Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake

This recipe is widely raved on Diane Desserts. Was so tempted to read it after reading Jamie's & Little Teochew's Blog. And since, I'm finally starting work next week, and meeting my ex-colleagues this week, I thought this would be a good ending!

Well, I was also ambitious, instead of baking it in a springform pan, I baked the mixture in a 6-pc muffin pan cos I don't have a pan to do a waterbath with a springform pan. What I did was placed my muffin tray on the baking tray and filled the baking tray with hot boiling water.

I also halved the mixture, and it worked out just nice for 6 large muffins. My only gripe is, it doesn't look cotton soft. In fact, somehow, water seeped into the base of the cake. Which until now, I still do not know why. Other than that, the cake actually taste good! It's slightly more dense than what I saw from the photos, but it does taste light. Since I have another half of the cream cheese left, I think I will do another batch this weekend to see how it turns out.

Japanese Cotton Soft Cheese Cake
 Ingredients:
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt

1. Pre-heat oven at 160 degrees celsius

2. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

4. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold well. Fold using a plastic spatula, draw the spatula across the mixture, then fold in the mixture.

5. Lightly grease and flour the bottom and sides of  each muffin hole on the tray parchment.

6. Pour mixture into the muffin hole.

7. Fill the baking tray with water before placing the muffin tray into the oven.

8. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degree celsius.

9. When the time's up, open the oven door slightly or hold it with your kitchen towel or wooden spoon so that the cakes does not shrink due to sudden change in temperature. Leave it for about 45 mins to 1 hour

10. Once cool, the cakes will come off easily when you over turn them on the cooling rack.

Enjoy and let me know how it works out for you!