Sunday, Japanese Cheesecake

Do you like cheesecakes? Or the very fluffy cakes, soft as cotton?

The Japanese Cheesecake (otherwise called a “Japanese cotton cheesecake” or “jiggly cheesecake”, or how do I like to call it “nuvoletta” which means a small cloud) is known for its signature ultra-fluffy texture and custard-like wobbliness.

I’m very proud of mine. My very first try and it looks like it was baked by a pro.

My inspiration, original recipe here

Ingredients:

Difficulty level: Medium, Preparation time: 30 minutes, Baking time: 1h 10 minutes, Resting time: 4h in the fridge, Servings: 8 slices

For a springform pan of 22cm:

• 250g of Philadelphia cream cheese (or any other cream cheese)
• 150g of granulated sugar
• 100g of fresh cream
• 60g of butter
• 6 eggs at room temperature
• 50g of flour
• 30g of cornstarch (corn flour)
• 4g of cream of tartar
• lemon zest from 1 lemon
• 1/2 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt

For decoration (optional):

• icing sugar
• blueberry or any other fruits

Preparation:

For first thing prepare your springform pan. Grease the borders, add some flour and line a sheet of baking paper at the bottom. To avoid the water coming in during the baking, cover the bottom of the pan with aluminium foil. Put the pan in a deep baking tray. The baking tray has to be larger than the springform pan, in order to have around 2cm of water. You are creating a water bath to bake your cheesecake in and better to have everything ready to go so you can bake off your cheesecake straight away.

Put the cream cheese into a large bowl and stir with a whisk till smooth over a bain-marie. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and stir well after each one.

Add half of the sugar, stir and add the flour and cornstarch sifted together. Stir well.

In another pan, warm the butter and cream until the butter is melted, and whisk it into the batter out of the bain-marie. Add salt, the lemon zest and vanilla extract or vanilla bean and whisk it well until the batter is smooth.

Whisk whites at low speed till foamy. Add cream of tartar and gradually the balance of sugar. Beat till is shinny but not too hard. Fold whites into batter 1/3 at a time stirring gently from bottom to the top, to minimize the deflation of tiny pockets of air in the meringue. Pour into the springform pan.

Bake with water bath on the bottommost rack to avoid cracks in a preheated oven at 200°C for 15 mins, then lower to 160°C for another 15 mins. Turn off the oven and leave cake in the closed oven for another 40 mins.

Open the oven and leave it cool at room temperature. Remove the cake from the pan and put it in fridge to rest for at least 4 hours before serving. Before serving it add the blueberry and icing sugar on top.

Enjoy it!