Japanese Cheesecake Recipe (2024)

I've made this cheesecake twice. The first time I made it as written, and though it rose beautifully, the taste was bland. I ended up making lemon curd to serve with it to amp up the flavor.The second time, I took the advice of other reviewers and doubled the vanilla, and added the zest and juice of one lemon. This version was perfect! I topped it with raspberry whipped cream. Everyone loved it! I'll be making this recipe again and again.

you butter the bottom only and stick the parchment only on the bottom, the butter being the adhesive (technically speaking you can use any neutral tasting fat for this purpose). No fat on the sides so the cheesecake can rise like a souffle

Cake flour is lower protein than AP flour (so less gluten). You can make a substitute by sifting AP flour and corn starch (85g AP and 15g corn starch = 100g cake flour).

Please explain this: Line bottom of pan with parchment and "butter only the bottom of the pan (so the cheesecake can rise)." Do you butter the parchment? Does the parchment rise up the sides of the pan? I find this confusing. Anyone else?

My second attempt at this cake was much better than my first, though I couldn’t get it to rise anything like the picture. Beating the egg whites longer seemed to help the rise on the second try. I added the juice of one lemon and doubled the vanilla the second time, and the flavor was significantly better. I also had more success baking at a high temperature (380) than at 320, which other commenters had suggested. 400 for the full 40 minutes would have burnt the cake in my oven, though.

On my third iteration of this cheesecake I realized that the 8x3” pan is critical for the rise, that I could substitute orange zest for lemon to make it a creamsicle cheesecake, and that letting the cream cheese/creme fraiche mixture cool a bit before adding it slowly to the egg yolks is the way to go.

I went to Joanne Chang's original recipe. She says either butter only the bottom of the pan OR cover the bottom of the pan with parchment paper (presumably unbuttered). Probably buttering the parchment wouldn't hurt anything, but might be overkill/unnecessary. Definitely does not sound like parchment goes up the sides, nor the butter for that matter.

What I do is butter the bottom of the pan, not the sides of the pan, lay in parchment round (fits just the bottom of the pan) and then I butter the top of that. That's all they mean, don't butter the sides of the pan. Butter contains water, gives off steam, will make the sides "doughy" and the cheesecake will stick to the side of the pan.

Some trip-ups to avoid for an inexperienced baker: Watch the egg yolks, you will have to ascertain that the warm cheese mixture is not too warm when the eggs are added so that the eggs do not scramble. A 3" deep 8" pan is not something we all have. Springform would be the usual. But in order to use a springform in a bain marie you will have to tightly cover the bottom of the the tin with foil. Lovely very light cake.

Is this served chilled or at room temperature?

Delicately-flavored and delicious. A big hit. I made two — one with regular AP flour and one in which I substituted cornstarch for the flour (to make it gluten-free) and they both turned out great. I think I liked the cornstarch version even better — more custardlike and soft. I followed others recommendations and increased lemon juice and vanilla. Baked at 400° for about 20 min, then turned the temp down to 350° for final 15 min (until it didn't jiggle so much). Served with raspberry sauce.

Add the zest of a whole lemon.DO NOT forget to add the cake flour in the yolks because if you forget and add it at the end(like I did) you will knock the air out of the cake trying to mix it it or there will be large chunks of flour in your cake.Overall a nice and light cheesecake with a good flavor.Best served with powdered sugar and some fresh strawberries!

This can be served either ways - chilled or room temperature.

DELICIOUS! I did use a springform pan wrapped in aluminum foil, and buttered both base and parchment paper. 2x Vanilla + juice & zest of a full lemon - it might have been a dash much. Replaced Creme Fraiche with 1/2 nonfat Greek Yogurt and 1/2 Heavy Whipping Cream and used an 85%/15% mix of All Purpose Flour/Cornstarch. Ground regular sugar in coffee grinder to make superfine. Keep an eye on the egg whites - we slightly overbeat but managed to fold in, but it was a bit of work to do so! So good!

Between Steps 3 and 4: any recommendation on temperature of hot yolk mixture before folding in the beaten whites? Let the yolks cool at all?

I followed the advice in the comments to add the zest and juice of a whole lemon and double the vanilla. I also reduced the heat by 25 degrees F. I checked it after 35 minutes and it was golden brown on top (rather than borderline burnt as it appears in the photo). I made a berry sauce and drizzled a little of the leftover creme fraiche over it. It was excellent. It’s still excellent two days later.

I didn’t have an 8’ cake pan, so I used an oven safe saucepan and it worked great.

Made this without flour by mistake. It didn’t rise but it turned out creamy and light and fantastic. Like a NY style but less heavy. I actually really enjoyed this mistake. Made it again with flour and it’s more impressive looking due to the height but eats more like cake than cheesecake. Both are very good. For the gluten free people feel free to make it flourless it will still be delicious (:

I am curious, what do you do when a recipe asks for superfine sugar? From my readings and forays into SMs, this is not commonly found in the US. Should I beat regular cane sugar in the blender but stop before it becomes confectioner’s sugar? Thank you.

I recommend stopping the mixer before the whites become too stiff and meringue-like. I watched a few videos of Japanese chefs making this cake and the whites were softer and easier to fold into the cheese and flour mixture. This also helps prevent overmixing.

My error was some yolk in my whites which did not whip up. Consequently, my cheese cake did not rise and aerate. Saved it with some fresh farmers market strawberries on top. I will try again.

I always line my entire pan with baking sheet as not a single cake I've made with just buttering the pan has ever come out unscathed by the oven heat. Also recommend reading the whole recipe once before making as the recommended cooling times are...very long!

I have a gas oven and only by turning on the broiler for 3 min at the end could I achieve the golden appearance shown in the photo. Keep a careful watch tho as the time between golden and burnt under a broiler is infinitesimal.

My oven runs a little cool, but the cake still burned at 30 minutes. 400 is too hot!

My cheesecake came out looking like the picture. Unfortunately, it's darker than I would have liked and fell more than I would have expected. I suspect that the oven temp was too hot and, after looking at other recipes, I probably should have lowered the temp from 400 to 350 at the most. No cracks on the top, but it did crack around the outside edge. That crack disappeared once the cheesecake cooled. Have not yet cut into it. Will update once we try it.

Ethereal. We made ours in a 7” springform and just didn’t quite use all the batter. Turned out great and we will make again (and again).

What an awesome cake. The first cake from a US cookbook where I didn’t have to cut the sugar. So light. So tasty. And the recipe worked at 6200’, where baking is complicated. I used Meyer lemon zest and rose water for flavor. Didn’t have an 8” pan, so I used a 9” pan and increased the ingredients by a quarter. Of course then I didn’t have enough cream cheese, so I used more Creme fraîche. Did have a crack on the top, so I inverted it, and decorated with almond slivers and confectioner’s sugar.

Just my opinion as a lover of cheesecakes.We made this yesterday and followed the exact recipe and all the ingredients.The cheesecake was bland and dull. A healthy amount of lemon curd helped the overall taste but this is one cheesecake I'll certainly avoid in the future.Really a total waste of time, effort and ingredients as there are far better cheesecake recipes than this one.

Any suggestions for making this with a gluten free flour?

Would this work in smaller pans -- like 4" or 6" ramekins or 4" mini-springforms -- to divide up and/or make a smaller cake? I would assume just watch for the "done" criteria in step 6, though it might not get as brown on top.