Sunday, June 30, 2019

Matcha cheesecake

I intended to make a matcha chocolate cheesecake with double cream, 3 eggs, and no flour in a 28 inch tin but unfortunately, my cream had gone bad. I had to quickly switch recipes and found one that also uses 1 packet (250g) of cream cheese but needed cake flour and 6 eggs. That was alright, I had these ready.

Source: https://www.craftpassion.com/matcha-japanese-cheesecake/2/

I adapted the method based on what I had already done halfway and the temperature is indeterminate because I accidentally left the oven on during the portion where the oven door was open.

Ingredients (for 8 inch tin)
1 block (250g) cream cheese, room temp
6 eggs, separated
140g sugar
100ml milk
60g butter
60g cake flour
8g corn flour
12g matcha powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp vinegar or lemon juice

Method
1. Line a 8" tin with parchment. Butter the sides. Wrap the outside of the tin with double layer of foil so that water does not seep in. Meanwhile, prepare a larger baking tin (large enough to fit the cake tin).
2. Melt the cream cheese over a bain marie. Add egg yolks and beat with whisk until smooth.
3. Add half the sugar and whisk. Add the salt and combine.
4. Place the milk and butter in the microwave and microwave until the butter has melted. Add to the batter and combine.
5. Sift together the cake flour, corn flour, and matcha. Pour into the batter in batches and fold.
6. In an extremely clean bowl, beat the egg whites. Add the sugar in batches and beat. Add the vinegar and beat. Beat until stiff peaks.
7. Mix the batter with ⅓ of the meringue. Add the next third and fold in. Finally, pour the batter into the bowl with the remaining third of the meringue and carefully fold in so as not to knock out the air.
8. Pour into the cake tin and drop on the counter top to dispel the big bubbles. Use a spatula to make slashes to dispel more bubbles.
9. Place in the baking tin and pour in just boiled water so that it comes ⅔ up the side of the cake tin.
10. Bake for 160 deg C for 45 mins, then 140 for 45 minutes. Switch off and leave to cool in the oven with door open for 30 minutes.
11. Remove to countertop and drop from a height of 10cm (protect your counter top of course!). This prevents it from shrinking too much. As it cools, it will shrink away from the sides. Leave to cool completely, preferably overnight in the fridge.
Hasn't shrunk that much after cooling for half hour on countertop
12. To unmould the cake, use a spatula to go round the sides to release. Cut with a clean knife and to get really cleanly cut slices, wipe after each cut.

A bit dense but at least not eggy tasting

Recipe feedback
- My temperature control was really bad because I was alternating between fan forced and non-fan forced. I realised that with heating element (non-fan forced) only, the temp dropped 20 deg very quickly and the guage was off by at least 20 deg. So even though I started at 160 deg C, it quickly dipped to 130 or when I switched on the fan, it rose to 170. After I switched off the oven (or thought I did), there was no jiggle left. I and left the door open but had in fact left the heater on so the temp dropped from 160 to 130 in the 45 mins that the door was open. 
- Whatever the case may be, it seems that the initial hot air of 160 is needed to both brown the cake and dry up the top, but also to create the lift. The 140 deg C is then needed to dry the inside and cook through. Thus, a half-half timing that I've incorporated above seems for a 8" cake.
- Matcha is very difficult to work with. It either creates a very dry cake or very dense without much lift. Thus this cake was very dense and I don't know if it's because of the matcha or because my eggs weren't fresh enough. I had beaten still stiff peaks but it didn't seem to have helped.

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