♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - In a recent trip to Japan, I went with our food editor Matt Card.

We stopped by Osaka to the Namba shopping district, which is this amazing food hall with like 40-foot-high ceilings, hundreds of shops.

And we stopped by Rikuro, which is famous for making Japanese cheesecake.

Now, Japanese cheesecake is about this high.

Every five minutes they come out of the oven.

They jiggle, right?

They have that jiggly thing going on.

They put in a display case, and they tattoo it with a chef with a toque, which seems a bit odd.

Any case, I brought an entire cheesecake back to my hotel room, and with a little tiny spoon you use to mix your coffee, I ate about half of it.

And the secret is, it's really not a cheesecake.

It's more of a soufflé.

Except they do something really weird with the cream cheese, which is the basis for this cheesecake.

So, stay tuned as we try to reinvent the recipe for Japanese cheesecake.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - There are cheesecakes that are light, but this is just a totally different animal.

- It has all the elements of cheesecake.

It has cream cheese, eggs, and sugar.

But it also has a little bit of butter, a little bit of milk, and a little bit of flour, which is where the cake elements come in.

- But the interesting thing is what you're about to do.

- Yes.

We're going to combine the cream cheese, the butter, and the milk to start.

And we're going to heat those.

- But that's weird.

Cause cheesecakes don't melt the cream cheese.

- That is true.

- They whip the cream cheese, right?

- But we have three different textures here.

We want those to become blended and smooth, and we also want to put a little bit of heat on this because that's important later, for the batter.

Also a little bit of salt, of course, because all desserts benefit from a little bit of salt.

- Melting the cream cheese with butter.

- Weird.

- But that's kind of the, like, Who thought of that?

- You know, the Japanese are very keen on the texture of their food and very particular about what they like and don't like.

And this ethereal cheesecake, you've had it many times, so you know that that light and airy texture, but it's also creamy, is kind of indescribable.

Well, they call it fuwa fuwa.

- One thing I love about Japanese cuisine is they take it seriously, and there's a lot of philosophy that goes with it.

So respect, for example, for the farmers, for the people who provided the food... - Yes, yes.

- Being thankful for the food, all of those are very much part of Japanese cuisine and Japanese cooking, which, you know, is, I wouldn't say is totally unique in the world.

- Right.

- But it's wonderful.

- Yeah, it's great.

All right, this is just at a simmer and it is fully smooth.

I'm gonna turn it off here, and we'll transfer it to a bowl to start cooling down just a little bit.

We want it to stay warm, but we don't want it to start scorching.

And in the meantime, we will get started on the egg whites on the meringue.

This cheesecake went through so many tests.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos of specifically Japanese cooks and chefs making this cheesecake.

And one of the things that was consistent in this was the degree to which they whipped the egg whites.

But one of the professional chefs used a technique that I had completely forgotten I used to use when I was teaching pastries.

When you're folding a meringue into a soft, loose batter like this, you don't have to worry about streaming that sugar in gradually.

Just dump it all into the egg whites, then whip, and it gives you a denser, creamier meringue.

- So, normally... It says beat them for a minute to break them up and make them frothy, and gradually add your sugar?

- Very gradually.

- But we're not gonna do that.

- No, don't even have to worry.

This is a stress-free meringue, which I love about it.

- And a little acid, lemon juice?

- Yes.

Doing it this method, like I said, will give you a denser meringue.

It won't be as aerated, but that's not important here.

We want a creamy texture, and that's what we get by adding the sugar all at once.

- And... no.

(whirring slows down) I, I, I, err... - Look at how beautiful that is.

That is... (clanking) - Another five seconds.

- I mean, but look at, look at how it holds-- it holds in there.

- Do you like baking?

I can't tell.

- Just a little.

Yeah, I'd say a little more.

Five seconds.

- Yeah, five seconds.

- Yep.

- All right.

- You know, I'm gonna change my mind.

I think they're ready, cause look at that.

Look at that, look at how that's standing.

Look at that in the bowl.

I think you're there.

I think you're there.

- You just wanted to push me over the edge.

That's what it was.

- (laughs) Just wanted to see what you thought.

Okay, so before we proceed here, I forgot to prep the pan earlier.

So, we have parchment in the bottom.

Gonna quickly... brush the sides with a little bit of butter.

And then, we've cut two three-inch-wide strips to line the sides with like this.

