Double Cheese Mushi Pan
The Cheese Mushi Pan was the food trend in the 1990’s in Japan. My mother loved it and so did the whole family.
- 4 sliced cheese
- 30 g cream cheese
- 120 ml milk (1/2 cup milk)
- 2 tbsp rice bran oil
- 2 large eggs
- 70 g sugar
- 70 g plain flour
- Preheat the oven to 170 degree celsius.
- Tear the sliced cheese into small sizes. Place them in a saucepan with cream cheese, milk, and oil.
- Heat the saucepan over medium heat and when all the cheese has melted, turn the heat off and set aside.
- Mix half of the sugar (35g) and yolks in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the cheese mixture gradually to the yolk mixture bowl and combine them well.
- Add sifted flour into the egg yolk and mixture to combine.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and remaining sugar to make meringue. Beat the egg whites until it forms fine peak.
- Add 1/3 of meringue into the yolk mixture and fold it in and repeat the same for the remaining amount.
- Divide the mixture into 8 muffin tin filling each muffin form about 80%.
- Place the muffin tin in a deep roasting tray and pour water around the muffin tin. Steam bake the mushipan for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Take the muffin tin out and remove the lining paper and cool them down on a rack.
- Change the oven setting to grill at 180 degree celsius. Place the steam baked Mushi Pans on a flat oven tray lined with baking sheet.
- Grill the surface of the cakes for about one and half minutes depending on the oven. Keep a close watch on them because they brown quickly.
- When the surface has browned, take the tray out and cool them down. You can serve the cake warm or cold. Either way is delicious.
I remember we bought them nearly every day for an afternoon snack. The Master Chef Australia is showing “Japan week” and I missed these steamed buns so much, so I made them.
This mushi pan is very similar to the Japanese cotton cheesecake both in texture and taste. The double cheese mushi pan is an easier way to make the cheesecake in less time and achieve a similar texture and taste.
And you can get all the ingredients from any supermarkets. This recipe does NOT require any special “Japanese ingredients” which may be difficult to get if you live outside of Japan. As you can see the sliced cheese and philly cheese are used for the recipe which are not typical Japanese ingredients.
When it is called Mushi Pan, Mushi means steamed in Japanese but I used an oven to steam them. So more like steam baked buns. I put them in a muffin tray using muffin tin lining paper.
I placed the 6 muffin trays in a deep oven tray, which I usually use for roasting, with water to steam bake the mixture in the oven. After the cake is steam-baked then take the tray out, remove the lining paper, put the cake back for grilling the surface of the cake a little bit. It looked a little different than what I used to eat in Japan.
My friend called this double cheese mushi pan, “Tiger cheese mushi pan”. It certainly look like the tiger bread that we can buy from the bakery in Australia. But you will be amazed how soft and fluffy this cheese mushi pan is and super easy to make too!!
