Fluffy and Giggly Japanese Cheesecake

On a double boiler (a bowl on a pot with simmering water) mix the cream cheese and 20g of the butter together. Brig to room temperature by constantly mixing them with a whisker until they are combined. Set aside.

Heat the milk and the whipping cream in a pot. Bring it close to the boiling point, then turn off the heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks with 30g of sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and flour and mix well. Add the hot milk and cream gradually while you keep mixing. After you mixed everything well and the milk is fully incorporated, place the bowl on a double boiler and keep whisking the custard until it starts to thicken. 

Very important! The water should be simmering slowly, we don't want to overcook the custard (and also make sure the hot water does not touch the bottom of the bowl in which the custard is being mixed). It is very important to keep mixing to get a feel of when it will start to thicken (usually approx. 5 minutes). Once it starts thickening, take it off the heat and set it aside. The custard should have a pouring consistency, it should not be stable or too thick like normal custard/creme patissiere, otherwise the cake will not rise, so make sure you don't overcook it and over-thicken it!

Pour the cooked custard over the cream cheese mixture and mix them together until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a teaspoon of the remaining sugar (50g). Keep mixing until it reaches the soft shampoo stage (30 seconds) and then add half of the teaspoon and mix 1 more minute, then repeat the step for the second half of sugar. At the end you should be left with a soft meringue, not stiff.

Notes on the meringue:

1. The egg whites should be cold, so make sure you refrigerate them at least 30 minutes in advance. Why? This will give us a more stable meringue with smaller air bubbles. 
2. Start with a high speed then end the meringue with low speed in a such a way so that the soft peaks will gently fall back into the bowl and they are not stiff like in a regular meringue.

Once it is done, quickly incorporate the meringue into the cheese and custard mixture. Do in such a way so that you will incorporate the meringue 3 times. The first time, you can use the whisker by gently getting the meringue in the cheese mixture. Then you can use a spatula to fold the meringue gently, making sure it's not falling to the bottom. Once incorporated, transfer to the baking tin.

This should be the first step actually. Take a 18 cm diameter round cake tin and brush it with the remaining 20g of melted butter. Line with baking paper and brush again with melted butter. After that, dust everything with icing sugar. This will ensure that your cheesecake won't have wrinkles. 

Transfer the baking tin into another square or rectangular tin and make sure you cover the cake tin with silver foil because we will steam the cheesecake, that means you will have to pour hot water in the square tin in such a way so that the bottom of the cheesecake will be covered with water.

Bake in the preheated oven (I have preheated it at 220 degrees) at 200 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes then for 20 more minutes at 150 degrees (depends on the oven). How do you now it is ready? First of all, try not to open the door, only after at least 25 minutes, otherwise it might crack. Try to move the cheesecake and see if it wobbles badly. If  it does, of course it is not cooked, if it doesn't and it seems stable and it has a golden brown top, hen it is ready. Turn off the heat and let the cheesecake stabilise in the switched off oven for 45 more minutes (you can slightly open it by putting a utensil between the door and the oven to let the hot steam escape). Take it out after 45 minutes and let it come to room temperature.

Refrigerate for at least 3-5 hours and serve with icing sugar and fresh fruit.

Poftă bună!