mum like it, will i eat it, can my nephew eat it..etc etc....Haha what to do, I'm always thinking so much, which makes me a slow decision maker; which of cos if you were to see in a brighter view, I make wise decisions. I seldom regret what I do.

Okok see, I'm digressing again. Hehe. Anyway the answer is up there. In the end, I decided to bake this Japanese souffle cheesecake. The amount of leftover cream cheesecake exactly fits into the recipe! Good no wastage! This time, no more burnt top as I cleverly placed the pan more towards the right side and front of the oven, where it is not so hot. I also placed it at the lower third shelf. The cheesecake browned nicely :) It cracked a little, however after it cooled, the cracks closed itself as it shrunk, leaving behind a 'wrinkled rough skin'. Is it supposed to be like this??

I adapted the recipe from Hungry Hamster Food Adventure and made some modifications

Ingredients:

125 g cream cheese
20 g butter
40 ml milk
3 egg yolks
32 g cake flour
8 g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
3 egg whites
55 g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbs apricot jam (Omitted)

Method:
  1. Preheat the Oven to 160°C.
  2. Melt the butter, cream cheese, and milk on a double boiler, leave to cool slightly.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together egg yolks, salt, lemon juice, lemon rind, and cake flour together until well mixed.
  4. Add cheese and milk mixture into egg yolk mixture until well mixed.
  5. In a separate clean bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Slowly add in the sugar and continue beating until soft peaks form, and the mixture is glossy.
  6. Slowly fold in the egg white batter into the egg yolk mixture, 1/3 at a time, until incorporated. Pour into an 8 inch springform tin and bake in a waterbath for 30-40 min or until cooked when inserted with a skewer.
  7. Remove from the mould immediately to prevent the cake from sinking.
  8. If using apricot jam, mixed the apricot jam with a bit of water and warmed it in the microwave.
  9. Brush the apricot jam all over the top of the cheesecake to give it a glossy finish.
  10. Refrigerate after cooling
Recipe Source: Hungry Hamster Food Adventure


Indeed the cake was cottony soft and the top was springy and spongy. After refrigeration, the texture remained soft and light. My mum said it was too cheesy, even though it was just a light cheesecake. Luckily my best friend, bingki shared the cake with me and she said it looked like 'real cheesecake'..Haha I told her of cos' it's a real cheesecake. Yeah, I knew she meant to say it looked like those sold in bakeries. :) Well, so I had improved! ;) She had been with me throughout my baking journey, be it bad or good times, LOL and always so supportive of whatever I baked, be my taster and gave my genuine comments. Thanks my dear gal! :)

22 comments:

sweet-tooth said...

Wow it looks so good!
So nicely made!
It DOES look like those sold in bakeries :D
Will try this out as soon as i get my hands on cream cheese(:
I've been wanting to make the apple chiffon cake but my mum said i must finish up the oranges before she buys apples.
LOL

Anonymous said...

Wow wow wow Aimei .... your baking skill have indeed improved, a lot!
The cake looks really yummy and soft. How i wish i can sink my teeth in it ;p
in fact cream cheese can stay quite long in the fridge, of course you must put it in the Chilling section. I think I better go and bake this cake too. Can't tahan liao ..

esther

Rasa Malaysia said...

I admire people who can bake so I admire you. :)

Rasa Malaysia said...

I admire people who can bake so I admire you. :)

Aimei said...

Hi sweet-tooth,

Haha, I think with CNY's approaching, there'll be lots more oranges for you to finish up! Probably can try out some orangey recipes ;) That's what I'm planning..hopefully have the time cos' I'm ow busy with cny's cookie baking!!

Hehe...thanks Esther!

Hi Rasa Malaysia,

Thanks for your compliments. *shy* Well, I'm still a novice at baking. There are lots more out there who bakes better than me. :)

I love the dishes you whipped up and the way you organize your blog. It's really a good start for me to pick up cooking. :)

Hungry Hamster said...

