Today we will prepare the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. What taste can this dessert have? Well, certainly not cotton wool! Cotton makes it structure. Delicate, airy, lush - this dessert looks more like a biscuit than a cheesecake. Why Japanese? Despite the fact that even in the Land of the Rising Sun the dish is called “Chizukeki” (that there is a phonetic tracing-paper from the English name of this kind of baking), Japan is still the birthplace of dessert. Of course, the main ingredient in it is cheese. But in a Japanese cheesecake, it is so tender that it looks more like a cottage cheese casserole or scrambled eggs, steamed from a pair of whipped eggs. The dessert is so tender that it melts in your mouth. And this is not a romantic metaphor. Really melting. But enough intros. We put on an apron and proceed to cooking. There are three recipes in this article. All of them require about an hour and a half time.
Ingredients
Despite the fact that the structure - lush, porous, tender - the Japanese cotton cheesecake is more like a biscuit, the products for it are required like a classic cheese pie. We need a 200-milliliter glass of milk, six eggs, one hundred and forty grams of granulated sugar. Butter should be pre-softened to room temperature. It will only need sixty grams. So this dessert will not be expensive. We also need sixty grams of flour and 20 grams of starch. But not potato, but corn, because Japanese cheesecake. And most importantly - cheese, three hundred grams. It should be greasy, creamy. Ideally, this is a mascarpone. In conditions of import substitution, neutral “Philadelphia” or just fat cottage cheese will do. From the equipment, we stock up on a removable form of small diameter. For the above ingredients, twenty centimeters are fine. The cooking method is approximately the same as that of other cheese pies. Only in the classic homemade cheesecake do not divide the eggs into proteins and yolks. And we should do this for an Asian dessert.
Japanese Cotton Cheesecake: An Authentic Recipe
Put cream cheese in a metal saucepan. Pour milk. We put the container in a water bath. In the process of heating, we mix so that both ingredients are completely mixed and a semi-liquid mass is obtained. You need to make sure that she does not become very hot. After removing from heat, add oil. Mix. Beat the yolks with forty grams of granulated sugar. This magnificent white mass is introduced into the dough for cheesecake. Sifting in a bowl also flour and starch. Knead so that there are no lumps left. In a separate container, beat the proteins with the remaining sugar. When the mass reaches soft peaks, enter into the dough. But carefully so as not to fall. Knead our Japanese Cotton Cheesecake.
Bakery products
The most important thing at this stage is to achieve complete tightness of the form with the dough. After all, it will need to be put in a large container filled with water. For this, the shape should be tightly wrapped in several layers of foil. Including the bottom. We cover the inside of the mold with cooking paper. But this is already being done so that the finished Japanese Cotton Cheesecake does not stick to the walls. Preheat the oven to one hundred and fifty degrees. On a baking sheet or in another wide container suitable for an oven, pour hot water to a height of about the thickness of a finger. Pour the dough into the prepared form. We put in the oven for an hour and twenty minutes. After turning off the oven, let it cool completely. We shift in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve. Separately put the bowl with jam or fresh berries.
The second recipe for "Japanese cotton"
It differs from the first only in that at the very first stage we do without a water bath. Mix cold milk (180 grams) with cream cheese cream using a blender. Oil (about 70-80 g) needs to be melted. More sugar should be added to the yolks than in the previous recipe — fifty grams. Plus, you can season them with vanilla or grated lemon peel. After combining with the cheese and milk base, slightly beat the mass with a whisk. Add flour mixed with starch. Knead until the lumps completely disappear.
Let's take the squirrels. They should be brought to soft peaks. It is this consistency of whipped sugar proteins that will make the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake high, lush and tender. We introduce them into the base very carefully, in three or four doses. We prepare the form, as in the previous recipe. It is important that thick parchment paper stick out above its walls so that the dough has a place to go. We put the form and the pan with water at the very bottom of the oven heated to one hundred and fifty degrees. Bake for about an hour.
Third recipe: ingredients
This is a more expensive, festive Japanese cotton cheesecake. The recipe involves taking two hundred and fifty milliliters of milk and 50 ml of fat cream, 250-300 g of cream cheese (Philadelphia or mascarpone), seven eggs, a bar of dark chocolate (natural), one hundred grams of flour and approximately the same amount of butter. It will take an incomplete teaspoon of citric acid. To sweeten the dessert, you will need one hundred and fifty grams of regular sugar and two bags of vanilla. To decorate the cheese pie, store fresh strawberries or raspberries. The cream in this list of recipes allows you to replace with fat sour cream, tossed overnight on gauze. Instead of "Mascarpone" you can use homemade cottage cheese. But it should be previously kneaded to a creamy state.
How to Make a Celebratory Cotton Cheesecake
We boil milk and dissolve the oil in it. In a separate bowl, beat with a mixer mascarpone (or cottage cheese) and granulated sugar. Add the yolks one at a time. Whisk. Add a little cooled, but still hot milk. Pour two bags of vanilla sugar. Switch the mixer to medium speed. Enter the sifted flour. Change the nozzle of the mixer from the corollas to the spirals. Beat the dough until the lumps disappear. After that, let it cool completely. Beat whites. To make them elastic, add a little sugar and citric acid. Thick protein foam is mixed with a cheese base. We prepare the form similar to the previous recipes, but grease the parchment with margarine. We put the "Cotton" cheesecake in a stove warmed up to one hundred and eighty degrees. Cook for about an hour. The edges of the finished pie should be browned, but the middle should remain moist and flutter slightly when shaking the shape. Divide the cream equally. Beat one half with berries, and the other with melted chocolate bars. Using a syringe, decorate the cake.
Is the participation of kitchen assistants possible?
Sure! You can cook a Japanese cotton cheesecake in a slow cooker and a bread machine. The first device is even easier - no need to be afraid that the tightness of the form will be violated. We prepare the dough according to one of the recipes above. It should be airy, magnificent. We take baking paper and cut out a circle from it that matches the diameter of the bowl of your multicooker. Grease this parchment with butter on both sides. We put in the bowl of the multicooker. Cut two wide strips of parchment. We lay them crosswise. The tips of the paper should protrude slightly above the walls of the bowl. Pour the dough. We set the “Baking” mode and prepare the hour (for “Redmond”, fifty minutes will be enough). At the end of the program, in no case do not open the lid. Let's wait another hour. Remove the cooled cheesecake from the bowl with the help of strips of paper and put in the refrigerator for the night, wrapping it with cooking film.
Reviews
Originating in Greece as a “placenta pie,” cheesecake has become the national pride of the culinary specialists of Great Britain and the USA. And now, having been to Japan, he returned to us with the interesting name "Cotton". In America, where cheese pies are very fond of, it is called the Cotton Japanese Sponge Cheesecake. "Japanese cotton" reviews are described as biscuit in structure. In the context, the cake is spongy (which is why the word "sponge" in the name is also called), porous, light, almost weightless. But unlike a biscuit, it is not dry at all. The humidity of the cheese is felt in the taste, which, according to reviews, is simply wonderful. As for the ingredients, all of them, except the mascarpone, of course, are not very expensive. And if you have a powerful mixer at your disposal, a cheesecake will not take you much time and effort.