Jiggly Japanese cotton cheesecake
After attempting failing 7 times. This is my troubleshoot diary.
Drum roll.... I did it! I didn’t give up and I finally succeeded at making the Jiggly Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. This was a journey but it felt like a fun science experiment. I have not perfected it at all especially with the sides and bubbles but I am super happy with the result regardless: smooth top, even rise, creamy, light soufflé texture, and super jiggly!
My whole family gathered around for the unveiling of the 7th cheesecake and we may have all squealed in excitement. I held my breath as I took the cheesecake out of the oven as if even my breath would somehow ruin it. Thank you, everyone, for cheering me on and encouraging me to keep going! I got a lot of messages on Instagram saying that you enjoyed me keeping things real. I think many of you related to the frustration of putting a lot of love and effort into prepping, making, waiting for it to bake in the oven, but resulting in a disappointing end product. Don’t give up, you will get there in the end.
So I searched the internet to find all the top Japanese cheesecake recipes and they were all surprisingly different not only in their ingredient ratios but also in prep/execution techniques. I fully documented all 6 of the failed attempts and came up with a super detailed recipe that suited the ingredients that were available to me and my oven. This is only my opinion from my experience and may not work for everyone! But 3 main points: meringue state, greasing and bake not fan bake!
If you have failed at this before do not get disheartened I failed a lot of times too, but keep trying different methods and ingredients and you will get there. Next time I might attempt at a green tea flavoured one.
“3 main points: meringue state, greasing and bake not fan bake!”
Jiggly Japanese cotton cheesecake
Ingredients
1. Cream cheese 230g
I used all 3 brands, Philadelphia, Meadow Fresh and Anchor. The different brands did not matter I think, but in the one, I succeeded in I used Meadow Fresh. I did not bring the cream cheese to room temperature, I just took it straight from the fridge.
2. Milk 150ml
Cold milk and used the brand, Anchor.
3. Butter 60g
Cold butter cut into cubes, I used the brand Lewis Road Creamery.
4. Cake Flour 40g
I used cake flour, from the brand Champion in the type Dover.
5. Cornflour 20g
Some recipes don’t ask for cornflour but I found that added cornflour made the cheesecake lighter so I would put it in. I used the brand Pams and the name of it was “Maize cornflour”.
6. 6 Eggs separated into egg yolks and egg white.
Half of the recipes said to used cold egg whites because the foam that whips up is finer and more study which is better suited and easier to work with for a delicate soufflé cheesecake like this one. But, I tried both and I found the room temperature one worked better for me.
I used size 7 eggs from the brand Farmer Brown.
Some recipes had exact grams but I tried both and it didn’t matter.
7. Caster sugar 110g
I used caster sugar in the brand Chelsea.
Directions
1. In a pot combine the cream cheese, milk, and butter. Over low heat stir and mash the cream cheese with a rubber spatula. Once it starts to melt a little, switch to a rubber whisk and combine the ingredients until smooth. Usually, when all the butter melts, I take it as a sign that it is warm enough, and I take it off the stove. Then I continue to whisk until smooth.
Some of the recipes asked to do this step over a double-boiler. So you have a pot of hot water and you place the bowl with the ingredients on top so that the steam heats the bowl. But, I found that this didn’t make a difference. So, I just took the easier way of heating and melting in a pot directly over low heat.
2. Once the mixture is cool enough, I usually touch the outside of the pot with my hands and if it is cool enough to touch I add in the egg yolks and whisk together until well combined.
3. I sieve in the cake flour and cornflour into the pot. With a whisk, I combine everything until there are no lumps.
4. In a clean large bowl, I place the room temperature egg whites and then I start beating them on low speed until large frothy bubbles start to form. Then 1 tablespoon at a time I slowly incorporate the caster sugar into the egg white as it continues to whisk. I did not increase the speed to more than 3/10 and whipped until it was in between soft and stiff peaks.
