If you’ve had the pleasure of visiting Japan, you’ll notice that if there’s one thing that people are willing to line up for, it’s good food. Be it chewy udon noodles, fluffy shokupan, or crispy gyoza, if it’s good there’s going to be a line. We’ve joined many lines in Tokyo and the results were almost always out of this world.
The best Japanese cheesecake
Promised to be one of the greatest cheesecakes in Tokyo is Mr. Cheesecake. Mr. Cheesecake is touted as Tokyo’s most elusive and exclusive cheesecake. Ironically, there are no lines…but only because they don’t have a physical store. The creamy rectangular shaped cheesecakes are sold online for just two days a week and sell out in minutes. Japanese food fanatics have started calling it the phantom cheesecake. Even if you do manage to be one of the lucky ones who get to purchase a cheesecake, you can’t choose the date or time of delivery.
Behind Mr. Cheesecake is chef Koji Tamura. His cheesecakes are made with an indulgent combination of cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, yogurt, tonka beans (a super fragrant bean with warming flavors like vanilla, cherry, almond, and cinnamon), white chocolate, vanilla beans, and lemon. The result is an incredibly creamy yet light cheesecake that’s reminiscent of Basque cheesecake, but much more delicate. Tamara recommends having it three ways: frozen, straight from the fridge, and at room temperature. The different temperatures affect the taste and texture.
Unfortunately we never had the chance to order a Mr. Cheesecake while in Tokyo, but luckily chef Tamura released an official recipe online in light of Covid. The recipe, while having several different steps, is really simple to execute. And the result is delicious: super creamy, super luscious, lightly sweetened, tangy cheesecake.
I made the cheesecake twice, once in a regular loaf pan and once in a mini pan. I didn’t quite get the height that I wanted in the regular size loaf pan or in the mini, so I suspect that they must use a Japanese standard size. Nonetheless, I love this cheesecake. I froze some for the sake of doing three side-by-side taste tests.
What makes this cheesecake so delicious?
The frozen cheesecake from the fridge had a firm frozen custardy texture with the lemon really shining through. From the fridge the cheesecake had that classic melt in your mouth texture with a hint of vanilla and balance of sweetness. Room temp was my favorite with a melty almost creamy middle that was velvety and soft, almost reminiscent of a creme brûlée but cheesecake-y and a bit more firm.
How to make Mr. Cheesecake
- Cream. Stir the cream cheese along with the sugar over a double boiler until smooth.
- Melt. Heat the cream with the chocolate until the chocolate is melted.
- Mix. Combine the cream cheese mix and chocolate cream mix.
- Make the batter. In a seperate bowl, mix together the sour cream, yogurt, egg yolks, and vanilla. Whisk the cornstarch in until smooth.
- Combine. Stir everything together.
- Bake. Pour the batter into a lined baking tin and bake in a water bath. Let cool completely and enjoy!
Hope you get a chance to try this cheesecake out! It’s the easiest and simplest way to get a taste of Tokyo right now :)
xoxo steph
PS – I excluded the tonka beans because they’re quite difficult to find but if you want to add them in and have them, you need 1/2 a tonka bean, grated. It’s added into the white chocolate mix.
PPS – I thought the lemon was a bit too bright so when I made the second mini cheesecake, I left it out and loved it even more.
The Best Japanese Cheesecake Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 grams cream cheese room temp, about 3/4 cups
- 100 grams sugar about 1/2 cup
- 100 grams cream about 6 tbsp
- 50 grams white chocolate about 1/3 cup
- 180 grams sour cream about 3/4 cup
- 50 grams greek yogurt about 1/4 cup
- 2 egg yolks room temp
- 9 grams lemon juice about 2 tsp
- 1/4 vanilla bean optional
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 20 grams cornstarch about 2.5 tbsp
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 365°F. In a bowl over a double boiler, mix together the cream cheese and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the cream cheese is smooth. Remove and set aside to cool slightly.
- In a small saucepan, heat the cream just until the edges start to bubble. Take it off the heat and add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Pour the cream and chocolate mixture into the cream cheese mixture and combine until smooth. Stir in the vanilla bean, if using.
- In another bowl, mix the sour cream and yogurt together. Mix in the egg yolk, lemon juice (if using), and vanilla extract. Whisk in the cornstarch.
- Stir the yogurt mix into the cream cheese mix, whisking until smooth. Strain through a sieve to remove any lumps (and the vanilla bean). Transfer the batter to a standard size loaf pan lined with baking paper.
- Place in a large baking dish and pour hot water into the dish to create a water bath. Bake for 25 minutes at 365°F then rotate and reduce the temp down to 300°F and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Broil slightly for a charred golden top, if desired.
- Remove the pan from the water bath and cool on a rack for 30 minutes before removing the cheesecake from the pan and chilling in the fridge to cool completely.
- Enjoy either from the fridge, frozen, or at room temp. From the fridge the cheesecake will have that classic melt in your mouth texture with a hint of vanilla and balance of sweetness. Frozen tastes a little bit like frozen custard with lemon and room temp tastes velvety and soft.
so much creative cuisine in Japan, had never seen this version, tonka beans, have never worked with them before, thank you for introducing these
hi, what kind of cream did you use here? is it ok to use nestle all-purpose cream? thanks in advance!
hi,
it’s just regular heavy whipping cream that has a milk fat percentage of 35%. i’m not sure what the all purpose cream percent is but if it’s around there it should work :)
hi,I’m koji tamura !
Thank you for made a Mr. CHEESECAKE！
I’m so so so happy!!!
cream fresh is 42%
hello tamura-san! thank you for dropping by!! :D
and thank you for letting me know that the cream fresh is 42%!!
This happiness is infectious! I’m looking forward to making my own Mr Cheesecake this weekend. Hopefully I can make it to Tokyo one day and try it first hand.
How can I convert this into cups and tbs?
hi kim,
i’ve done the conversion, but cups and tbsp are no where nearly as accurate as weight measurements! your cheesecake will probably end up looking slightly different, it’s really difficult to measure out cream cheese, sour cream, and yogurt accurately in cups :)
Hi Step, I’m planning to make it this weekend, for the cream can I use double cream option that has 45% fat milk content?
Cause the standard cream only has 35% fat.
hi billa,
you can use double cream too!
Can I change the white chocolate to dark chocolate?
hi peggy,
i haven’t tried but i think it’ll work. the cheesecake will be chocolate colored :)
This is not an impt call out, just got me confused,
On the steps above, u mentioned egg whites.
In the recipe, it says egg yolks…
I thought for a sec maybe u experimented ?
But its all good now ?
From what i understand, this is better without lemon?
hi kristy,
thanks for the heads up! fixed the typo :)
i liked it better without the lemon!
Hi.. should we wait until the cream and chocolate cool down before mixing it to cream cheese?
Thank you for posting.
hi yes if you’re mixing in chocolate, make sure it’s cooled down :)
I tried with digestive biscuit crust and it gave a tasty balance
What do you mean by rotate? Or do just change the temperature? I don’t understand. Or do I have to open the oven, turn the cake around and lower temperature?
hi bianca,
you got it right, just open the oven door, turn the cake around, close the oven door and lower the temp.
Hi Thank you for the recipe. I baked it a few days ago and the consistency was quite wobbly and no colour on top at all so I baked it another 20 minutes more at 300°F but still no colour. Do you have any suggestion on that. I used lemon juice and the taste was very good.
hi sasi,
you can turn the heat up to 350°F and bake it for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on it to add extra color.