japanese cheesecake

The 13th recipe I attempted in 2013.

I found the cake recipe from Just One Cookbook (link here) by Ms. Nami. She found the recipe from Cookpad, a Japanese cooking website and has modified it for a bigger size and to suit her oven. I have closely followed the recipe except (1) I halved the recipe and changed the baking time accordingly, (2) I used French T45 cake flour instead of plain flour, (3) I used castor sugar instead of granulated sugar when beating the egg whites, (4) I skipped the apricot jam glaze and (5) I didn't refrigerate the cake for a few hours (THE BIGGEST MISTAKE! MY BAD!).

What I used:

(for a standard silicone loaf pan) Philadelphia cream cheese 200g / granulated sugar 30g / unsalted butter 30g / eggs (L) 6, carefully separated / double cream 100ml / lemon juice 5ml / rum half T / French T45 cake flour 40g, sieved twice / castor sugar 50g 

(for chantilly cream) double cream about 80ml / castor sugar to taste (about 1 tsp) / organic vanilla extract 1 tsp

What I did: (adapted from Nami's Just One Cookbook)

take cream cheese, butter, eggs and double cream out of fridge 30 mins before / preheat oven to 180°C (fan) / beat cream cheese & granulated sugar until smooth / add butte & beat / beat egg yolks briefly then add to the mixture & beat / add heavy cream & beat / add lemon juice & rum & mix till batter is smooth / add flour all at once & beat at low gently / leave the batter aside & change to use another spotlessly clean whisk / whisk egg whites briefly till it foams / continue whisking & gradually add castor sugar in 3 batches / beat the egg whites until stiff peaks but not too stiff / add 1/3 of meringue to the egg yolk batter & mix well / add the rest of meringue all at once and fold it in quickly but gently / pour the batter in the loaf pan from 6" high to get rid of the air bubble / place the pan in a shallow casserole dish & pour in 1 inch of hot water / place it in the 4th rack of the oven / turn the oven down to 160°C bake at 50 mins or until light golden brown / turn off the oven & leave the door slightly ajar for 10mins by tucking in an oven mitten / open the door completely but let the cake sit in the oven for 10 more minutes / make chantilly cream by whipping double cream with castor sugar & vanilla extract till soft peak / served with chantilly cream

What I felt:

It's my first time to attempt a Japanese cheesecake. There are gazillion Japanese cheesecake recipes available online but I opted for this one because (1) Ms Nami is a Japanese & she adapted a recipe originally found on a Japanese cooking website so I bet it may be more authentic than the others, and (2) Ms Nami has linked to the bloggers who have tried out this recipe. They all seem to have epic success, which further boosted my faith in the reliability of this recipe.

And I am not disappointed at all. What a great recipe. It tasted so much similar to the cheesecake I tried in Japan too. It smells a bit too lemon-y when fresh out of the oven but it gradually faded to a mild level when the cake was cooling down. I have made three mistakes though: (1) my egg whites were a little bit too stiff, making it difficult to mix, (2) my cake turned golden much earlier than I thought. When I opened the bathroom door after my quick shower, I immediately smelled that lovely cake. I dashed to the kitchen & found the cake had already turned golden. The cake top had already cracked. (3) I didn't refrigerate the cake before cutting and taking photos. Its proven to be a HUGE mistake because I found the cake tasted even better tonight. It's so much easier to cut after refrigerating too.

To be short: I am happy. Very very happy. And I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who wants a fluffy creamy cake. And don't worry. It's not too sweet. I found it just right. The sweetness is simply perfect. Thus it's not necessary to reduce the sugar amount (as we usually do when using an American recipe).

How good was it? 9/10 (the one mark deduction is due to my stupidity of not refrigerating it)

How easy was it? 4/10 (with egg white beating & folding, i'm afraid it's not a beginner's cake)

How economical was it? 7/10 (3 eggs cost a bit less than £1, cream is less than 20p, cream cheese is about £1.2, other ingredients including flour is negligibly cheap. grand total for the whole cake should be about £3)

Will I make this again? DEFINITELY! But I'll double the size and make an 8-inch round cake!

Just my two cents - some extra notes:

(1) I used French flour instead of plain flour (the US All-purpose equivalent in the UK) because I want to use it up asap before it deteriorates -- ok, I lied. I want to use it up asap so I'll have an excuse to make another trip across the channel for the sake of flour shopping. The brand I use is Francine. It's the finest flour I've ever seen even compared with the Japanese low-gluten flour (日清薄力粉) I found in Japan Centre. It literally took less than two seconds to sieve through my extra-fine sift.

(2) I think a good-quality vanilla extract when making Chantilly cream. A good vanilla extract makes a huge difference especially when it doesn't involve baking or cooking. One tsp of a good one goes a long long way so it's definitely worthwhile to pay a bit more for a better one.