Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake is a creamy, yet light and airy cheesecake which wiggles and jiggles and is made in a pressure cooker.
Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
With the cheesecake craze going on, and people messaging me about a Japanese “Cotton” Cheesecake, I just had to see what all the fuss was about and if I could convert the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake to the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker.
This recipe went viral when Chef Ochikeron brought it to the attention of the World, using just three ingredients. This is Chef Ochikeron’s “Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake,” converted to the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker.
Cast of Ingredients for Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
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Ingredients for Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
- Eggs
- White Chocolate
- Cream Cheese
- …. and that’s all she wrote.
Best White Chocolate
Don’t use Hershey’s or Nestles and try to get a good Swiss chocolate bar. Really most European and Australian chocolate bars are better than any US chocolate.
The chocolate in the US hasn’t been very good for years. Too many fillers and ingredients to prevent the chocolate from melting in the warm weather.
Ingredients Should Be Room Temperature
Best Temperature for Ingredients
- When making cheesecakes and other baked goods, it is always best, unless otherwise stated, to have the cold ingredients at room temperature.
- For this Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake, only the cream cheese and egg yolks should sit out on your counter for about 30 to an hour. Depending on the climate in your area, this time will vary.
When making regular cheesecakes, it is important to check out my article on Instant Pot Perfect Pressure Cooker Cheesecake Tips Guide. There are more helpful tips and you will always have perfect cheesecake.
Melt White Chocolate
The chocolate can be melted using a 1-1/2 Quart Stainless Steel Saucepan or in the pressure cooker.
You know that white chocolate isn’t actually chocolate, right? It’s just a bunch of flavoring and oil, but, oh, how I love it. Another recipe which uses white chocolate is my Instant Pot Peppermint Milkshake Cheesecake. It is a fantastic recipe and is very popular, especially for Christmas dessert!
How to Melt Chocolate In Instant Pot
- The chocolate can be melted in the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker or on the stove.
- Grafiti Bands Cross Style or a homemade sling helps to lower in the bowl into the pressure cooker. The foil sling will be used later on to lower the 6″ Fat Daddio’s Push Pan into the cooking pot.
While the chocolate is melting prepare the egg whites.
Tips for Making Great Egg Whites
- Keep egg whites in refrigerator until ready to use.
- Use good electric hand mixer.
- Place the beaters from your mixer into the freezer!
This tip also works for my Perfect Homemade Whipped Cream recipe.
Mix to Achieve Medium Peaks
In this Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake recipe, make medium peaks for optimal results.
Egg Whites and Their Peaks
In working with egg whites, there is a term called “peaks.” It has to do with the firmness of the egg whites after beating. This is a very important step in making cakes and pies and the proper peak is needed for success.
What are Soft Peaks?
- If you remove the beaters from the bowl and turn them upside down, the peaks are just starting to hold. They will appear to be solid and then start to fall.
What are Medium Peaks?
- The tips of the peak will curl a bit, rather than standing at attention.
What are Hard or Firm Peaks?
- The peak will stand nice and firm.
Pro Tip: If the egg whites are mixed past the hard peak stage, they will soften up and become useless for making any firmness of peak.
White Chocolate and Cream Cheese Blend Together
Add the melted white chocolate to your room temperature cream cheese and whisk it together well.
Temper Egg Yolks
What is Tempering?
- Tempering is when you take a hot ingredient and slowly incorporate it into a cold ingredient.
Check out my Instant Pot Greek Yogurt recipe to see tempered starter. Want to hear a joke? After seeing so many IP yogurt failures, I set off to figure out why and documented all issues in my 2016 yogurt post. Because so many people copy recipes (and take credit), I added in the tempering step, which is totally not necessary as the milk cools down enough. I just put that step in there to see who would copy that step and guess what? You guessed it…..so, now you know.
How to Temper Egg Yolks
- In this case, the warm cream cheese and chocolate mixture is slowly introduced to the cool eggs.
- Using a hand whisk to temper the egg yolks helps to add a bit of air too. This will prevent the eggs from becoming cooked and scrambled.
