Mia's Recipe: Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

On Sunday, I totally went on a crazed baking spree and baked 2 kind of cheesecakes. One of them is the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake (Cupcakes). Sounds good? So let's get on with the ingredients so we can get started. 

We will need: 

Cream Cheese - 200g (I may experiment with the usual 250g tub another time)

Milk - 200ml 

Butter - 60g

Eggs - 6 nos.

Sugar - 140g

Flour - 60g (I used AP, but I believe cake flour is the best choice)

Corn Starch - 20g

First, heat up the milk in a pot over heat and melt in the cream cheese and butter until mixture turns smooth and leave it to cool.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites (make sure absolutely no traces of yolks get into the whites) and beat the whites till frothy. Add in sugar in 3 batches, beating in between each additions and then continue beating on high until meringue stage (peaks formed). 

I beat mine for 20 minutes in total, on mid-high speed. 

By this time, your cream cheese mixture should be cooled. Add in the egg yolks and mix until well combined. 

Sift in the flour and corn starch and mix well. 

Next, temper the cream cheese mixture by adding in 1/4 to 1/3 of the meringue and stirring until well combined (very important!) 

Pour the tempered cream cheese mixture back into the meringue and fold lightly to combine. 

Take note not to over mix this final mixture, if not your cakes will not come out fluffy and 'cottony'! 

 Scoop the batter into your muffin tins lined with cupcake liners (I did 2.3 tbsp for each no. 8 sized liners) and bake them over a hot water bath at 160 to 170 degree celsius for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. 

Baking over hot water bath simply means pouring some boiling water in your baking tray before sitting your muffin tins directly into the water, but making sure they're not immersed. 

I baked my cupcakes at 160 degree celsius for the first 20 minutes before turning up my heat to 170 degree celsius when i realised my top were still pretty 'white'. I want to get my top nicely browned and was worried that continuing to bake them slowly at 160 might dry out their centre. 

As you can see,  my cupcakes shrank pretty bad. This was because I baked mine in 2 batches and I must take out this first batch before I can put in my 2nd batch. They immediately collapsed and shrank when i set them out on the cooling rack, due to the sudden drop in temperature. 

For my 2nd batch, I decided to off the mains after 22 to 23 minutes (instead of 25 minutes) and let the cupcakes cool slowly in the oven itself. The shrinkage was less obvious.

 And here's a shot of how the middle looks like. Extremely fluffy and moist. :)

Till then,

Mia