Soufflé Cheesecake

A traditional Japanese cheesecake with a winter flavor twist

If there has ever been a cake I’ve felt ambivalent about, it’s cheesecake. For whatever reason it has just never ranked high on my list of intriguing baked goods. That is, it didn’t until I started realizing just how diverse the world of cheesecake actually is.

My appreciation for cheesecakes that were different from American cheesecake began in college when I was studying abroad in Germany. There I tried käsekuchen (German cheesecake), which to this day is implanted in my memory as a dessert completely its own. It’s distinct in several ways, but two stand out for me because of their flavor and texture influences:

1. Made with quark¹ and lightened typically with whipped egg whites, käsekuchen is creamy yet not as dense as American cheesecake.

2. While a graham cracker crust often makes up the base of an American cheesecake, the bottom of a käsekuchen is typically a sweet pastry crust made from flour, butter, sugar, and egg.

After Germany, when I moved to the UK, I learned a little about sernik (Polish cheesecake) from some of my Polish colleagues and friends. I got to taste a homemade version someone made for a birthday celebration, and remember its more shortcrust-like base and lighter filling. It was my first and only taste of twaróg², which lent its own distinct flavor and texture to the cake.

In researching a bit about sernik more recently, I’ve learned that it too is typically made with a sweet pastry crust, and that egg whites are used to lighten the filling. What seems to distinguish it further is the traditional use of cooked potato or potato flour for stabilizing the filling (more modern recipes seem to use powdered instant pudding for that purpose). I’ve also learned that there are different variations of sernik. Some can have both a bottom and a top crust, some are made with gelatin and not baked, some are enhanced with fruit or chocolate in the filling, and some are glazed or dusted with sugar on top. The options seem plentiful when it comes to sernik.

Since returning to the U.S., I have discovered more cheesecakes from around the world, mostly through my work at King Arthur Baking Company. Both the Basque cheesecake and soufflé cheesecake caught my attention several years ago, and they both became recipe development projects I have pursued since then.

I may return to the subject of Basque cheesecake in another newsletter, but as a brief overview, this is the cheesecake that is also commonly referred to as burnt Basque cheesecake. It’s crustless and distinguishable by its dark brown, sometimes blackened surface, which gives way to an ultra creamy, sometimes runny center. It was developed relatively recently (1990) by Santiago Rivera — the chef and owner of La Viña restaurant, in San Sabastian, Spain — and in its short history has captivated the attention of chefs worldwide. The recipe I developed for King Arthur is adapted from the innumerable variations around the internet that attempt to recreate Chef Rivera’s iconic dessert.

If the Basque cheesecake falls at one end of the rich and creamy scale (that ultra end), the Japanese soufflé cheesecake most likely falls at the other. Like the Basque cheesecake, it is crustless, but when it comes to the filling, the soufflé cheesecake bears much more resemblance to the German and Polish variations we reviewed earlier. In fact, the most accepted history of the soufflé cheesecake traces the dessert to 1969 when Japanese chef Tomotaro Kuzuno discovered the käsekuchen while visiting Berlin, Germany. He is said to have enjoyed the käsekuchen so much that when he returned to Japan he was eager to invent his own style of cheesecake. And that’s when the soufflé cheesecake was born.

It took me a while to arrive at a soufflé cheesecake recipe after I had learned about it and the techniques behind it. This summer though, I finalized a recipe that I felt achieved the necessary flavor and texture attributes. But my journey did not end there.

The soufflé cheesecake is delicate in every way possible. From the ethereal texture to the subtle tang of cream cheese and hint of lemon that permeate each bite, there’s a finesse to this dessert that could easily be thrown off balance with bold flavors or heavy-handed mixing. The recipe I created I feel succeeds at that flavor-texture balance, but earlier this fall I began to wonder about what other flavors might be equally complementary of the texture. I liked the idea of orange, but I was curious if the cake could handle another flavor beyond a mere change of the citrus. I eventually settled on cardamom, knowing that the spice was a good match for orange and that it wouldn’t overpower or otherwise disrupt the cream cheese and other dairy notes.

It took a little fine-tuning of the citrus and spice quantities, but I think the recipe that follows is a really nice dessert for the winter months ahead. It’s well suited as an ending to a celebratory meal, as it is such a light and moderately sweet dessert. So if you have a holiday gathering coming up this season, I hope you’ll consider trying out this soufflé cheesecake.

