Ingredients
250ml milk
250g cream cheese at room temp, cubed
60g butter, room temp
6 eggs (21 deg C is ideal), separated
55g cake flour
20g corn flour
120g sugar (reduced 10g from original recipe)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
1) Butter the bottom and sides of the springform tin. Add a disc of parchment to the bottom of the pan. Cover the outside of the tin with several layers of foil to prevent water seepage later on. (I don’t need to do this as I’m using a PushPan.) Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
2) Sift the corn flour and cake flour mixture twice. Boil the water. Heat milk hot to the touch.
3) In a medium bowl, beat butter and egg yolks using a whisk. Beat the cream cheese in until smooth. Add vanilla, salt, milk and lemon juice and whisk till smooth.
4) Using the whisk, whisk in the flour in 3 batches till no lumps of flour remain. Strain mixture and set aside.
5) In a very clean bowl (no oil, soap, or water), beat egg whites on low speed until foamy and opaque. Add sugar in 3 batches. Once all the sugar has been added, increase to max speed and beat till stiff peaks (double in volume and glossy) which takes about 4 mins. (A telltale is that just before soft peaks, the volume ‘suddenly’ increases and once again just before stiff peaks). It is best to stop beating at soft peaks to check then repeat beating at 30s intervals because once the meringue is over-beaten, it cannot be used. Beat to just before stiff peaks.
6) Using the whisk, fold in 1/3 of the meringue to the yolk/flour batter and break up the egg white. You can whisk (but not too vigorously!) and not worry too much about breaking the foam. Use the whisk and add another third of the meringue to the yolk/flour batter but carefully break up the foam. Finally, TRANSFER the entire batter to the bowl with the remaining 1/3 meringue and use the whisk to fold in by scooping then lifting action from the bottom and lift through to the top. Rotate the bowl slowly as you do this.
7) Pouring slowly from a height of 2 to 3 inches above, pour in so that you don’t get big bubbles. Make slashes in the batter with the spatula or run a skewer in a zigzag fashion in the batter and pierce big bubbles. Gently smoothen the top of the batter. (Update: Previously, I recommended 'dropping' the cake tin on the table but realised that after 2 days, the cake 'separated' ie the cheese sank and the meringue 'floated' to the top. From my experience with chiffons with 'filling' e.g. choc chips, I found that the filling sank when I dropped the batter on the table top.)
8) In a baking tray, place the cake tin and pour in about 1 to 1.5 cups of water to bake in a water bath. It should come up to about 2 cm up the side but up to no more than halfway.
9) In the lowest rack of the oven, turn down the temp and bake at 155 deg C (without grill) for 50 minutes (it reads halfway between 150 and 175 on my oven’s dial), checking for doneness after 45 mins. The initial burst of hot air helps to brown the top. After the 30th minute (and only then otherwise the cake may deflate), rotate the pan to get even browning. The sides should be set but the centre still slightly wobbly.
10) Leave cake in the oven with door ajar for 10 to 15 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
11) Once the the cake has slightly shrunk away from the pan, run a knife around the sides to prevent cracking as it shrinks. Leave to cool completely on the wire rack.
12) Once completely cooled, do not unmould. Place a kitchen paper on top of the springform and cover with a plate to absorb any further condensation. Place in the fridge to cool for at least 12 hours.
13) Again, run a knife along the sides. Unmould the side but not the bottom. Serve it on the bottom.
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