Fluffy Japanese Cheesecake

It was my dad's birthday a few weeks ago and my family is all about "light, NOT TOO SWEET" desserts. It completely rules out most frosted cakes and traditional birthday sweets so I had to do a little digging. My mom told me that my dad really really enjoyed this "thing from the bakeries in Hong Kong that is labeled 'blueberry cheesecake' but it's not a cheesecake, it's more like a sponge cake and is really light". A few years ago I tried a recipe for Japanese cheesecake that I found on Allrecipes.com and it seemed to fit the bill. Light, fluffy, not too sweet but also a 'cheesecake'. I wanted to find a better recipe though, and possibly something that incorporated blueberries, so I searched the food blogs and finally found it- Japanese Cotton Soft Rare Cheese Cheesecake. I just call it Fluffy Japanese Cheesecake though because cheesecake with the words 'cotton' and 'rare cheese' is a little intimidating. I also used google to painstakingly roughly translate all the measurements because I don't own a kitchen scale! In the end, my family really liked it telling me that it was "light and not too sweet". Go figure!!

Japanese Fluffy Cheesecake

• For soft cotton cheesecake
• 
  
• 50 g/2ozs butter (4 Tablespoons)
• 9 ozs cream cheese (1 block plus a little)
• 100 ml/3 fl ozs milk (A little less than 1/2 cup)
• 60g/2 ozs plain flour (1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon)
• 20g/1 oz cornflour (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 150g/5 ozs fine granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
  • 6 eggs separated
  • 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
  • 
    
  • For Rare Cheese cheesecake (Blueberry filling)
  • 
    
  • 100gm fresh or frozen blueberries (a little less than 1 cup)
  • 125gm cream cheese (1/2 block)
  • 100gm fresh cream (1/2 cup)
  • 3 tbsp fresh milk
  • 30gm sugar (1/4 cup)
  • ¼ tbsp lemon juice
  • 2½ tsp gelatin
  • ¼ cup hot water
• 
  
• 1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture over an ice bath.Add the flour, cornstarch, 6 egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
  2. Whisk 6 egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.
  3. Place a kettlefull of water to boil. Whisk in one third of the egg white mixture to the cheese mixture to lighten. Then add the rest in third batches and fold in carefully, making sure that the egg whites are thoroughly combined gently. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper). Wrap two layers of foil around the tin to prevent water seeping in. Place in a large baking dish.
  4. Carefully pour the boiling water around the cheesecake to make a water bath. Bake cheesecake in the water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F). Chill thoroughly.
     
     Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings
     
     Instructions for Blueberry Rare Cheese cheesecake
     
     1. Line the same 8 inch springform baking tin with parchment. In a small bowl, mix together gelatin with hot water and stir briskly with a fork until all of the gelatine is dissolved.
     2. Blend all remaining ingredients in a food processor. Add gelatine mixture and pulse until mixed. Scrape into prepared tin and cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until set.
• To Assemble
  
  
• 1. Split cooled cheesecake in half lengthwise. Carefully place the blueberry filling on the bottom half and then
• replace the top half. Garnish with freshly whipped cream and blueberries.
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