Orange and Cardamom Soufflé Cheesecake

Printable Version

Active time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Yield: one 8” cheesecake

Commonly known as Japanese-style cheesecake in the U.S. — or by other names such as jiggly cake or Japanese cotton cheesecake — this soufflé-like Japanese dessert resembles a cross between rich, creamy New York-style cheesecake and chiffon cake. Made with significantly less cream cheese (than New York-style cheesecake), minimal sugar, and whipped egg whites, the soufflé cheesecake (スフレチーズケーキ) is beloved for it’s fluffy texture and pure and simple flavor. Although traditionally infused with lemon, in this variation of soufflé cheesecake (inspired by some of the techniques used by Namiko Hirasawa Chen (Nami) on her blog Just One Cookbook) orange and dairy collide for a Creamsicle®-like experience that’s accented with a subtle note of cardamom. A thin orange-scented apricot glaze adorns the top for a glossy finish and an extra burst of bright flavor.

Ingredients
Meringue
- 5 large egg whites (yolks reserved for cream cheese base)
- 1/3 cup (66g) granulated sugar

Cream Cheese Base
- 8 ounces (227g) cream cheese (from a bar not a tub)
- 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup (151g) heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons (37g) granulated sugar
- 5 large egg yolks (reserved from above)
- 1/2 cup (60g) unbleached cake flour
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 tablespoons (28g) orange juice
- 3/4 to 1 teaspoon cardamom

Glaze
- 2 tablespoons (43g) apricot jam
- 1 1/2 teaspoons orange juice

Directions
1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven with a 9” x 13” pan on it. Pour in enough hot water to fill the bottom 3/4" of the pan then preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. To prepare the pan: Grease (ideally with butter) the bottom and sides of an 8” x 2” round cake pan. 
3. Cut a 16 1/2” x 12 1/4” piece of parchment paper into two 16 1/2" x 4” strips and two 16 1/2" x 2” strips.
4. Grease the two 2” strips then crisscross them in the center of the pan, greased side up, and press them into the corners and up the sides. 
5. Grease an 8” round piece of parchment paper and lay it, greased side up, on the bottom of the pan. 
6. Grease one side of each of the 4” strips of parchment then place them, greased side facing inward, along the inside edges of the pan to create 4” sides; they’ll overlap. Set the prepared pan aside.
7. To make the meringue: Put the egg whites into a clean large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer and whip on medium speed (with a hand or stand mixer) until they become foamy, about 2 minutes. 
8. Leaving the mixer at medium speed, gradually pour in the sugar. Once you have added all the sugar, increase the speed of the mixer to high, and whip until soft to firm (not stiff) peaks form, about 2 minutes longer. Set the egg whites aside.
9. To make the cream cheese base: Set a large saucepan with 1” of water over medium-high heat and bring to a gentle simmer.
10. Set a large heat-safe bowl over the pan of simmering water and add the cream cheese, butter, cream, and sugar. Gently heat the ingredients, breaking up the cream cheese and butter first then whisking regularly, until they come together into a smooth batter. Remove the bowl from the heat.
11. Add the egg yolks one at a time, stirring to incorporate each one before adding the next.
12. Sift the cake flour through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowl then whisk to incorporate it into the batter.
13. For the best, smoothest cake texture, pour the batter through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl.
14. Whisk the orange zest and juice and cardamom into the batter until evenly incorporated.
15. Using a whisk, fold 1/3 of the meringue at a time into the batter until no white streaks remain. 
16. Pour the batter into the prepared pan then place the cake into the water bath in the oven.
17. Bake the cake for 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown and set; a skewer inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean.
18. Turn the oven off and open the door ajar. Leave the cake in the oven for about 20 minutes longer then transfer it to a rack; the cake will shrink and that’s OK. 
19. When the cake is cool enough to handle, use the overhanging 2” parchment strips (and an extra set of hands if possible) to carefully remove the cake from the pan onto a serving plate. Slide the parchment strips out from under the cake. You can leave the parchment circle on the bottom or carefully tilt the cake away from the plate onto your hand to expose the bottom and remove the paper.  
20. To make the glaze: Combine the jam and orange juice then press through a fine-mesh strainer into a small bowl.
21. Carefully spread the smooth glaze over the warm cheesecake.
22. Serve the cheesecake warm, at room temperature, or chilled without any accompaniments (at least at first). The texture will be different at each temperature.
23. Storage information: Store the cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can freeze the cake for up to 1 month. Enjoy it partially frozen — again, it’ll have a different texture — or defrost overnight, or 8-12 hours in the refrigerator.

Thank you for joining me on this cheesecake exploration. It’s a fascinating subject I think, given the great diversity that exists within it. Please give this post a little ❤️ if you enjoyed it, or feel free to comment if you have your own cheesecake thoughts to share.

Best,

Charlotte

1. Quark is a fresh, soft, mild-flavored cheese that’s made from curdled milk (like cottage cheese or farmer cheese) that’s then strained into a thick, creamy, slightly sour product resembling more of a thick-style yogurt. It is traditional to the cuisines of many European countries.

2. Similar to quark, twaróg (or ser biały) is a Polish farmer cheese that’s sometimes pressed. It is said to be firmer and drier than Quark, and is typically processed (in a food processor or some sort of food mill) before it’s added to the sernik batter.