Now, what this does is it allows us to use a nine-inch cake pan for a cake that's gonna rise higher than the level of the pan.

- You look just like Julia Child doing this.

- Did I?

- Well, she does that for her soufflés... - Oh, for soufflés.

Yes, that's true.

- On The French Chef.

- A collar.

- All those decades ago.

- Moving back over here to our two batters, we have the egg whites whipped, this beautiful cream cheese buttermilk mixture in which we will now sift some flour.

- Do you really have to put it through a strainer?

- No.

- Okay.

- You do not.

- Do you hear that?

I do the same thing with custard, too.

- Yeah.

- I don't bother.

- Yep.

Go even further.

No lumps at all remaining.

- (sighing): Lord.

You don't wanna work for Bianca.

It's like, "come on, let's go."

- You know there's high reward in this, right?

- That's true.

- Yes.

Now we have all those yolks that belonged to the whites initially.

Would you please grate a little zest in there?

- And as we always say, if you're grating zest, grate it over the ingredients, not over the counter.

- Yep.

And I'm gonna throw the vanilla in, too.

I spent four months in the initial development of this cheesecake.

- Well, I remember, there were weekly updates and it went on for like 19 weeks.

- Yeah.

- Like every week there was, "Bianca's still making..." - Yeah.

Well, you got the benefit of tasting.

- I did, yeah.

- Yeah.

So we put about a third of the whites in, and we're gonna fold them in just to lighten the batter a little bit.

- We should also mention that Rikuro, which is the place I had it in Osaka... - Yeah.

- We could not get the recipe, which makes sense... - Yeah.

- Cause they're, they're a big business.

So we had to completely reverse engineer this.

- Yes.

- Although the YouTube videos were helpful.

- For a cake where everyone wants the same result out of it.

Absolutely the same result.

- Totally different methods.

So many different ways, yeah, of making it, so it took a lot of engineering.

There you go.

You may do the final fold-- look, see, it's still creamy and smooth, that meringue.

- When you go to sleep at night and dream, is this what you dream about?

- (laughs) - It's like some people have sheep and you have egg whites.

- (sighs) - Is that what it is?

- Only... - You get so excited.

- Well, it's worth getting excited over.

This last folding, You want not to see any more white streaks, but obviously you don't want to overfold.

So it's better to have a little bit of white than it is to overfold.

- So I'm good.

- That's-- you are so good.

All right, then it goes right into the cake pan.

That's quite lovely.

It's cloud-like.

Now, most of the time when I made it, it leveled itself out on top.

(knocking on counter) There we go.

Look, see?

It's pretty much even.

One last thing happens before this goes into the oven.

Something I know... - Oh, you're not gonna say water bath, are you?

- Yeah.

Boiling water.

We're just going to pour it three-quarters of an inch up the cake pan side.

One of the hallmarks of this cheesecake is the sides are completely pale and white, whereas the top is really nicely browned.

And without the water bath, that doesn't happen.

So the hot oven, 375.

Close the door, turn the oven down to 300.

65 minutes later... (laughing) you turn the oven off, open the oven door, and put a spoon in to keep it ajar a little bit, just for 15 minutes.

What this does is it prevents the cheesecake getting shocked by the cool air.

It just lets it cool down gradually before you take it out of the oven.

Is that pretty or what?

- Not bad.

- We need to take it out of the water bath so we don't unmold a wet cake.

- Should I say a silent prayer for you now?

- Please do.

We need to unmold it quickly, so we're gonna just trim off the excess paper collar.

Rather than putting the plate right on top of the cake-- you might get a little sticking.

So we just put a parchment just to help prevent that.

And then, quickly invert... - And then you pray.

- And then-- now, now, start praying now.

Okay, great.

Ah... there.

Woo-hoo!

- Mm.

- All right, let's remove that bottom parchment.

We can go ahead and remove the sides if you want.

- When you cook with Bianca, she says "if you want"... - (laughs) - Can I translate that?

- Okay.

- "Just do it."

- Gonna get this in my hand first.

I love the cake stand because you can hold it from the bottom.

- Pray.

- Yeah.

(sighs) - I didn't need to pray.

- Well, it's because you prayed.

All right.

Oh, oh, here.

- Could you do the jiggle thing?

- There.

Yeah.

- This is what they did when they took it out of the ovens at Rikuro.

- Yep.

