Durian Cheesecake

My second daughter Lyanne is a durian monster. She's a very picky girl who loves plain rice and anything carbo but hates meat and vegetables. She isn't an adventurous eater but surprisingly, she loves durian. Love is an understatement. She's mad about durians. Durians aren't available all the time and when it's durian season, she will be pestering her grandpa to get her durians and he will gladly scour the town and get her the best that he can find.

That small dent was caused by me testing the surface.
I touched it while it was hot and that small bit stuck to my finger.

We love the durian cheesecake from Secret Recipe, said to be made from D24 durians. It was soft and custardy, almost like eating tofu!
Few years back the cake had a thin sponge base, but few months back I had another slice and it was sadly, sadly with a biscuit crumb base. I don't like that crumb base because it spoils the delicate texture of the cheesecake. Imagine having something coarse that disrupts the enjoyment of something smooth, delicate and fragrant. Duh!!! Secret Recipe, changes aren't always for the better. Please go back to sponge base.

My family were actually kampung durian lovers. Thin fleshed, fragrant and sweet kampung durians with a lot of membrane to lick off the seed. One day, I happened to see some Musang King durians (or Mao Shan Wang 猫山王榴莲)  at a very good price and so we bought some. We don't buy it usually, because it's too expensive and we often get free durians from relatives with kampung durian trees.

We bought 3 small containers (rice box sized) of it and ate up 2. We can't go on anymore because of the intense flavour. It's just too rich for us. That's when I decided to make it into a cheesecake.

I was hoping to create something that resembles the soft creamy cheesecake from Secret Recipe that's very soft, creamy and light in texture. And I was glad it did taste somehow like Secret Recipe's, but more intense due to the type of durian I used. We LOVED it, and what more Lyanne that durian monster.

It was not enough and I made it again with kampung durians, and sadly, it was not as good. So, I highly recommend that one must use good durians to make this. Either D24 or Musang King or any other good intense durians.

Durian Cheesecake

Recipe by WendyinKK

Base
5mm Thin sponge layer (slightly bigger than 8 inch)

Batter
250gm quality durian flesh
260gm milk
100gm sugar
250gm cream cheese, cut smaller and softened to room temperature.
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

1. Put milk and durian flesh into a saucepan. Cook it over gentle heat until durian flesh melts into the milk. Strain and discard pulp. Pour the very warm durian milk over cream cheese and gently stir until cream cheese is melted.
2. Beat eggs, egg yolk and sugar together, until slightly frothy. Mix in cornstarch.
3. Combine egg mixture and cream cheese mixture. Let it sit for few minutes as you do the next steps.
4. Preheat the oven at 180C, LOWER HEAT ONLY. Prepare a kettle of boiling water.
5. Prepare an 8-inch spring form pan. Grease the sides of the pan with butter and line the base with a thin layer of sponge cake that fits snugly in the pan, leaving no space at all between wall of the pan and sponge. Wrap the base of the pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from seeping in. See picture.
6. Strain the cheesecake mixture twice and pour it into the prepared pan.
7. Place the pan into a 10 inch pan that is shorter than the cheesecake pan. Place them into the oven, carefully pour boiling water into the outer pan.
8. Bake for 50 mins or until surface is no longer jiggly.
9. Leave the door of the oven slightly ajar (put a heatproof utensil to prevent the oven door to close shut. Let the cake rest in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the outer pan, peel away the alumimium foil and let the cake cool down in the oven.
10. Cover the cake pan with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 5 hours (minimum) before serving.