Strawberry Souffle Cheesecake......sweet and tender

Last week I was suddenly drawn by the urge  to fiddle with the camera, and as usual, the subject of my photography would evolve around my fur babies or baking. As I have already taken truckloads of photographs for my three furry babies, the thought of taking pastries appeal to me more. Then I started rummaging through my collection of recipes against whatever available ingredients I have on hand.

Okay, I still have leftover strawberry puree kept in the fridge and a block of cream cheese beckoning for attention. Hence I settled for making cheese cake which would be a safer choice and general crowd pleaser since it would be hard for my hubby to finish the same cake alone by himself and I could distribute the excess away.

Strawberry Souffle Cheesecake

(Makes one 9' x  9" Cake)

175g Cream Cheese (cut into cubes)

84g Unsalted Butter (cut into cubes)

7 Egg Yolks (Grade A Eggs with net weight of 55g or more)

120g Milk

50g Strawberry Puree / Paste ( I use 50g fresh strawberries and blend into paste) 

1 Tsp Lemon Juice

105g Cake Flour

49g Corn Flour

7 Egg Whites (Grade A Eggs)

160g Castor Sugar

1 tsp Lemon Juice

1.5 Tsp Instant Coffee (Dissolve with 1 Tbsp Boiling Water & 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Method

• Preheat oven at 150C degrees. Sieve together cake flour and corn flour and set aside.

• Line the base and sides of a 9" square cake pan (fixed base) with parchment paper. For the sides, make sure the paper extends higher than the cake pan by 2-3cm to allow the cake to rise properly rather than spilling out from the side. 

• Place cream cheese and butter in a heat proof large mixing bowl. Set the mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water while making sure the base of the mixing bowl does not reach or touch the simmering water. 

• Keep stirring while allowing the cheese butter mixture to melt smoothly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

• When the cream cheese butter mixture has cool, add in egg yolks one at a time while using a hand whisk to whisk until combine.

• Add milk, strawberry paste and continue to whisk until evenly combined. Stir in lemon juice and whisk well.

• Sieve over the flour mixture and using quick light strokes whisk to incorporate the flour into the cheese butter mixture. Apply gentle strokes while whisking the mixture until there are no visible lumps in the batter, avoid over mixing the batter.

• In another separate, dry and clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites and lemon juice with an electric hand mixer on low speed until mixture turns frothy. Add in 1/2 of the sugar and continue beating the egg whites with high medium speed for a minute. Add in the balance of the sugar and continue beating the egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Turn to low speed an beat for another 1-2 mins to help stabilize the air bubbles.

• With a spatula, fold in the egg whites meringue to the cream cheese batter in 3 separate additions until combined.

• Spoon 3 Tbsp of the strawberry cheese batter into the coffee mixture. Mix till smooth.

• Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter. Drop dots of coffee batter onto the cheese cake batter. Draw the marbling with a knife.

• Place cake pan in a baking tray. Fill the tray with hot water to reach about 1cm of the cake pan.

• Place cake pan on lower rack of the oven and bake at 150C degrees for 60 mins or when the  cake tester inserted comes out clean.

• Remove cake from oven and immediately drop the cake pan at a height of 30cm onto table top. This helps to prevent the cake from shrinking upon cooling. Unmould the cake immediately and quickly remove the cake pan and parchment paper. Place a cooling rack on the base of the cake, invert the cake right side up onto the cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 

• Leave the cake to chill in the fridge overnight before serving.