Whisk Until Smooth
The egg yolk and hot cream cheese mixture should be nice and smooth and free of lumps.
Fold Egg Whites into Cream Cheese Mixture
Often times you will see an instruction telling you to “fold in” an ingredient. It is usually used for baking cakes and delicate egg dishes like a quiche. Speaking of quiches, try my Pressure Cooker Frosted Egg Cupcakes Frittata recipe. It’s not a quiche, but it sure is delish.
What Does it Mean to Fold In?
- To fold an ingredient into the main bowl with the balance of the ingredients means that you are not using any muscle or electric type of mixture.
- A spatula is used and in batches the foamy egg whites are slowing incorporated into the batter by gentle motions.
- The batter is then folded over the egg whites and it is repeated until all the egg whites have been used and folded into the batter.
All Ingredients Fully Incorporated
Take time to incorporate the egg whites with the cream cheese mixture. You want to make sure to use a spatula, not a whisk. (Yes I know, I accidentally put my whisk in there before snapping the photo)
A Three Ingredient Japanese Cheesecake should be very light and airy unlike my famous Instant Pot New York Cheesecake with is dense and heavy.
Prepare Cheesecake Pan
A 6″ Fat Daddio’s Push Pan is ideal for this recipe. It will give you a nice height.
Place a Parchment Round on the bottom of your pan and place Parchment Paper around the pan.
Slowly pour the cheesecake mixture into the prepared cheesecake pan.
Gently use your Homemade Foil Sling and lower the Pan into the Pressure Cooker.
Pro Tip: Cut four slits in the parchment paper, so that when you close the lid, it will protect the cake from too much condensation.
Allow Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
After cooking, the Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cheesecake should completely on a baking rack.
This ensures that the bottom is up off the counter and air can circulate around the pan. During the cooling time, the heat inside the cake will gently allow the cake to finish cooking and then cool.
Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cheesecake with Powdered Sugar
Some people like to sift powdered sugar on top. A dollop of Lemon or Lime Curd would be delicious on top of each slice!
Apricot Glazed Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
Some people like putting an Apricot Glaze on the top and sides.
Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
This Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake is very fluffy and light and is supposed to melt in your mouth, like cotton candy. I love blue cotton candy. I want some blue cotton candy.
More Instant Pot Cheesecakes to Make:
- Pressure Cooker Holiday Spice Peppernuts Cheesecake
- Pressure Cooker Meyer Lemon Cheesecake
- Pressure Cooker Banana Pudding Cheesecake
- Pressure Cooker Cherry Cordial Cheesecake Bites
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk – a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
- Stainless Steel Trivet
- 1.5 Quart Stainless Steel “Pot in Pot” Bowl
- Cuisinart Electric Hand Mixer
- 6″ Fat Daddio’s Push Pan
- Parchment Paper
- Homemade Foil Sling
- Stainless Steel Baking Rack
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Here is your handy printable recipe:
Instant Pot Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
Print Pin Save RateIngredients
- 3 large Eggs
- 120 grams Cream Cheese
- 120 grams White Chocolate Candy Bar
Topping
Recommended Products
Instructions
- Separate egg whites from yolks and place egg whites in the refrigerator.
- Place beaters from electric mixer into the freezer.
Melt Chocolate
- Use a saucepan, or follow directions below for melting in Instant Pot
- Break up the white chocolate bar and place into a bowl and cover with foil.
- Place two cups of water into pressure cooker and place a trivet. Place bowl on top of trivet.
- Lock on lid and close pressure valve. Cook at high pressure (most machines default to high pressure) for 5 minutes.
- When beep sounds, allow all pressure to release naturally.
- Remove bowl of melted chocolate and leave trivet with water in Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker.
Make Medium Peaks
- Remove beaters from freezer and egg whites from refrigerator.and whip into Medium Hard Peaks. Place them back in refrigerator, until needed.
- Use an electric beater and whip egg whites to form medium peaks.
- After medium peaks have formed, place bowl with egg whites back into the refrigerator until ready to use.
