Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

(русскую версию можно посмотреть здесь)

140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (can also use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 vanilla pod, scrapped
zest of 1/2 lemon

1. Melt cream cheese, butter, milk, vanilla seeds and pod, over a double boiler. Strain the mixture through a sieve just to make sure there are no lumps of cream cheese. Discard the pod or wash, dry it and put it in your sugar container. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, salt, egg yolks, lemon zest and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar or lemon juice until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. To prevent large holes, do not whisk egg whites at the fastest speed. Use a moderate speed to achieve soft peaks (and tiny bubbles).

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and fold well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan; make sure the paper is 1.5 inch higher than the pan as the cake will rise pretty high if u’ve done it right, with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper). Wrap the base of your cake tin with aluminium foil if you are using a springform tin, to prevent seepage. Cover the top of the cake loosely with an aluminium sheet.

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 mins or until set and golden brown at 160°C. Remove the aluminium sheet after 50 minutes of baking.

5. Leave to cool in oven with door ajar, about 30mins to 1 hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.