The thing about this cheesecake is it's really delicious chilled, but it's also really delicious warm.

- It's also really delicious eaten.

- (laughs) - Except, we could just talk about it, or we could... - Are you saying be quiet and let's get to eating?

- No, you can talk, but slice and talk.

- Well, you do wanna let it cool a little bit.

I mean, if you plan to serve it warm, let it cool just a little bit.

And then you-- look at this.

It just... - Mm.

- Like a dream.

Look.

- Mm.

- Ah, okay.

Here you go.

- Okay.

- You're welcome.

You try and tell someone about Japanese cheesecake if they've never had it, and most people just kind of look at you like... - Yeah, it kind of... How to describe this?

It kind of melts in your mouth.

It's almost foamy, but in a good way.

- That little bit of lemon and vanilla.

- So Japanese cheesecake is its own category of cake.

It's not cheesecake.

It's not a sponge cake.

It's not a soufflé.

It's like, it's a little bit of all of those things.

So, it's not hard to do-- Well, it was hard for you because you had to start from scratch.

But after 25 cheesecakes, we finally come up with what we think is pretty close to Rikuro in Osaka.

- There is a really good story behind these buns.

When I'm in Tokyo, I get up really early in the morning and I walk and walk and walk, because I want to capture everything.

And the best way to capture a city is really walking.

So I walk and I walk and I walk, and I eat and I eat, and I eat, of course.

And one of my favorite stops when I'm in Tokyo is the bakeries.

Now, Tokyo bakeries are unbelievable.

They are always packed to the gills with all these different options, everything looking better than everything else.

So I end up with a huge bag of pastries in my backpack, walking around, fuel to get me to the next stop.

One of my absolute favorite bakeries in Tokyo is from Joël Robuchon.

And the last time I was there, the thing that really got me, maybe because it was still warm from the kitchen, was this tray of buns.

And they look really simple, like little brioche buns with a custardy top.

And it was honestly one of the best things I ate in Tokyo last time.

So it turns out my friend Brendan Liew had a recipe for Galettes Bressane in his cookbook.

And at that point, we decided to collaborate on a recipe.

- I used to work very close to the Joël Robuchon Bakery at a restaurant called Ryugin.

And in the mornings, I would treat myself to this little pastry.

And this was a very inexpensive and low commitment way of trying something quite small and luxurious on my way to work.

Initially going to the Joël Robuchon Bakery, a lot of the more flamboyant items really stand out, like the croissants that are topped with maybe frangipane, and then lots of roasted nuts, or things with lots of icing.

But after you try those things once, you want something with a little bit more subtle or simple flavor.

The galette bressane is really characterized by the cream-- or in our case, crème fraîche, that's been baked until it's almost custard-y in the center of the bread.

So, the Bresse region in France is also very famous for their dairy, so their butter and their cream, which has parallels to the Hokkaido area of Japan, also very famous for their butter and dairy products, so much so that they even add it to their ramen.

The Japanese are very fastidious when it comes to perfecting.

So, like Kaizen, the art of continual improvement.

Sadaharu Aoki said it best when he said, "France taught me creativity, but Japan taught me precision."

- So, for our really simple dough, we're going to start off with two whole eggs, half a cup of whole milk-- and you want to warm that to about 100 degrees, which jump starts the yeast process.

One teaspoon vanilla extract.

Quarter-cup of white sugar.

And two teaspoons yeast.

It's just about one packet of yeast.

Let's give that a whisk.

Just to combine those wet ingredients.

And at this point, we're gonna add our flour.

And it's two cups bread flour.

You wanna make sure to use bread flour because this dough is so enriched, you need that protein structure to support it.

And half a teaspoon of table salt.

We're just gonna whisk that together to combine.

And now we're gonna put it on our mixer.

We're gonna use the paddle, and we wanna blend it for about five minutes just to start that gluten development before we're gonna add our butter.

So at this point, I'm gonna start adding five tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon at a time.

You wanna make sure each tablespoon of butter is incorporated into that dough before adding the next bit of butter.

It's really important that the butter you're adding is room temperature.

If it's too cold, it's not gonna incorporate well into the dough.

It's really important now to let the dough go for about ten minutes of kneading, because what we need to do is build the structure to support that rich dough.

If we don't knead it long enough, it's just going to collapse under the weight of the eggs and the fat.

It looks really sticky and very loose right now, but we have great gluten development, and we're going to get the support we need.