Cream Cheese Mixture
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth,
- Slowly add in the melted white chocolate and blend together until smooth.
- Whisk egg yolks and temper. Add a bit of warm cream cheese/chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs and whisk together. Slowly drizzle in the tempered egg yolks to the cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth.
- With a spatula, carefully fold in cold egg whites, one-third at a time, until combined.
Prepare Cheesecake Pan for Baking
- Line cheesecake pan with a parchment round. Take a strip of parchment paper and line it around the pan, so that the parchment paper sticks up about 4 inches above the cake pan.
- Pour cheesecake mixture into prepared cheesecake pan and place on trivet in Pressure Cooker cooking pot.
- Cut four vertical slits in the parchment paper, so that the parchment will lightly fold over the cheesecake when you place the lid.
- Lock on lid and close Pressure Valve. Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes.
- When beep sounds, wait 15 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Remove lid and cheesecake. Place on baking rack and allow to cool for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Place in refrigerator overnight. Before serving top with apricot glaze or powdered sugar.
Notes
Nutrition
PIN this Pressure Cooker Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake!
Pressure Cooker Three Ingredient Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
Help! I followed your recipe which was the same as what I’d seen on other blogs too. I’ve made Japanese cheesecake before, but I always made it in the oven. I figured I’d try this because it seemed so much easier. But my cake turned out completely soggy. What could have gone wrong? Did this happen to anyone else?
I’m sorry, without seeing you prepare, I would not know what has happened. Jill
I have made this at least 4 times in the last month… I love how simple this is and everyone loves the taste 🙂
I use a 7-inch pan in the 6QT Instant Pot, so I adjusted with an extra egg and 40 extra grams of the chocolate and cream cheese. However, each time I make it, the cake always sinks and becomes dense – looks way flatter than your pictures. I do cool it completely before putting in the fridge. Is there a way to make it look fluffier like yours? Should I adjust pressure cooker time (have been using the same time as in your recipe) or increase the ingredients even more?
I would love to know as my cheese cake came out very rubbery
Can I double the ingredients and do it in a 7″ for a larger cheesecake?
I don’t have a white chocolate candy bar but I do have some white baking chocolate from the Cake store can I use it and if so is there something else I have to do with it or add to it. The kind I buy when I make my white chocolate bark I just have to melt it and add my ingredients I don’t have to add any oil or butter to it
I very much want to try this, especially with Valrhona’s white chocolate! Anyway, how do you temper the eggs in this case — just add them bit by bit to the cream cheese mixture?
Do I take it out of the pan after cooling and before putting it in the fridge? Or after it’s been in the fridge overnight?
Hi Selene. Either way. You might feel more comfortable leaving it in the pan overnight. It is up to you. Enjoy. Jill
Not sure what I’m doing wrong but there’s a separation between the dense parts of the ingredients. It’s mixed well prior to putting it in the IP. But once I sliced it, I can see that there’s two different layers in the cake. One part fluffy, one part dense.
Hi Aaron. I have not seen that happen and since I am not there with you, I can’t say for sure. Are you making sure to evenly fold in the egg whites? Jill
I’m excited to try this recipe, but I have to disagree with your statement about white chocolate. If you buy “real” white chocolate, it is made from cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is made from cocoa beans. You can make great white chocolate with just cocoa butter, milk powder and sugar and vanilla, but it’s expensive. That is why the white chocolate you find in most stores is full of weird ingredients, the weird ingredients are cheaper.
Good quality white chocolate bars are going to cost you $6 or more, but they are awesome if you like white chocolate.
I have a couple of certificates in chocolate making and my father-in-law is a chocolatier! I think white chocolate gets a bad rap, so I want to debunk the myths!
Hi Jasmine~
Yes, I understand and agree. Most of the white chocolate you see in stores is junk. I love white chocolate. I am not a chocolate lover, but I am a white chocolate lover. When I buy chocolate, I try to buy the best. 🙂 Jill
It’s in my 8 quart Instant Pot right now – can’t wait!
