Japanese Cheesecake

I baked this cake twice. Once with full fat cream cheese and a second time with 1/3 less fat cream cheese. both time yielded excellent results with slight differences in texture. Full fat cream cheese produced more moist but denser cake, whereas the 1/3 less fat one gave you dryer but fluffier cake. Both are good depending on your mood and preferences. I also discover that using fresh lemon juice is key to achieve balanced flavor. Bottled lemon juice just leaves that sharp lemony flavor that some reviewers seem to dislike.

3 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

i have made this cake 4 times now. i use 8oz of low fat cream cheese, 11/2 tbs lemon juice, and i also add in a little vanilla extract and a tiny amount of rum flavoring. this just adds the the decadence. i also use 1/2% milk, it makes for a nice low fat treat at coffee time. i bake for 20 minutes then have to put foil over it the rest of the time. i really do prefer the cake the next day after being refrigerated. very good!

1 person found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Great recipe!! The lemon really brings out the cheese flavour, and the texture is surprisingly creamy. I thought it would be a bit more cakie. It melts in my mouth, and isnt nearly as rich as the cheesecake I am used to. Wouldn't change a thing.......well I did used the whole pack of cream cheese instead of just 7oz ;)

1 person found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Delicious Cheesecake! Its like eating clouds, its so light and fluffy. Just one note, the cheesecake should be left in the oven with the oven turned off after cooking for one hour for best results. Thanks for posting.

1 person found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

First trial didn't turn out good but the texture is definately there. Here's a few tips: 1) For first timer, to beat egg white to become foamy and peak, you MUST MAKE SURE the bowl and beater DOES NOT have oil. Must be absolutely clean. Don't use plastic bowl because oil tends to stay on it even after cleaning. Egg white MUST NOT HAVE even a slight egg yolk in it. Normally people beat egg yolk first, but I am lazy. I beat the white first, so I don't need to clean the beater when I use for egg yolk. But you have to make sure you prepare all the ingredients and work fast. Otherwise the foamy egg white will become flat. 2)You might need to consider reducing lemon juice or go with none. After reading other reviews, I reduced to 1 tbs, and still turned out too sour. I use fresh lemon juice. 3) Baking time really varies. Mine take 1.5 hours, using a square pan. 4) Cool it in the oven that you turn off so it doesn't sink. 5) If you try to bake it without the roasting pan containing water, the side will burn very fast. Hope it helps!

1 person found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This is such a great recipe! It's so very light and fluffy plus it's gluten free and can be very low fat. I've baked it twice but have had to make a couple of technique adjustments. The first one I baked rose too quickly so cracked badly. I turned down the oven for the second which worked much better (from 180C to 150C). Having the cake tin in the water bath tended to make the cake slightly damp at the base even though the loaf tin did not allow leaks. It may have been condensation that caused that. I eliminated the dampness by putting the cake on a rack above the water bath - not in it. Finally, leaving it inside the oven to cool without disturbance kept it from shrinking. I did substitute full fat milk and full fat cream cheese with low fat milk and low fat cream cheese which worked just as well. I will continue to bake this wonderful cake.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This was a strange cake to bake (I'm not a very experienced baker) but it turned out fantastic! I did make a few changes: I used half and half instead of whole milk as it was what I had in the fridge and I used a glass 9x9 pan for the cake, baked it at 325 degrees for 35 min and it came out perfect! Looking back at the recipe, it looks like I was supposed to use boiling water for the water bath but I just poured in some cool-ish tap water. My cake didn't crack or burn at all. I also used 2 TBSP of freshly squeezed lemon juice and thought it was not over powering. The lemon and cheese flavor were both present but faint, which I thought was perfect. I'm not sure how others got their cake out of the pan but when I tried to flip it out, half of it stuck in the pan! I then proceeded to flip it back in, cover it with some strawberry glaze and lots of freshly sliced strawberries and served it right out of the pan :) It was my DH's birthday cake and everyone thought it was very good... so good they all had seconds and left nothing but the cake pan! I enjoyed this more then american cheesecake and will be making this again!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

great flavor, amazing texture-- light and cottony. no need for the glaze! perfect with oolong or black tea.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I am very pleased with this recipe. It fit perfectly in my 9-inch baking pan and the taste was great after sitting in the refrigerator overnight. Tastes like a lighter version of New York cheesecake. I used light cream cheese, regular sugar and skim milk and it still had a great creamy texture. Didn't add any glaze. Thanks for posting.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

WOW!! I used 8 oz. cream cheese (I have no idea what I would use with the remaining 1 oz.), 1% milk, regular sugar, used a cold water bath, and omitted the glaze. Even with all these changes - it was great. Lots of cheesecake taste but without all the cheese - perfect for dieters.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

This was awesome! I had it plain without the glaze. I still sliced it as thin as I would a normal slice of cheesecake so I got 12 servings, which makes this a much much healthier option than a regular cheesecake that would call for 4-5 times as much cream cheese. I love the lighter texture, it is a perfect light summer dessert! Thanks so much for sharing. =)

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

i am Japanese and have been looking for Japanese cheese cake recipe. my favorite Japanese cheesecake has 3 different taste layers and this cheese cake has exactly same taste with the middle layer. i am really happy to find this recipe! thank you for sharing!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Good basic recipe. Next time I will whip my egg whites for longer to make it lighter/fluffier. The water bath is essential and helps avoid cracking so don't skip that part!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I followed this recipe to the letter with the exception that I cooked it in a pressed biscuit base instead of a water bath. I did place a dish of hot water under the cake while cooking to reduce cracking. It was excellent.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

I used 9" springform pan and lined it with parchment paper. Then wrapped the outside with a big sheet of aluminum foil. The water didn't go in the cake. However, my cake flattened and shrunk after a short while. I wonder if I didn't beat the egg white long enough. I followed one of the comments to reduce the lemon juice to 1/2 table spoon. I personally like cake not too sweet, so I reduced to sugar to just a bit more than 1/3 cup. The taste was just right for me. Other than the shrunk size, cake was soft and cottony. I'll keep tryining!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Well I'm sure the is a high quality recipe, but personally I didn't like it. It's tasteless, and the fluffiness settles out of it after you refrigerate it. Maybe I'm just used to American cheesecake.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Delicious! I didn't have cream of tartar, and I accidentally added the sugar too early, so I beat the egg whites alone, but it turned out lovely. I used blackberry jam for the glaze since that was all I had on hand. It took a few bites to get used to the different flavor from American cheesecake, but now I'm hooked! My husband loved it too!

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

Great recipe! I miss Japanese style cheesecake, what we call baked cheesecake (we call NY style rare cheesecake in Japan). I couldn't find cream of tartar at the store, so I made it without it twice and turned out OK both times. It seems it's easier to beat egg whites while they are cold. When I left them at room temperature for a while before beating, cake did not get thicker/bigger as much.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account

It is a great recipe. I'm Japanese and I can tell this is real Japanese cheesecake. I baked for tea gathering with my friends and they all loved it.

0 people found this review Helpful. You can only vote others' reviews helpful or not helpful... Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No We don't know who you are. Sign in or create an account