Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I haven't disappeared but just been quite busy writing my 3000-5000 words philosophy of science assignment and now that I am near 'the light at the end of the tunnel', I wanted to share with you one of my favorite cheesecake, and from my favorite baker, Alex Goh of course!

I remembered I first tasted this cheesecake when I was 19 years old, at my first holiday job while waiting to enter university. This cake is so soft that it is referred as cotton cheesecake (not because there's cotton added to it :p). It's sort of like souffle - although I have not tasted one before but I can imagine it. A slight change I made was to use 50-50 ratio of milk and cream or you can stick to either one if you like but I used to buy one and leave in the fridge to enjoy a small piece the whole week. I think it was at first only available at Raffles City basement supermarket, they had a small counter outside and under Fiesta. Now I think it has changed it's name but what's distinctive about it is the cute cow embalm on top of the cake. I haven't figured out how to do that yet (Evelyn! maybe you can teach me!) but once I do, I'm going to put Singlish Swenglish on it! Heh! I did a green tea version before this too and it's really good too!! It will come up soon but stick with this one first.One step you should do properly is the beating of the egg white because that's the only thing that's helping it to raise. I find this website very useful if you want to be a bit more scientific about baking.

Ingredients
160g cream cheese
25g butter
60g milk
60g whipping cream
40g flour
30g cornflour
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
100g sugar
pinch of salt

Steps

1. Place in the bowl which you will be using over a pot of boiling water the cream cheese, butter, milk and cream. Using a whisk ( I like this one from Ikea, gets out all the lumps), stir over the double boiler until it is thick. Remove from the heat and set aside.
   
   
   
2. Mix the flour and cornflour in a separate bowl first, then add it gradually to the cheese mix, making sure to whisk constantly and ensure all the lumps are gone before adding more.It should be a smooth mixture after all the flour is added in.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees or 170 degrees if your baking pan is dark-colored.Separate the egg yolks and place the egg whites in a clean stainless steel mixing bowl. Add the egg yolk one by one into the cheese/flour mixture. Make sure each yolk is well incorporated before adding the next one.
   
   
   
   
4. Next, beat the egg whites with the mixer until it is foamy first, then add the cream of tartar, and then the sugar one tablespoon at a time until it is all added in. The eventual result should be at soft peak.
   
   
   
5. Add about 1/5 of the beaten egg white into the cheese mixture first to loosen up the mixture. Then fold it back to the egg white mixture. Don't mix it like you are stirring coffee! Be gentle and use a figure 8 motion. This should be what it looks like:
   
   
   
6. Pour it into a round 24cm pan which you have greased and lined. Wrap the outside of the pan with aluminum foil because its going to be baked in a water bath. Bake for about 40-45 minutes. I find that it does matter if you are using a light colored or dark colored baking pans because the latter requires a bit more time. And this is how I set up my water bath, by filling up one baking tray with hotwater and placing the cake pan in the middle of it.
   
   
   
7. Once it has turned firm (test with a skewer through the middle of the cake) and golden brown, remove the cake from the oven and from the mould immediately to let it cool. It will shrink if you let it cool in its mould.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Be patient and wait for about 30 minutes if you can before slicing it. Here it is:
   
   
   
   
   and here
   
   
   
   and here's one that while I was eating it, it sort of just peel away showing the creamy softness, so I had to show you again!
   
   
   
   Ok, I got to go have one piece now :)