Japanese Cheese Bread

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk
100 g cream cheese
100 g butter
8 egg yolks
60 g flour
60 g cornstarch
13 egg whites
130 g sugar

Preparation:

Melt the butter, cream cheese and milk over low heat while stirring with a spatula.
In a separate bowl, beat the yolks and add the mixture of butter, cream cheese and milk. Mix.
Add the sifted flour and cornstarch.
With the egg whites, we are going to make a French meringue: beat the egg whites until stiff and add the sugar in parts. Continue until a firm and shiny meringue is formed. Some say that to know if it is at the right point, you have to turn the bowl over… I don’t recommend it, I can already see us cleaning the floor with all the sticky stuff afterwards! As long as the meringue stays on the beaters of the mixer without falling, that’s enough.
Now is the time for tension: mixing the two preparations. The mixture must be well-mixed, and at the same time, the air in the meringue must not be lost, because we’re fried! To do this, you have to put aside the beaters of the mixer, grab the spatula and very gently mix them together with circular movements, always in the same direction. The air has to be your best friend, don’t hurt it or harm it, because without it we are nothing.
Pour the preparation into a mold completely covered with aluminum foil and/or butter (with aluminum foil on the outside and butter on the inside, according to legend, this way it doesn’t collapse, so check in the video how we did it so it comes out perfect!). Make sure it’s well covered so no water gets in when we put it in a bain-marie.
Bake in a bain-marie in a preheated oven at 165º for 25 minutes (set the timer!) and then lower the oven to 140º and cook for another 55 minutes. More or less, it depends on your ovens. The Japanese cheesecake should be golden on top. It may take longer so be careful and be patient.
Once it’s done, turn off the oven, open the door a little and let it cool there. Don’t take it out before so it doesn’t deform. Patience is a gift from the saints, friends say. And it’s worth the wait, I promise. Once it’s cold, take it out and unmold it.