Hey! Thanks for dropping by! I just saw the comment! Great job on your cake! I think it looks better than mine! :p

Keep it up girl :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, is it possible to not put the mixture into a pan? i'm thinking of putting it into muffin cups.

Aimei said...

Hi TJ, I have no problem in baking as muffns for the other cheesecake - blueberry cheesecake. However I have not tried for this. Probably you can give it a try since we do bake light chiffon cakes in muffin cups as well. Sorry I'm afraid I'm not able to advise much in this aspect. :)

Simonne said...

I baked this cake today, uses recipe from AWW. Very similar to yours except the milk portion.
I think i should try your recipe on my next baking.Coz yours is so airlight!

Simonne said...

ai mei,
i've trid this recipe. Love it!
But hor.. mine didn't turn out as high as yours.
Can i know what pan size you using ?
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

just to ask, if remove from mould immediately, the cake will not sink? cos when i baking last time, it always sink by half....so dishearted to try again until i saw ur posting..:)

Aimei said...

Hi Sukkimi, I used a 7-inch round pan. :)

Hi Anonymous, mine didn't sink. Maybe you let it cool down before removing from the pan. It can be quite delicate when baked immediately, especially it contains whipped egg whites.

Anonymous said...

Hi Aimei

Hmm wonderful cake. I have a good advice from a teacher before and wish to share it with you. She said that if once you remove this cake (which she said is rather delicate), you just overturn it immediately to prevent it to sink further. Then let it cool down in this way and then remove the cake.

In this way the cake will not sink to very low.

I've tried it and it works.

Cheers
Olivia
www.foodlovepassion.blogspot.com

Aimei said...

Hey thanks Olivia for your tips. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi aimei, Thx for sharing. I tried ur recipe after I saw ur cheesecake photo! It looked so tempting =) However, mine was very moist and sticky and there's alot of crumps coming out when I cut them up. So its very messy. I didn't get a smooth texture like urs... =( Any idea what went wrong? Could it be I didn't bake long enough? The taste was gd though :)

Aimei said...

Hi anonymous,

How long did you bake the cheesecake? Did you use the same pan size as mine? Sometimes, these little changes can affect the result, especially for delicate cakes like this.

Or did you let it cool completely before cutting? When it's not cooled long enough, there could still be moisture hence the texture is not smooth. Just my own speculation only, hope it helps. :)

Tricia said...

I just made this and it came out great! Love it! My son and hubby couldn't stop eating it!

My son even said, I should have made more!!

I was too lazy to go and get the springform pan from storage, so I used mini-muffin cups. It still came out great!

I normally stay away from recipes that requires "Cream of Tartar" or Cakes like Chiffon bcos I am not good at baking. I am sooo glad I tried this!

Thanks for sharing the recipe, your comment gave me confidence to try it!

Lu said...

Hi there,

I got your link thru a friend's blog and decided to try this recipe as it was my personal fav back in Spore!!

i tried it last night, it turned out great taste wise however, it didnt rise as much as yours. can you tell me what could be wrong? Also i noticed u have "corn flour" in ur ingredients, but it was included in the method... where should it be included? thank u!!!
Lu

Aimei said...

Hi Lu,

What pan size did you use? I used a 6-inch pan, that's probably why mine is higher. Another reason could be the beating of egg whites. I only whipped intil soft peaks, not very stiff. If too stiff and you didn't control properly it could deflate.

The corn flour is sifted with the flour at the third step. :)

Lu said...

hi Aimei!

hmm, yeh, maybe its the egg white. Im gg to try it again soon, cos my husband loves the taste of it.

Shall let u know my new results! :0

thanks alot!
Lu

ac said...

This is absolutely gorgeous. I will have to try this for my next baking experiment...Mmmm!!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Thanks for sharing this online. I was wondering where you add the corn flour. Do you add it together with cake flour in step 3? Is it necessary?

Thanks!