Dark Chocolate Souffle Cheesecake

Valentines Day is next week and I have been testing some new recipes out! Not too long ago a shop (Uncle Tetsu) opened up in town (Toronto) that makes Japanese souffle cheesecakes and there were lineups around the block for months after it opened! Eventually I got around to trying it out and they were good, and that meant one thing, that I would have to try making my own! I usually enjoy a nice creamy New York style cheesecake which are normally pretty heavy or dense where as these Japanese style cheesecakes are nice and light and fluffy while still having that amazing cheesecake flavour. Given that Valentine’s Day was approaching I thought that it was the perfect time to start working on my Japanese souffle style cheese cake, aka cotton cheesecake, and of course it would have to be chocolate!
I tried a number of different recipes and I settled on this one which is super easy to make, containing just 4 ingredients, and takes less than an hour to whip up! You start out by melting some dark chocolate into the cream cheese which is nice because melting them together helps ensure both that the chocolate does not burn and that there are no lumps of cream cheese, because no-one like lumps in their cheesecake! The egg yolks and sugar are then mixed into the chocolate and cream cheese mixture. The next part is what makes this cheese cake souffle like and adds that nice lightness and fluffiness, the egg whites are beaten into stiff peaks and gently folded into the batter. (A new York style cheesecake differs in that there is more cream cheese, less eggs and the egg whites are not beaten which give it it’s denser texture.) The batter is then poured into a pan and baked in a water bath during which the cheesecake will puff up even further only to collapse a bit as it cools. The final result is a light and airy Japanese souffle style cheesecake (cotton cheesecake) that simply melts in your mouth! This dark chocolate version is decadently delicious and perfect for your chocolate indulgence!