Japanese Cheesecake
Japanese LOOOOVE their cakes. And cheesecake is without an exception one of their favorite. The Japanese even have a day where they dedicate it to eating cakes called Kurisumasu. Cakes are pretty much the same in Japan and in Western countries, with exception to weird flavors like cherry blossom, wasabi, green tea just to name a few. I tried green tea cake with pistachios once and MAN IT WAS AWESOME - perfect blend of the bitter macha powder and sweet. It’s da bomb.
Anyway, I have a cheesecake recipe to share with you - I wish i made that green tea cake but I bought it from a specialty shop back home. The cheesecake is very simple lemony one with a chocolate base that you can just top with whatever you want. I topped mine with a strawberry reduction sauce, made from fresh strawberries and some sugar. It’s delicious.
Here’s the recipe.
Base:
1 cup chocolate cookies crumbs
2 tablespoon brown sugar
4 tablespoon butter
Cheese filling:
250g cream cheese of any kind (i.e. philadephia cheese), room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 yolk
1 egg white, beaten still stiff
rind of 1/2 lemon
1.5 tablespoon of lemon juice
Strawberry Reduction topping:
1 cup of fresh strawberries, halved and cored
1/4 cup of sugar
5 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon lemon rind
Making the base:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Coat your 8 inch cake pan with butter and dust with flour - shaking of the excess.
2. Make the base first by combining the cookie crumbs, butter and sugar. Mix with your fingers until the crumbs can hold together when you take some in your hands and squeeze it. It’s still crumbly but you can shape it.
3. Press the crumbs into the base of your cake pan and on the sides. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes.
4. After 8 minutes, take out your base to let it cool and reduce the oven temperature to 350F for later.
Making the cheese filling:
1. Beat the cheese until it’s light and fluffy. It takes about 7 mins.
2. Add sugar in gradually and keep beating until it is well combine.
3. Add 1 egg and egg yolk in, and beat until all is mixed in well. Beat for one minute on medium speed.
4. Now take out your spatula/wooden spoon and FOLD in your egg whites gently until well combined. Do not over mix, it’s alright if you can see lumps in your batter.
5. Pour cheese mixture into the base in the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350F and then another 30 mins in 300F.
6. After it’s done, take it out and let it cool. The cheese cake will sink a little bit, but that’s okay. It creates a proper crater for the strawberry reduction sauce ontop after :)
Making strawberry reduction:
1. Put strawberries, sugar and water in the pan and bring to boil. Stirring until strawberries mushed up and melt into a sauce.
2. Add in your lemon rind and let the mixture cook for about 10 more minutes under medium heat until it’s thick and reduced to about 3/4 of its original portion.
3. Plunge the pot in cold water to let the strawberry reduction cool, while stirring at the same time. Make sure no water gets in.
4. Pour the strawberry mixture ontop of the cheesecake and spread evenly.
Let you cheesecake cook completely before cutting :) Remember you can stop it with whatever fresh fruits you want. Sliced canned peaches and fresh strawberries would be awesome here too and then u can just top it off with a glaze. Cool. Serve. Pat your tummy :)
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