Hi Bold Bakers! Since starting bigger bolder baking I have been inundated with requests
to show you how to make a Japanese Cheesecake. Now for those of you who don't know a Japanese
cheesecake is a much lighter and fluffier version of the well-known baked cheesecake.
Now this recipe is usually very detailed and it takes a long time, however, you asked me
to simplify it and make it much faster and still get Big & Bold results. So that's what
I did. Now the recipe for this cheesecake along with all of my other recipes can be
found on BiggerBolderBaking.com. Okay, let’s get started in a nice big bowl. So in here
we’re going to add some cream cheese, butter, and milk. And then all you want to do is pop
this into the microwave for roughly around a minute, a minute and a half, or until everything
melts. So here is our cream cheese mix, our butter has melted, our cream cheese is nice
and soft, this is perfect, now all you want to do is give this a little whisk, just to
make sure there’s no lumps in your cream cheese. Just so you know you don't want to
get this mix too hot, because we’re going to be adding egg yolks into it, so you wanna
make sure that it’s nice and cool. Okay lovely, now we’re going to add in the rest
of our ingredients. So in here I'm going to add in some sugar, some vanilla extract, lemon
juice, now lemon juice is really important because it helps it set, and then our egg
yolks. Then once your egg yolks go in, straight away with your whisk, mix it all together.
Lovely, it’s nice and smooth. So into here we’re going to add in our dry ingredients.
So here I have a nice sieve, I'm going to lay that over the bowl, and into it I’m
going to put my flour, now this is cake flour. Now if you don't have cake flour in your country
I have a recipe how you can easily make it on my website. Then we’re going to add in
some cornstarch, now this is also something that helps the cheesecake thicken and set.
And then salt. Because all of our baking needs salt. And then just sift them in. I generally
only sift ingredients when you need them to be nice and light when you're folding them
into something else. You want to make sure there’s no lumps in there. Okay, gorgeous.
And then back with our whisk, and all you want to do is just whisk these in until there’s
no lumps in your batter. This is looking great, it actually is a really lovely yellow color
from the egg yolks that I used. Okay, I'm going to set this aside and we’re going
to whip up our egg whites. So here I have all of my egg whites, and we already used
the yolks, so now this is what’s going to make our cheesecake lovely and light so what
we’re going to do is whip up our egg whites. Now just a note about egg whites, they're
always best when they're at room temperature because they whip up so much better. So I'm
going to use my stand mixer to whip them up, but feel free to use an electric hand mixer
as well. So now what I’m going to do is turn the machine on to a medium low speed,
let them whip up a little bit, get nice and foamy, and then were going to add in the next
ingredient. So now next we’re going to add in a very important ingredient, and I don't
want you to leave this out, it’s cream of tartar. Now what this does, it helps stabilize
the egg whites, now there is no substitute for this in this recipe, you're going to have
to use it, but you can buy it online and it’s really easy to find. You’ll notice after
you add this in that your egg whites will start to whip up much bigger. So our egg whites
are looking good, they're around soft peaks, so at this stage turn your machine up a little
bit higher if you want, and then very slowly add in your remaining sugar. And you just
do this little bit by little bit so it has time to incorporate into your egg whites.
Fantastic. So after a few minutes your egg whites are lovely and fluffy, they're a little
bit shiny as well, from the tartar and the sugar. These are perfect, you're kind of going
for stiff peaks. So I'm going to turn off my machine, and then I'm going to take these
and fold them into my mix that I set aside. So here I have my egg whites, they're lovely
and stiff, as you can see they're not falling out of the bowl, so that's a good sign. Now
all you want to do is just take a big dollop of it, and put into that cream cheese mix.
Now what we’re going to do here is just fold that in. So this technique is called
introducing and it’s really important because it loosens up the rest of your mix before
you add in the rest of your egg whites. So once that's folded in, just go ahead and add
in the rest of your eggs. And then very gently all we want to do is just fold these in. Now
I use a nice metal spoon because it has a thin edge, you don't want to damage all those
lovely bubbles that you created in the meringue. You want to keep everything intact. So a metal
spoon is the way to do that. So I had never heard of a Japanese cheesecake until you guys
started letting me know in the comments, so then I made it one day, and it is absolutely
incredible so I'm telling you, if you haven't tried it, put this on your baking list. Because
it is just going to change your world. Okay this is looking good, our egg whites are in
there, now let’s get this into our tin. So to bake off this cheesecake there are some
important steps to follow. First off we have to create a water bath. So here I have a nice
big tin that's going to fit my cheesecake tin into it. Now I have lined it with a little
kind of kitchen towel to stop it from bouncing around in the oven. And then here I have my
cheesecake tin, it’s around 9 inches. You can use a little bit bigger or a little bit
smaller. This has been lined and buttered. I'm just going to place that in there, then
I'm going to get my cheesecake mix, and I'm going to fill it all the way to the top. You
can just tell already by how fluffy this mix is, how light and airy this cake is going
to be. Okay let’s bring this over to the oven now, and we’re going to pour in our
hot water. Put your cheesecake on the bottom rack of your oven, and then fill your dish
halfway full of hot water. Then close it up, and let it bake. So now a lot of times where
people go wrong with cheesecakes is that they bake it in too hot an oven or they bake it
for too long and the top cracks. Now this part is crucial. What you want to do is bake
your cheesecake at 400º Fahrenheit or 200º Celsius for 18 minutes. Then, after the 18
minutes, you want to turn down your oven with the door closed and we’re going to bake
it at 320º Fahrenheit or 160º Celsius for around 12 minutes. So now our 30 minutes of
cooking are up, so here’s what we’re going to do. Turn off the oven, leave the cheesecake
in there, but open the door ajar to let all that hot air out. The cheesecake will sit
in there for half an hour and just cool down by itself. There are common problems that
people can have with a Japanese cheesecake and I've written on my website how you can
avoid all those so make sure you check out that post. So our cheesecake is out of the
oven and it looks amazing! How you’ll notice that it is a little bit jiggly. Just like
the way cheesecakes are, and that's because the eggs haven't set yet, but what we’re
going to do is take this out of the water bath and we’re going to set it aside and
let it cool down at room temperature and let it go totally cold. Now you can make this
one or two days in advance so it has time to set, but what we want to do is for it to
cool down then we can take it out of our tin and decorate it. So now these cheesecakes
already look amazing, we know that they're going to taste amazing, they only need a simple
decoration on top. But we’re going to do something really big and bold! You know these
doilies that everybody has in their house? They're inexpensive and they're great to have
around. What they also are is a lovely decoration for the top of a cake so we’re going to
lay it on top, then I'm going to get my icing sugar, and then very generously drench the
icing sugar on top of your cake. And then as you can see what we’re going to do is
simply peel it away and just look at that fantastic design! Simple, elegant, absolutely
gorgeous! And then all I'm going to do is just put a few strawberries, some blueberries
on top, give it a little pop of color. And that's it! Absolutely gorgeous. Now I know
we went to all this trouble to get the air in the egg whites and make it nice and light
and fluffy, all those things that I told you, so let me cut into the cake and show you what
it looks like on the inside. This Japanese cheesecake is without a doubt a show-stopping
dessert and it will definitely have people coming back for more. Da-da-da-da! My favorite
part of the job. It’s like a cheesecake cloud in your mouth. It’s absolutely delicious.
You are going to want to put this on your baking list, there's no doubt about it. I
really hope you enjoyed this episode and let me know in the comments below what other desserts
you'd like to see me make in the future. And I’ll see you back here really soon for more
Bigger Bolder Baking.