Three-Ingredient Japanese Cheesecake

By vlacer

This is a very simple recipe with lots of explanation if you're someone who needs to know the "whys" of cooking. It requires careful attention, but is worth it!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 120 grams cream cheese
• 120 grams white chocolate

Preparation

Step 1

Any type of chocolate can be substituted here, up to and including very dark chocolate, but the white chocolate creates a lovely pale cake, obviously darker chocolate will result in a chocolate cake!

Crack and separate the eggs, keeping the yolks to one side and chilling the white for as long as possible before using them. Chilling the whites helps them to remain very stable when beaten.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F.

Using a double boiler with water in the bottom pan, melt the chocolate until it is a smooth paste. A double boiler works to diffuse the heat from the hot plate, allowing the chocolate to melt without burning.

Whip the chilled egg whites until they form stiff peaks and will not fall out of the bowl when it is inverted. Returning to the chocolate, which is still in the double boiler, add the cream cheese, stirring it well and allowing it to soften with the heat and mix smoothly into the chocolate. Next, add the three egg yolks which you separated out earlier and mix them in well to the chocolate and cream cheese mixture.

Finally, add one-third of the egg white mixture, gently folding it into the cream cheese and chocolate. Repeat with each one-third of the egg white mixture, working gently and slowly until the mixture is smooth at each stage. Rushing this step will result in a thin, stodgy cake, the mixture must be handled delicately to prevent it deflating: hence the 'soufflé' part of the name!

Put the mixture into a well-oiled pan. Ochikeron uses oiled paper fitted inside a small cake tin. This will enable the cake to shrink down smoothly as it cook, sliding down the sides of the cake tin instead of sticking and causing the cake to break or crack. When the mixture is in the pan, gently lift up and then drop the pan – just a couple of inches – to help the mixture settle and remove any large air-bubbles. Again, too much vigor at this step could result in a flattened cake. Stand the cake tin on a deep baking tray and pour some water onto the baking tray.

The water does not touch the cake mixture, rather, it creates a moat around the cake tin. Pop the baking tray into the oven and bake the cake for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 160°C/320°F for a further 15 minutes.

Finally, switch the oven off but leave the cake inside for a final 15 minutes.

Pop the cake onto a cooling tray and, if desired, sprinkle with a little icing sugar. Enjoy!