This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure.
This light & fluffy Japanese style cheesecake (or soufflé cheesecake) will totally melt in your mouth – perfect for that cheesecake lover in your life!
This post contains affiliate links.
Fluffy, creamy, light and airy. With just the perfect amount of sweetness. We’re talking about Japanese Cheesecake (or Souffle Cheesecake as it’s often called). Perfect, delicious Japanese cheesecake.
Asian desserts tend to be much less sweet than Western desserts. Which is why I like them.
They are typically not sugary sweet, but have just the right amount of sweetness to curb that after dinner sweet tooth.
I don’t know about you, but I most definitely have an after dinner sweet tooth.
I’m pretty sure I could eat this whole cheesecake myself. Seriously guys, this is good stuff.
It may even help to curb that mild sadness that happens after the holidays are over and we’re all back at work.
This light & fluffy Japanese style cheesecake, also known as soufflé cheesecake, is made by folding sweetened whipped egg whites into the cream cheese batter. This results in a light, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth kind of cheesecake.
Like I mentioned above, this Japanese cheesecake is less sweet than it’s American counterpart. If you have a problem with this, you can sweeten it up by adding some extra sugar to the cream cheese batter.
But I think it’s perfect like it is.
We bake the cheesecake in a water bath to keep the top from cracking.
So listen guys, this recipe is not hard. It’s actually quite easy.
However, you must be careful to make the meringue correctly and make sure you don’t over mix. Otherwise you will end up with a dense, flat cheesecake.
That defeats the whole purpose.
Whenever you’re folding in egg whites, you want to be very gentle. It’s actually ok if you still have some egg white streaks in your batter when you’re done.
Make sure your spring form pan is WELL GREASED before pouring the batter in. A well greased pan will make it so much easier to get the cheesecake out.
Then, when all is said and done , sprinkle it with some powdered sugar. This is my favorite part. The powdered sugar puts this light & fluffy Japanese style cheesecake right over the edge of delicious decadence. If you really want to make it special, add some fresh berries.
Just talking about this cheesecake is making my mouth water.
Too bad the boyfriend ate the last piece just last night….
Now I want to hear from you guys. What’s your favorite kind of cheesecake? What toppings do you like to use?
Looking for some other sweets to curb that after dinner sweet tooth? Check out some of my most popular dessert recipes:
Caramel Marshmallow Crunch Brownies
Salted Toffee Peanut Butter Fudge
This Japanese cheesecake is lighter than your typical cheesecake, more like a souffle.
- 5 eggs whites and yolks separated
- 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 package cream cheese
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- 4 tbsp. flour
- 2 tbsp. corn starch
- 4 tbsp. butter
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Melt the cream cheese, butter, and milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring often.
- Once melted, pour in a bowl and fold in the flour, cornstarch, egg yolks, salt and lemon juice. If your mixture gets too warm, be sure to temper the egg yolks.
- In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until frothy.
- Add the cream of tartar.
- Add the sugar, a little at a time, while continuing to whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Then fold the next 1/3 in, and the last 1/3 in in separate batches, being careful not to over mix.
- DO NOT OVER MIX. Make sure you fold the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture gently. Otherwise your cheesecake will deflate when baking.
- Pour mixture into a well greased 8 or 9" spring form pan.
- Wrap aluminum foil around the bottom 1.5" of the pan. Set it a water bath to cook to avoid cracking on top. If you don't care about cracking, you can skip this step.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from heat and let cool for 1 hour. Remove from spring form pan and refrigerate overnight.
- Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and/or fresh berries.
Mine was high when I took it out then flattened – did I fold too much?
Also when you say temper the eggs if too hot what exactly do you mean?
How do you best suggest adding the yolks to the cream cheese mixture. I know things with baking are very precise so thank you for taking my questions into consideration.
Also I think my oven is very hot bc I baked for 50 min and the top was fully brown.
I haven’t cut it yet I’m sure it still tastes very good just came out about two inches high instead of about 4 as yours looks.
Hi Allison. I’m sorry your cheesecake deflated! That’s always so disappointing after you’ve put in so much effort. The most common reason that this deflates is overmixing the batter. Also note that it is common for the cake to deflate a bit after it starts to cool, so some deflating is normal (although it sounds like yours deflated too much).
For the eggs, if the cream cheese, butter and milk mixture gets very hot, you want to add just a tiny bit ( a few tablespoons) of that into the egg yolks while whisking to bring the egg yolks to the same temperature as the mixture. Add a couple tablespoons at a time while whisking until you’ve added all of the mixture to the eggs. This prevent them from cooking. The go ahead and mix with the flour, cornstarch, salt and lemon juice.
cheesecake
Unfortunately, so many ovens differ in temperature. If your oven heat from the top, I recommend placing the cheesecake on the lowest rack in the oven. You can also try place a pan with 4 ramekins filled with water right below your cheesecake. The steam off these may help keep the top from browning too much (however, this works best if you have an oven that heats from the bottom).
Hope this helps Allison! If you have more questions, feel free to shoot me an email too, wenthere8this@gmail.com. Happy Thanksgiving!
So glad to have a recipe for this! By far one of my favorite desserts. There is just nothing like it! Beautiful photos as well.
Thanks! This is one of my favorite desserts too 🙂
I agree, American dessert often tend to be too sweet. I recently tried a Twinkie for the first time, and I thought I might get instant diabetes. However, this looks super delicious! Almost like eating a cloud.
LOL! You’re totally right about the Twinkies. This has the perfect amount of sweetness IMO.
SOOOO FLUFFYY!!! It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!! This looks like it has some major “Favorite Cheesecake” potential.
LOL! It’s definitely one of my favorite cheesecakes! I love how light it is! I always think of it as a cheesecake flavored souffle 🙂
Look delicious! That texture is so interesting – it looks dryer than a typical cheesecake. Is it? Not as dense and creamy? Looks dreamy!
It’s definitely not as dense and creamy as a typical cheesecake. It is much lighter, more like a souffle. Not quite as sweet as regular cheesecake either. It’s perfect with some powdered sugar and fresh berries!
I would so enjoy this Japanese style cheesecake, I like my desserts to be on the lesser side of sweet, thank you for the recipe 🙂
Me too! That’s why I love this cheesecake so much. I hope you enjoy it!
Sounds and looks delicious!
Thanks so much!
Love Japanese style cheesecake—heavenly. We actually love this cheesecake plain but love it with a little matcha latte on the side. Having a blast following along on your Japanese journey. What is the theme for next month? Sharing, of course!
This is such as great cheesecake, I love that it’s not sugary sweet like most American desserts (however, the boyfriend poured half a box of powdered sugar on it – he likes sugary sweet). Next month is Cajun food month in celebration of Mardi Gras! Thanks for sharing 🙂