just 3 ingredients

Baking cheesecake is my achilles heel.

My previous attempt at making a Japanese soufflé cotton cheesecake failed miserably. Once out of the oven, it sank, shrank and developed a 'waist'. The texture was more like kueh lapis than cottony soft soufflé! I have since stayed clear of making another such cheese kueh until I saw this lovely soufflé cheesecake baked by Ann of Anncoo Journal.

I was very inspired after reading her post as her soufflé cheesecake requires only 3 ingredients. Even if I were to make a blunder again, I won't feel so bad since I would at most scarify just 3 ingredients. The original recipe was taken from this video recipe by Ochikeron. The clear step by step instructions helps to boost my confidence level too.

Since I have all three ingredients...eggs, white chocolate chips and cream cheese in my fridge, I didn't procrastinate but to bake the cake first thing the next morning. All went well until the cake was removed from the oven. It started to sink, as I had expected. I thought it was a complete failure again until I unmoulded it from the pan. It didn't look too bad despite the wrinkles on the surface, at least the cake didn't crack or form an obvious waist.

The texture of the cake was soft and moist. It was lighter than the usual Japanese cheesecake as only half a block of cream cheese is used. I didn't find the cake overly sweet either. I actually tasted the white chocolate and cream cheese mixture before adding in the eggs. I skipped the lemon zest and juice and replaced it with vanilla extract. I would most probably add in lemon juice if the mixture was too sweet for my liking.

This cake was a huge hit among my children. They wiped out more than half the cake in one siting and could have finished the whole cake if I wasn't there to stop them. The recipe is certainly a keeper and most importantly it is another milestone in my baking journey. I hope I could bake a better soufflé cheesecake in my next attempt...one that doesn't sink or shrink. May the force be with me.




3 Ingredients Soufflé Japanese Cheesecake

Ingredients:

125g cream cheese, cut into cubes, soften at room temperature
120g white chocolate, break into pieces (I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips)
3 extra large eggs, cold, separated (I used 4 eggs with 60g yolks, 140g whites)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

1. Line the base of a 7" round cake pan(fixed base) with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter, set aside. 
2. Separate the eggs and leave egg whites to chill in the fridge until ready to use, this helps ensure a more stable meringue.   
3. Fill a saucepan with water to about half full. Bring the water to a full boil. Turn off the heat. Place white chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl and set it over the saucepan (make sure the bowl is bigger than the sauce pan). Stir chocolate till smooth. 
4. Add cream cheese and mix till smooth.
5. Remove mixing bowl from the saucepan. Add the egg yolks, with a balloon whisk, whisk to combine. Add vanilla extract (if using), whisk to combine, set aside.
6. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until the egg whites reaches the stiff peak stage. (Take care not to over beat the egg whites. Since there is no sugar added, it takes a very short time to reach the stiff peak stage.)
7. Add the beaten egg whites into the cream cheese mixture in 3 separate additions, each time fold with a spatula (I used a balloon whisk) until just blended.
8. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
9. Place cake pan in a baking tray. Fill the baking tray with some hot water. 
10. Place on lower rack of the oven and bake at 170 degC for 15mins. Lower the temperature to 160 degC and bake for another 15 minutes. Turn off the oven temperature and leave the cake inside the oven for another 15 minutes.
11. Remove cake pan from oven and leave the cake to cool before unmolding. Refrigerate for about 2 to 3 hours. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Recipe source: from Anncoo Journal and this video by ochikeron.