However, I used an 8″ Fat Daddio pan for mine, and it looks like it might be a little on the “thin” side. If I were to double the recipe would the cook time change?
when you say “allow all pressure to release naturally”, do you mean not open the pressure valve and let the pressure dissipate on its own with the lid closed?
So I totally missed the part about cooling completely before putting in the fridge 🙁 it kind of deflated and got dense so I ruined the consistency right?
I was standing in a long line at Joann reading this. Looked to my right and saw that they had European white chocolate on their candy shelf. Done! Looked to my left and there was a 6″ springform pan 25% off. Done! How weird is that?? I will bake it tonight and try to remember to comment my results!
Ok. Sorry for the dumb question. I know that if you have a graham cracker crust you must want to slide the cheese cake off the bottom of the pan when you remove the spring section. Do you want to do the same thing with the Cotton Cheese cake?
Hi Mark~
The cake should slide right off the base. Are you using the parchment on the bottom? Jill
The recipe calls for 120 grams of cream cheese. That is approximately half of a cream cheese block, which is approximately 4oz. Is that accurate? Other recipes I’ve seen call for 16 ounces of cream cheese and would go into a 6 or 7 inch pan.
Did you use all 8 ounces of cream cheese? I thought 120 grams was about 4 ounces?
Hi Jill, my daughter is allergic to fillers found in a typical white chocolate bar. Can I use pure cacao butter, vanilla and sweetener in place of the chocolate bar? Also, is there a reason we can’t increase the recipe by 1/3 and use the 8″ pan?
Is the time the same if I use small mason jars instead?
Want to make this cotton cheesecake today and I only have the one ring. I used your paper towel and foil cover tip for the other cheesecake recipe on your site. It worked great, my cheesecake had no savory smell. Can I use the same step for this recipe I want to avoid the cheesecake smelling like the savory dish I made yesterday.
I am so glad you said that American chocolate isn’t good because English chocolate has become the same now that Cadbury’s chocolate is American owned, so don’t buy Cadbury’s for this recipe. Did you know that most American chocolate is now made with Palm Oil which is very bad for humans and they are burning down rain forests to grow more. I am definitely going to give this recipe a try. It looks yummy!
No way is American-made Cadbury on the same level as Hershey’s. Cadbury still beats Hershey by a mile.
i think both of them have failed. both took the milk out of their chocolate to make Halal Easter candy, and it changed the taste of them both. i dont eat Hersheys or Cadbury anything, because they just dont taste right anymore.
Cadbury recently made all of their chocolate Halal, which changed the taste of it, it has nothing to do with being an American company. trust me, the American people complained very loudly, because they changed the recipe, so that they could make Halal Easter Candy. can i get a WUT?
Oh my. WUT from me. Jill
Is there a way to make this with dark chocolate, so to stay more Paleo friendly?
I only have a 7 inch pan. Can i still make this?
Hi Min~
Absolutely.
Jill
Does a 7-inch pan change the cooking time?
Can the chocolate be left out? Not a fan..
Margie, the white chocolate you mean? No, it won’t taste right with just eggs and cream cheese.
Jill
I’ll have to try this recipe! I love Japanese cheesecake- not a fan of the NY style ones, and wanted to try cheesecake out in the IP. Thank you!
Hi Tiphanie~
Thank you for visiting. Let me know how you like the recipe.
Jill
I was so eager to make this recipe, but bought milk chocolate instead of white chocolate…with disasterous results:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.caloriecount.about.com/images/medium/lindt-swiss-classic-milk-39358.jpg
Isn’t this packaging misleading?! I’ll try again!
Hi Eliza~
Thank you for your message. That photo sure is misleading. You might want to contact the seller, as that photo is clearly white chocolate. I am glad you will try again. Let me know.
Jill
If you like blue cotton candy, try a raspberry glaze on the cake.
Blue cotton candy is called “Blue Raspberry” in the industry.
Ruaidhri~
Blue Cotton candy is my favorite! I bet that would be delicious.
Thank you for your comment.
Jill