Souffle Cheesecake

This recipe uses a special technique of baking the cake for 10 minutes under very high heat and then taking the cake out of the oven and waiting for the oven heat to drop to 170°c, yes I said "taking the cake out of the oven"- believe me it works, this is done so the cake gets a nice baked color on top and doesn't come out all pale.

At first I didn't like the flavor of the cake at all, it tasted eggy and warm, but once it cooled down in the refrigerator it was quite nice. I'm more of the dense rich kind of cheesecake person, but I must say the cake was really light and airy- just like a souffle and it puffed up beautifully in the oven.

I am completely avoiding to mention the fact that I did not use the original crust of this recipe....I so very badly wanted to make an oreo cookie crust and was wondering why everyone who makes that crust uses it only with non-bake cheesecakes, so I played smart ass and went against the flow. I made my crust, baked the cake on it and was shocked! The crumbly crust turned into a wet, gooey oreo paste I was at loss of words except one "eeeeew" that came out.

Long story short- stick with the original crust (recipe below).

Souffle Cheesecake:

Crust (base):

100 gr cold butter

¼ cup sugar

pinch of salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

150 gr (1 cup+1 tbsp) flour

Souffle:

750 gr curd or quark cheese

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup+1 tbsp cornflour (starch)

pinch of salt

zest of half a lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 ml milk

5 eggs, separated

Base-

Preheat oven to 180°c.

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor or stand mixer, form into ball, wrap and cool for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough ½ cm thick and press on the bottom of your baking pan (26 cm round pan), on top place a layer of aluminum foil and fill pan with dry beans or chickpeas, bake for 10 minutes then remove beans and foil and bake for another 5 minutes.

Souffle-

Preheat oven to 250°c.

In a large bowl hand whisk together cheese, ¼ of the sugar, cornflour, flour, salt, zest, extract, milk and yolks until well mixed and even.

In a stand mixer whisk egg whites until foamy then slowly add rest of the sugar (¾ cup) until mixture gets thick and shiny (like making meringue).

Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture to get a smooth filling.

Pour the mixture over the baked crust and bake for 10 minutes, then take the cheesecake out of the oven and wait until oven heat drops down to 170°c, put cake back in the oven and bake for another 30 minutes.

The cake will look wobbly and undone and that's ok. Let cake cool at room temperature, the cake can be eaten warm or cold (I prefer cold).

*So the cake won't dry out while baking it is recommended to place a pan at the bottom of the oven with some water or ice cubes.