Dr. Tiff and the Japanese Cheesecake

A lot of first attempts went into making this blog post.

This is my first attempt posting a video to a blog.

The video, in turn, records my first attempt at using a digital camcorder to record anything!

And last but not least, I used the (flip) camcorder to record my first attempt at baking a Japanese cheesecake. What differentiates a Japanese cheesecake from a regular cheesecake is that the former is light, fluffy, and more sponge-cake like in texture, while the latter is very creamy and dense.


Here's the recipe, which I got from this food blog.

Ingredients:

125 g cream cheese at room temperature (I used Philadelphia)

20 g butter, soften

40 ml milk

65 g caster sugar

3 large eggs, white and yolk separated

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

40 g self raising flour (or cake flour)

1/4 tsp salt

1 scant tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

Method :

1. Add 500 ml water into a big baking tray ( that the tin you use for the cheesecake can fit in) and place the tray in the oven then preheat the oven to 160c. Line the base and side of a 18-20 cm springform/cake tin with parchment paper. Then use a big piece of foil to wrap the tin around from the bottom up to top of the tin side.

2. Place the butter, cream cheese and milk in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water, then wait until the butter has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and give it a really good stir until the mixture is smooth, set aside and leave it cool to the room temperature.

3. Add the orange juice and zest to the cream cheese mixture, stir to blend then add the yolks and mix them until incorporated. Sift the flour and salt into another mixing bowl, pour over the cream cheese and egg mixture in the center of the flour. Quickly whisk or stir everything until just blended (don’t over-mix or the cake will be tough)

4. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the egg white with cream of tartar until foamy, then gradually add the sugar, few tablespoons at a time, and continue to beat at high speed until reach the soft-medium peak (more than soft but not hard peak). Gently fold the white into the cream cheese mixture until blended.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Place the tin in the preheated baking tray and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted from center comes out clean. Turn the cake out on to a wire rack once taken from the oven (the cake will shrink if left too long in the tin!). Leave to cool at room temperature, then let it set in the fridge for another hour or so before slicing and serve.