Soufflé cheesecake is the Japanese take on cheesecake. It's much lighter than the American or German version and not at all cheesy – the ideal cheesecake for cheesecake haters. The recipe I'm sharing is adapted from Diana's Desserts. I've made four changes to the original recipe:
🌹 The amount of cream cheese is reduced by about 30% to make the cake really light.
🌹 The oven is preheated to 180°C, then reduced to 170°C when the baking starts. The original recipe uses 160°C instead.
Despite the higher temperature and lesser cream cheese, my baking time is about the same as Diana's.
🌹 The cake is baked in the bottom instead of the middle of the oven so that the top doesn't brown too quickly.
🌹 The egg whites are whisked without cream of tartar. I find the cake too sour with the original recipe's ¼ tsp, and the acid isn't necessary for stopping the cake from collapsing.
Besides the above changes, I've added a couple of steps to make the cake as smooth as possible. I sieve the cream cheese mixture. And I remove big air bubbles in the batter by banging the mixing bowl hard, and by pouring slowly when the batter is transferred into the cake pan.
A good soufflé cheesecake should have lots of tiny holes inside, like a chiffon cake, to make it light. Big holes would be unsightly. No holes at all would mean the cake is heavy and dense like a regular cheesecake How to make Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake
Step-by-step guide
This recipe makes a light, non-cheesy cheesecake. The cake is baked in a water bath. A long, slow bake prevents the crust from cracking.
INGREDIENTS
(For one 18cm cake)
Ingredients
INSTRUCTIONS
INGREDIENTS
(For one 18cm cake)
Ingredients
- 80 ml milk
- 40 g butter at room temperature – cut into small pieces
- 140 g full-fat block cream cheese at room temperature – cut into small pieces
- 50 g cake flour
- 15 g cornstarch
- ⅛ tsp salt – sift with cake flour and cornstarch
- 75 g egg yolks
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 180 g egg whites
- 90 g caster sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Measure and prep ingredients as detailed above.
- Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F). Put kettle on. Line 18 x 6 cm round cake pan, with parchment paper extending above top of pan by 2-3 cm.
- Heat milk till hand-hot. Add to butter and cream cheese. Mix evenly. Add egg yolks and lemon juice. Mix evenly. Sieve twice. Add sifted cake flour, cornstarch and salt. Mix till just even.
- Whisk egg whites till big bubbles become small. Continue whisking whilst adding sugar gradually. Keep on whisking till egg whites form soft peaks.
- Add egg whites to yolk mixture in 3 batches. Mix till half even after first 2 additions, then till just fully even after third addition. Bang mixing bowl against worktop 3-4 times, hard, to remove big air bubbles.
- Pour batter into cake pan, slowly so that big air bubbles burst as batter flows out of mixing bowl.
- Reboil water in kettle. Put cake pan in a bigger pan. Fill outer pan with boiling water to about half-way up sides of inner cake pan. Reduce oven temperature to 170°C (340°F). Bake in bottom of oven till top of cake is golden brown and inserted skewer comes out with some crumbs attached, about 1¼ hours.
- Remove cake from oven. Leave on wire rack to cool down completely. Unmould by inverting onto a plate. Discard parchment paper. Invert onto another plate so that cake is right way up.
- Cut cake with serrated knife by moving blade either forward or backward, i.e. do not saw. Leftovers should be chilled, covered.
