Making Uncle Tetsu's Japanese Souffle Cheesecakes

Who is Uncle Tetsu? I have no idea, but I do know that his cheesecakes are all the rage in Taiwan. I couldn't find a main website for Uncle Tetsu (just several Facebook pages), but there is a plethora of blog posts and accolades on this mystery baker. When I saw the line at the Taipei train station for fresh cheesecakes was low, I hopped in and bought one. The lines are usually an hour long or so. These cakes sell for $199 NTW, which amounts to about $7.37 USD. That is a STEAL for this cake.

Since there's no Uncle Tetsu in America to my knowledge, I was bound and determined to figure out how to make one of these utterly delicious cakes. Recipe and flavor ideas below. These would make a perfect holiday party dish. You have plenty of time to perfect your version before Turkey Day rolls around.

I gotta hand it to the Japanese. Once again, they have managed to make a something so tasty, it will be hard for me to go back to the dense American style cheesecake.

Here's the store front of the location in the Taipei train station.

In my search for recreating this Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake, I came across many recipes. The ones I tried were fairy simple, with positive results with each try. After testing out a few recipe, I modified the base ingredients to make one really simple and quick. Additionally, I made a few savory cheesecakes as well like the coconut curry. I'll also add a list of additional flavors and tips at the bottom.

Here's a list of recipes that worked well:

• Happy Home Recipe: three ingredient version
• Happy Home Recipe: traditional version
• Wandering Eater Matcha version
• RasaMalaysia traditional cake

Tips:

• Don't skip the water bath. Just do it.
• If you're an experienced macaron baker, you'll know to gentle fold the egg whites. Gentle. Gentle. Gentle. You need the light egg whites to produce a fluffy cotton soft cake.
• I haven't had a problem making soufflés before, but don't do things like slam the oven door or yell at the cake. You'll hurt its feelings.
• If you're making a savory cheesecake soufflé, just leave out the sugar when whipping the egg whites.
• If you're going to make a flavoring that for the cake, add it to mix when you add the egg yolks. For example, I would add curry spices to the mix when I add egg yolks. Try to avoid adding anything to the egg whites if possible. Anything oily will kill off the fluff.
• Use your imagination!
• Sweet cake flavor ideas: lavender, rose, matcha, espresso, Earl Gray and bergamot, peaches, cherries, pineapple, or any other fruits.
• Savory ideas include curry, hatch chile, togarashi, lemon and truffle, or taco spice.

First two recipes I tested.

My coconut curry soufflé.

The cheese flavor of these cakes is subtle. The texture is like soft sponge. And it is just slightly sweet. These are so tasty, I could eat an entire one in a single sitting.

They also come in chocolate.

OMG. Sooooooooooo delicious.

I thought you might want to see a toy cow.