Matcha Japanese Cotton Cheesecake (Alex Goh)

Wendy saw my earlier posting and decided to make a Japanese Cheesecake for Mother's Day.  I saw her entry and decided to try her recipe (I made this one month ago but only had time to blog about it now).  Now, this is the beauty of the cyberworld!  So much interaction and so much to learn.

I have a satchet of matcha/green tea that is expiring soon so I just added 2 tsp of it into the batter as I didn't want to waste my precious matcha. 

I have to confess, I made this without any weighing scale and most measurements are in cups and teaspoon estimation.

• 24g corn flour - eh, how much is 24g in teaspoon??  I've got a little note pad which I scribbled out the recipes I wanted to try.  For this Japanese Cheesecake recipe, I have 3 versions scribbled on one page.  1 is original recipe, the 2nd is 1/2 recipe and the 3rd is Wendy's.  The page is too overloaded with words and I think I got confused.  Aunty A told me 20g corn flour = 8 tsp, so after calculation, 24g should be 9.6 tsp.  But I used only 6 tsp in this attempt.
• 15g butter - again, how much is 15g?  I just cut out 1cm thick and assume it should be around there :P
• 30g flour - I used 1/4 cup flour
• 75g sugar - I used 1/4 cup sugar
• 125g cream cheese - I just use my eye power and cut the block of cream cheese into 2, assuming they are the same size and weight.

I covered the cake with aluminium foil as I was worried the cake will crack too much.  There was no crack but the top didn't get brown enough.

The cake turned out pretty well, slightly more crumbly and I thought it's not as moist as the recipe I have. 

The holey cake when sliced, not as soft and moist as I suspect I didn't get the measurement correct in the first place.  I made another cake using this recipe and it turned out better than this attempt.  Will blog about it another day.

Matcha Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

(adapted from Alex Goh's Fantastic Cheesecake, from here)

Ingredients
(A)
125gm cream cheese
90ml milk
15gm butter

(B) * sifted
30gm flour
24gm cornstarch
2 tsp matcha/green tea powder

(C)
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt

(D)
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
75gm sugar

Method

1. In a heavy saucepan, cook cream cheese, milk and butter until thick and smooth. Set aside to cool. 
2. Fold in (B) and mix well with a whisk.
3. Put egg yolks into the cheese mixture and stir until well combined.
4. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks, add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff (soft droopy peak that will hold its form).
5. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into cheese mixture with a spatula till incorporated.
6. Pour the cheese mixture into the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
7. Pour batter into a lined 8" pan (I was lazy so I just greased and flour the base on the pan only).
8. Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely.
9. Fill a bowl with hot water and put in into the oven with the prepared cake pan, bake in preheated oven @ 160C for 20 mins.
10. Turn down the temperature to 150C and bake for 20mins.
11. Remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 140C and bake for another 20 mins and until skewer inserted to centre of cake comes out clean.
12. Leave to cool in oven wih door slightly ajar.
13. Unmould and chill in fridge before slicing.