The cottony soft souffle cheesecake is praised for its incredible softness and airiness. It is super soft and spongy!
Ingredients
- 3 slices American cheese about 19-21 grams each slice
- 3 large eggs 58-60 grams each with the shell
- 50 gr cake flour
- 50 gr granulated sugar
- 50 gr unsalted butter
- 140 gr whole milk
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 285 F (140 C). If you have a top and bottom heat oven, you can set it to 250 F (120 C).
- I use a 6-inch loose-bottom round pan to bake the cake and another 8-inch round pan or any size pan you have that can fit in the 6-inch pan for the water bath. If you don’t have a loose bottom pan, line the bottom with parchment paper. I double wrap the 6-inch pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from sipping into the pan during baking.
- Line the side of the pan with parchment paper too, with the paper extending about 1 inch extra above the top of the pan. I find it easier to remove the cake when I line the side with a parchment paper. Fill up the larger pan with some water, about 1-inch high and I put this at the lowest rack, where I will be baking the cake. Let the pan with water preheat together with the oven
- Place cheese and milk in a saucepan over low heat. Keep stirring until the cheese melts completely. Remove from the heat and add the butter and stir until melts
- When the milk mixture is warm and not too hot, add the egg yolks. We don’t want to cook the yolks. Whisk to combine
- Sift in cake flour. Whisk to combine
- Don’t be alarmed that the batter is very watery. This is a high-liquid batter with only a small amount of flour. Set aside
- Start whipping the meringue at medium speed until foamy. Add the lemon juice and beat for another minute, then gradually add 1/3 of sugar and let it beat for another minute before adding another 1/3 until you run out. Increase the speed to 6 and whip until the mixture form a firm peak. When you lift the meringue up it will hold its shape but with slight bent on the tip. Stop beating
- Fold 1/3 of meringue into the batter using a whisk. Swipe down like a “J” motion and then fold over. You can be a bit more vigorous with this first round of folding to combine the batter and the meringue. Continue with the next 1/3 using the same “J” motion but be gentle and don’t take too long to combine either
- Continue with the last 1/3. Then switch to using a spatula with the same “J” motion and scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is folded in evenly. Sometimes some batter got stuck at the bottom of the bowl
- You shouldn’t see any more white meringue and the combined batter is silky smooth, light, airy, and tripled in size. Use a skewer or chopstick to go round and round the batter to pop any air bubbles inside the batter. Then tap the pan on the countertop 2-3 times to pop more air bubbles
- Carefully put this pan inside the larger pan. The water inside of the pan should be gently simmering as it has been preheated together with the oven. Close the door and set the timer to 20 minutes
- Increase temperature to 170 F (330 C). For top and bottom heat oven adjust to 150 C. Set the timer to 15 minutes. You don’t need to wait until it reaches the newly set temperature to start the timer. I kept monitoring its progress during this 15 minutes. This is the time where the cake starts to rise. If you start seeing some cracks are about to form, the oven is too hot. Open the oven door for about 10 seconds to release some pressure and close it back. If during that 15 minutes the cake still has a smooth top, then there’s no need to open the oven door
- Lower temperature to 120 C (250 F). For top and bottom heat oven adjust to 100 C. Open the oven door for 10 seconds and then gently close it back and set the timer to 60 minutes. You may not need 60 minutes. You can start checking at around 40 minutes
- Increase temperature to 150 C (300 F) and bake for another 10 minutes. This part is to brown the top of the cake. If yours is already brown, you can skip this part. Mine was still pretty pale at the end of the 50 minutes of baking. So I need a total of about 100 minutes to bake this cake. It could be different with your oven
- Turn off the oven and open the door for 10 seconds and then close it back and let the cake cools in the oven for 10 minutes
- Remove from the oven and drop the pan on the counter for 2-3 times to minimize shrinkage and let it sits on the counter for another 10 minutes.
- I started to unmould the cake by pushing up the cake (I use a loose-bottom pan). If you use a regular pan, trim off the excess paper on top and then invert the cake upside down on a cooling rack or a plate. Peel off the parchment paper at the bottom and the side. Flip the cake back onto a serving platter and let it cools down completely
