Black sesame cotton cheesecake

By Kat Kwa. Other flavours of hers are Choc cotton cheesecake and Earl Grey cotton cheesecake which have all been made using 8 inch round tin with removable base and 5 eggs using chiffon method. I am adapting using 6 eggs in 29 inch round removable base pan.

Ingredients

250g cream cheese

60g butter

192ml milk

60g plain flour (or 80g cake flour - I used cake flour because I was very thorough with the whisking to take out the lumps)

48g ground black sesame

6 eggs, separated

⅛ tsp of salt

140g caster sugar

Method

1. Place the cheese, butter, and milk in a bain marie. Gently whisk to melt. Remove from heat.

2. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix with whisk. 

3. Add the black sesame and mix with whisk.

4. Add the yolks. Whisk to incorporate.

5. Whisk the 5 egg whites until opaque. Add salt.

6. Continue to while adding sugar in 3 batches. Beat until soft peaks.

7. Add ⅓ of meringue into black sesame mixture. Use whisk to incorporate.

8. Pour back the mixture into the remaining meringue. Fold in using whisk then spatula to ensure no white streaks.

9. Pour into prepared 9 inch tin with removable base and lined with parchment. Tap on the counter to dispel big bubbles.

10. Place tin into a larger tin and pour in room temp water 1 inch up the side.

11. Bake at 150 deg C water bath for 90 - 95 minutes (depending on temp control).

12. Once done, remove immediately from oven. Drop on counter and unmold, including removing parchment. Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Rose beyond the tin in the oven

Sides started to deflate after cooling.

Recipe feedback

- Sides deflated as it cooled. I wonder if using flour instead of cake flour would have prevented that.

- Middle top was slightly burnt but middle inside was still a bit wet but JUST cooked. I can't turn up the heat or keep it another minute otherwise top will burn. This seemed to solve itself next day once it had set overnight in the fridge.

- Not sweet at all, could add another 20g of sugar. (added to recipe above)

- As usual, this formed a waist when it started to deflate. The instructions said to remove it immediately out of the oven and drop on the counter and then unmould and remove parchment unlike most other cotton cheesecake recipes which ask for leaving the cake in the oven with it off to slowly cool down. 

- This cotton cheesecake recipe by Rice&Flour suggests possible reasons and solutions including improper beating (beat until soft peaks, which I did), baking in a water bath with boiling water straight from the kettle and water going up to ⅓ or ½ way up (which I didn't because I set the cake on a grill in my water bath to elevate it out of the water). I'm not convinced because Kat Kwa's cake sits in a tin to keep it out of the water and then the baking tray. 

- The third and most interestingly, having too small an oven for the cake tin because the tin needs to sit in the middle of the oven. Specially forming a waist, sinking in the middle or deflating is attributed to oven i.e., wrong baking temp or insufficient baking time, or too large pan in too small oven. She bakes at 150-160 deg C using 6 eggs with 20cm pan for 70 to 90 minutes. She advises overbaking is better than underbaking so better to leave it in oven turned off for additional 15-20 mins. She also says that big pan in small oven often leads to uncooked middle so better to turn down temp and bake for longer. She also talks about understanding your oven. Tips include not letting the batter of beaten eggs rest for too long (which weakens rising), place baking pan at centre of oven and use top and bottom heat. Top heat too high causes rapid rise and then collapse/deflate once out of the oven yet top burned and tough but centre heavy and undercooked. If temp is too low, crust will be hard and pale in colour yet interior is dense and wet so cake also sinks when out of oven.