Chocolate cotton cheesecake

I have tried so many cotton cheesecakes including a whole series in 2017 where I tried a whole series of cotton cheesecake experiments.

Because I'm bored with plain cotton cheesecake, here I focus on chocolate cotton cheesecake which I have never tried before. I note the use of flour rather than cake flour in both recipes, the Kat Kwa version using 8" pan with 5 eggs, and the Kitchen101 version using 9" pan with written recipe here using 6 eggs. From my previous experiments, I've realised that my small oven can only take up to a 8" pan and the big oven works best with the 9" pan. Other than that differences in proportions and slight differences in method, the main ingredients are the same - plain flour, milk (unlike cake flour and variations such as double cream, whipping cream or condensed milk in some recipes), melted chocolate and cocoa. 

Note that in terms of baking time, the 8" takes 150 deg C for 90 mins in 1 inch tap water with no extra cooling down time in the often and unmolding immediately after removal from the oven. The larger cake is baked in cloth lined water-bath also 1 inch tap water baked at 150 deg C for 40 mins then 1h 20mins at 140 deg C. Then left to cool with door ajar in turned off oven for 40 to 50 mins to minimise shrinkage. After removing from oven, unmould and cool in elevated position 6" from counter top. Not sure why there's such a huge difference in the baking times!

Ingredients (for 8" pan)

225g cream cheese

50g butter

80g dark chocolate for baking

150ml milk

20g cocoa

50g flour

5 eggs, separated

90g caster sugar

pinch of salt

dash of lemon/lime juice

Method

1. In a bain marie, melt the cream cheese, butter and dark chocolate using a spatula. When all melted, add in milk using a whisk to combine but don't whisk too hard and introduce air. (Optionally, add in 2 to 3 tbsp of sugar)

2. Remove from the pot from the heat and add the yolks one at a time, using the whisk to combine.

3. Sift in the cocoa and flour with the pinch of salt, and again use the whisk to combine.

4. In a very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites. Once the whites are frothy, squirt in the lemon/lime juice. Then, slowly rain in the caster sugar at intervals. Turn up the KA and beat until soft peaks. Just when it's almost soft peaks, turn down the KA to low to beat out the bubbles.

5. Using the whisk transfer over ¼ of the meringue into the yolk-cream cheese mixture and combine lightly. You can be quite rough with this.

6. Pour the mixture back into the remaining meringue and use the whisk to combine. Be more careful but do a good job. Finally, transfer to a spatula and fold carefully.

7. Prepare the baking tin and line the sides with parchment so that the parchment is taller than the side of the tin. Your cake WILL grow and overflow otherwise. Using foil, wrap the outside of the tin so that water doesn't go in. In a larger tray that's large enough to hold the baking tin, pour in around 1 inch of room temp water. 

8. Place the tin in the water bath. Bake for 90 mins at 150 deg C. Once done remove immediately and unmold but not removing the parchment. Elevate the cake and allow the cake to cool at least 6 cm away from the counter top.

9. Once fully chilled, remove the parchment and keep the cake in a airtight container for 4 hrs or best overnight to fully chill. Cake tastes better fully chilled than at room temp.

Feedback

- In the past, I used cake flour and I'm wondering if it's caused me a multitude of problems including cake deflating. This time I used plain flour to hopefully give the cake more structure.

- The cake cracked and burnt. Note to self - in my small oven, the cake is too close to the top heating element once it sits in the water bath tray. It's fine for castella because there's no water bath. And as a result too, there was a very serious 2 waists!

- The positive side is that because i removed it from the oven almost immediately and removed the tin, this had no effect in terms of deflating. It was already badly cracked due to being too close to the heating element, so it made no difference.