CRUCIAL STEP 1: Meringue
So this Meringue part is a crucial step you have to get right. If you overbeat the eggs, as the cheesecake cook you will get a frothy top and a dense bottom. If it is under-beaten it will not rise like a soufflé. So when all the sugar was incorporated, I would check to see how the meringue was every 5 seconds.
If you lift the meringue and it is runny and creates a ribbon then it is under-beaten. If you lift up your mixer and the meringue doesn’t droop over and creates a stiff pointed triangle, you have gone too far. Refer to video but if you lift the mixer, the meringue peaks should just gently flop over and if you hold your whisk so that meringue hangs down you should be able to jiggle it side to side.
5. Then grab half of the meringue and add it into the pot with the cream cheese mixture. Lightly using your silicon whisk, mix everything together. You do need to be gentle not to knock out all the air but you don’t have to be super careful.
6. Then add that pot mixture with the cream cheese and half the meringue into the bowl with the rest of the meringue. Using a rubber spatula gently fold everything together. Using the motion of cutting through the mixture, hitting the bottom of the bowl then lifting the mixture back up to the top.
7. Prepare your tin. I used a 20cm tin with a loose bottom as I did not have a small springform tin. Then I wrapped the outside with aluminum foil so that the water would not seep in. I cut out a circle and 2 rectangles of baking paper to line the cake tin.
CRUCIAL STEP 2: Do not grease the tin
DO NOT grease the tin and then line. Half of the recipes said to grease, line and then grease again. This created the worst cheesecake for me as the soufflé puffed up but because of the grease, slid down and deflated. Which made sense, when you bake a chiffon cake you also don’t grease the sides because you want the mixture to have a sturdy structure to rise against and to stay risen.
But I have not tried just greasing the pan itself and not lining it with baking paper.
8. Pour the cheesecake batter into the lined cake tin.
9. Then I grabbed a large tray, placed the cake tin inside the tray, filled up the tray with hot water until it reached about halfway up the cake tin.
10. Then I baked it at 150 degrees Celsius on BAKE NOT fan bake for 40 minutes then 130 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes, then 110 degrees for 20 minutes, turned off the oven, and left the cheesecake in there for 20 minutes.
CRUCIAL STEP 3: Only use the bake setting
ONLY USE BAKE setting, do not ever bake this cheesecake in fan bake option! For me anyways. I think this was the reason why the tops of my cheesecakes kept cracking. I got so frustrated I decided to look up just a normal French soufflé recipe, and in most of the recipes, it said to never use the fan bake option because soufflés are no delicate you do not want the hot air to be blowing on it. Which made so much sense!
I tried using so many different temperatures: bake at 100 degrees for 1 hour then turning up to 150 degrees for 5 minutes, bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes then 140 degrees for 30 minutes, 160 degrees for 20 minutes then 140 degrees for 40 minutes and they all created cracks or deflated.
Starting at a higher temperature to get the colour and rise then slowly reducing the temperature down ensured that the soufflé would not deflate and evenly cook without a crack on top. Whenever I used a lower heat and then ramped up the heat at the end to get the colour, it would crack.
11. Take the cheesecake out of the oven and let it rest and cool at room temperature for 10 minutes. Then take the sides of the cake pan off, peel off the baking paper and look at it jiggle! To transfer the cheesecake into a plate I used 2 spatulas to lift off and transfer.
I got a little impatient and cut into it while it was still piping hot. If you do this the top might crack a little as you sink the knife into it and the cut is not as clean. Wait till it is completely cooled before cutting but jiggle it before it cools down. This cheesecake jiggles best when hot.
Hopefully, my troubling shooting tips will help someone out there to make this Japanese cotton cheesecake. Remember the 3 crucial steps.
3 CRUCIAL STEPS
The meringue that is in between soft/stiff
Don’t grease the tin, and
Use bake only setting (NOT fan bake).
It was a lot of trial and error, researching, and time spent in the kitchen but I feel super happy with the result. I am glad I pushed through and kept trying! If you have failed at this before do not get disheartened I failed a lot of times too, but keep trying different methods and ingredients and you will get there. Next time I might attempt at a green tea flavoured one!