Dough hydrates as it ferments, and the dough is going to tighten up and then it'll become easier to work with.

Use a big spatula and scrape it down, so we have one tight ball of dough.

And we're gonna wait for this to double in size.

That takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

It proofs really quickly.

Because remember, we have two teaspoons of yeast, not a ton of flour, the sugar, which accelerates the yeast.

And it's warm, because we've kneaded it for quite a while, and we started off with warm milk.

It's been an hour, and we have beautiful glossy dough ready to shape.

I do need to use some flour, so let's flour the countertop and turn it out... And flour my hands a little bit.

And we want to divide this beautiful dough into eight portions.

Stretch it out, pat it out, so I can approximate eight even pieces.

We'll start in the middle, divide it.

Divide that middle in half.

And we want to round these out now.

We want to be fairly gentle, it's a very delicate dough.

We're not making bread buns.

We're really aiming for very delicate buns.

Just use my hand and just cup it and round it out.

If you have to use a bench scraper to help, it works too.

But you can use a little flour and use the traction on the board.

Cup it and round it.

I divided the dough into eight almost even-sized pieces, and I'm gonna press them down gently.

A little more puck-like form.

And now I'm gonna cover them so they don't dry out.

Now that they're pressed down and covered, we're gonna let them proof for about 45 minutes.

While your buns are proofing, go ahead and preheat your oven.

350 degrees, middle rack.

I'm gonna go ahead and whip up the filling which is really, really simple.

It's one of the reasons I love these buns so much, cause I really expected it to be a sort of an eggy rich custard.

But it's just crème fraîche, sugar, and vanilla.

Mix that up now.

We need an egg wash for these buns, and it's gonna be whole egg and a tablespoon of milk.

When I'm making that egg wash, I tend to beat it really well.

Okay, that is well-blended.

Now, fingers crossed.

So... Oh, yeah, those are beautiful.

It's been about 45 minutes.

They haven't quite doubled.

I would say it's about 75%.

Let's go ahead and finish those off.

We're gonna make a little divot in the center of each bun, to hold that crème fraîche filling.

I use my fingertips and just push down in the center.

Otherwise it can puff up too much and force the filling out.

Before we put the filling in, we're gonna put that egg wash on.

Nice, even coating.

Egg wash is done.

Let's go ahead and add our filling here.

Just a little dollop in the center of each.

And the final touch before we throw them in the oven is a little dusting of sugar.

Not too much, just enough for crunch.

Those are looking gorgeous.

I'm going to slide them into that preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

These smell amazing.

They smell like the Joël Robuchon Bakery.

Maybe that's why I bought them in the first place.

You get that really, really nice vanilla aroma coming through.

You get this sweet yeasted brioche.

Everything is just-- well, just about right.

So, I'm going to, I'm gonna grab that one.

I like that one.

And... you can see, it's very delicate.

I pick it up, and it just squishes.

And the filling... oh, looks great.

Yep, that tastes like Tokyo.

They're really amazing.

They're very light, they're very delicate, they have just enough filling.

They don't feel overly rich, nor are they too sweet.

The French pastries in Tokyo are next-level supreme.

I mean, there's just something about the technique and the perfection of French baking that works perfectly with Japanese cooking.

Just that relentless pursuit of excellence is... well, turns out perfectly.

- Milk bread.

So, this is another thing that is interesting, because I don't-- When you think of Japan, you don't think about bread first, right?

- Right.

- And then milk bread, dairy, you know... - Right.

- Which is also odd.

Yet, it's extraordinarily popular and is absolutely phenomenally good and much better than our white bread.

- It was actually the Americans that really introduced us to the bread culture, because they had-- after the war, there was a surplus of wheat in America, shipped it to Japan to feed the hungry kids.

All of us at school, schoolchildrens, we ate a lot of bread.

And my generation is, I think, the first generation that acquire a love for the taste of bread.

Actually, the secret ingredient which makes this bread so moist is the roux.

- Mm-hmm.

- It adds to the hydration.

It makes it, it keeps it very moist and a little bit like mochi, you know... - Mm-hmm, oh, it's one of my favorite things in the world.

- Yeah, so when we look for good bread, we say, "Ooh, this bread has a mochi mochi flavor."

We say, "mochi, mochi," and go, "ooh, mochi, mochi."

So it's so funny, because we're a rice culture, we're looking for that texture in this wheat bread, right?

(laughs) - Mochi is that glutenous rice flour... - Sticky.

- ...dough that's chewy.

- And sticky.

- Yeah, it's just wonderful.

- And sweet, slightly sweet, and... - And that helps the bread to hold on to moisture?

- Mm-hmm.

- Is that what it does?

- Yeah.

Some of the best breads, actually, I find in Japan.

We moved to Los Angeles for the final time with my family in the '70s when I think Julia Child said, "How could a nation be powerful if you produce bread that tastes like Kleenex?"

- Sounds like Julia, yeah.

- Yeah, it sounds like Julia Child.

And I said, "That's what we thought.

It tastes like cardboard."

And my mother, she would take empty suitcases to Japan and come back with, like, seven of them, and one of them always had... nothing but Japanese milk bread.

And we would just go wild, you know?

Nice and toasty.

- Mm.

- Yeah, it's cooked.

- Has that nice hollow... - Yeah.

- ...sound to it.

- I think we should just break it and see how it looks.

- Mm.

That's just lovely.

- It's very nice, isn't it?

Yeah.

I really enjoyed baking with you.

It's so good.

- Mochi mochi.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ - Everyone should have a sponge cake in their repertoire.

We really recommend this one from Hong Kong.

It's a little eggier, it's less sweet.

It's not quite as airy as an American sponge cake.

It has a really interesting texture.

They're usually referred to as Hong Kong cupcakes, because in Hong Kong, they're served in a paper liner, almost like a muffin.

We made it into one beautiful cake, and I'm gonna show you how to make that right now.

So the first thing we're gonna do is sift together our dry ingredients.

We have all-purpose flour.

We have a little bit of corn starch, baking powder, and salt.

We're gonna whisk these together and make sure there's no lumps.

So, I'm just gonna put that aside.

Then we're gonna start with our whites.

We're gonna whip these with a little bit of cream of tartar.

Gonna whisk these on medium until they're nice and frothy for about two minutes.

So, this looks nice and frothy.

I'm gonna add one-third of a cup of our sugar.

And now I'm gonna turn this up to medium high.

Okay, I think we are there.

Usually when we make cakes like this, we tell you to whip the egg whites until they're kind of soft.

And we do that because when you whip them in, it gives them an opportunity to grow in the oven.

In this instance, we need a stiff, glossy peak, because we need that structure for this particular cake.

So now that the whites are ready, I'm gonna add some sugar to our egg yolks, some neutral oil, And some vanilla.

So, I'm gonna whisk this until it's lighter and the sugar has started to dissolve.

So this is lightened up.

I can tell the sugar has dissolved.

So we're gonna add the egg whites in steps to our yolk mixture.

We're gonna start with one-third of the egg whites and fold those in gently.

Then we're gonna add half of our flour, another third of our egg whites, the rest of our flour, and then we'll finish folding in the rest of our egg whites.

So the batter is ready, I'm gonna transfer it to a nine-inch springform pan.

We've sprayed the inside of the pan.

We put the parchment in, and then you're just gonna press it... to the edge of the pan, make some little folds and pleats, and then I'm gonna pour in my batter.

Smooth the top a little bit.

So we're just gonna tap this on the counter a few times just to make sure we don't have any big air bubbles.

(tapping) So this is gonna bake in a 350-degree oven on the middle rack for 45 minutes, where it's gonna get this beautiful golden dome.

So, this is pretty spectacular coming out of the oven.

Look at how beautifully domed it is.

But it is going to deflate.

What you want to do once you've taken it out of the oven is you want to unclip it from the springform pan.

Remove that.

We're going to peel away some of this parchment.

We don't want the cake to steam inside of this.

Peel away a little so I can pick it up and move it onto the rack, so it's no longer on the cake base.

So I'm gonna peel off the parchment and let it cool completely on the rack.

So this is completely cooled.

You can see it has deflated a little, but it has this beautiful little pattern on top.

So we wanna remove the parchment and put it on our serving plate.

So this is really perfect just by itself, but you can serve it with cream, berries, ice cream, anything that you like.

That is a beautiful sponge cake.

So delicate.

Mm.

This is such a light, delicate cake.

Combining the egg whites and the egg yolks in that way really makes the most delicate, beautiful crumb.

It's a perfect, simple cake.

I hope you'll try it.

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