Yuja Cheesecake

Name: Yuja Cheesecake
Yield: Serves 12
Cuisine: Korea
Ingredients: 1½ cups (170 g) graham cracker crumbs (crust); 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (crust); 6 tbsp (85 g) unsalted butter, melted (crust); 2 tbsp brown sugar (crust); 24 oz (680 g) cream cheese, room temperature; 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar; 3 large eggs, room temperature; 1 cup (240 g) sour cream; ½ cup (120 g) yuja (yuzu) marmalade, plus 3 tbsp for the glaze; 1 tbsp vanilla extract; 1 tbsp all-purpose flour; 3 tbsp warm water (glaze); 1 tsp powdered gelatin (glaze)

Fusion · Medium · Serves 10

Yuja (yuzu) cheesecake runs the #124's coconut-lime logic in Korea's citrus register: yuja-cheong — the Korean honeyed yuzu preserve — swirled into a classic baked cheesecake, its bitter marmalade edge riding the cream. Where the #127 steeps and the #4 soaks, this one swirls: the preserve's peel and syrup both, in the batter and on the crown.

Quantities live in the recipe card.

The crust

The filling

The crown

- **Bake low, cool slow** — the #124's two no-crack laws carry whole (150 °C water bath, the off-heat rest). - **The bridge:** yuja-cheong (Korean honeyed citrus preserve, sold in jars in Korean groceries) is the authentic; the #4's yuzu juice plus marmalade bridges honestly — you want both syrup and bitter peel, which is what the preserve is.

Step 1. **Crust, pressed and pre-baked (10 minutes at 175 °C).** As the #124 — compact, cooled, waiting. Checkpoint — the #124's own: pressed to the corners, fully cooled.

Step 2. **The filling with the preserve worked in.** Beat the cream cheese and sugar smooth; the eggs one at a time; then the cream, vanilla, salt, flour, and 3 tbsp of the yuja-cheong. Pour over the crust; dot the surface with the extra preserve and drag a knife once — a single marble. Checkpoint — the batter should taste faintly, clearly of the citrus — floral, bitter-edged, sweet — and the swirl should be visible at the surface, one pass of the knife, not stirred in.

Step 3. **Bake (50 minutes at 150 °C), rest (1 hour), chill (4 hours), crown.** The #124's full clock. The crown: the warmed preserve poured over the chilled cake, the candied peel laid on. Checkpoint — eating test: dense cream first, then the yuja's arrival — sharper than lemon, bitterer than orange, the honeyed syrup rounding it — with the swirl's ribbons more intense than the batter. It should taste like the #124's structure with Korea's winter citrus doing the talking, and the peel's bitterness is the signature: the part the timid versions strain out. Chef’s Note — yuja-cheong is doing three jobs at once — sugar (its syrup), acid (the citrus), and texture (the peel) — which is why the recipe's other measures run lean: the preserve IS the flavor system. The #4's yuzu tres leches is the same citrus in a different chassis; between them, the block's Korean-Japanese citrus circle closes.

Yuja Cheesecake

Prep: 30 minutes, plus 4 hours chilling · Cook: 50 minutes · Total: About 5 hours 30 minutes · Serves 10

Ingredients

The crust

150 g graham crackers, crushed; 60 g melted butter; 2 tbsp sugar (about 25 g)

The filling

600 g cream cheese, room temperature; 180 g sugar
3 eggs (about 150 g); 200 ml cream
3 tbsp yuja-cheong (about 60 g), plus 2 tbsp more for the swirl; the zest of 1 lemon or yuzu if fresh is findable
1 tsp vanilla; a pinch of salt; 2 tbsp flour (about 16 g)

The crown

2 tbsp yuja-cheong, warmed and loosened with a teaspoon of hot water; candied yuja peel from the jar, optional

Instructions

**Crust, pressed and pre-baked (10 minutes at 175 °C).** As the #124 — compact, cooled, waiting. Checkpoint — the #124's own: pressed to the corners, fully cooled.
**The filling with the preserve worked in.** Beat the cream cheese and sugar smooth; the eggs one at a time; then the cream, vanilla, salt, flour, and 3 tbsp of the yuja-cheong. Pour over the crust; dot the surface with the extra preserve and drag a knife once — a single marble. Checkpoint — the batter should taste faintly, clearly of the citrus — floral, bitter-edged, sweet — and the swirl should be visible at the surface, one pass of the knife, not stirred in.
**Bake (50 minutes at 150 °C), rest (1 hour), chill (4 hours), crown.** The #124's full clock. The crown: the warmed preserve poured over the chilled cake, the candied peel laid on. Checkpoint — eating test: dense cream first, then the yuja's arrival — sharper than lemon, bitterer than orange, the honeyed syrup rounding it — with the swirl's ribbons more intense than the batter. It should taste like the #124's structure with Korea's winter citrus doing the talking, and the peel's bitterness is the signature: the part the timid versions strain out.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Cracked top	Over-baked or shocked	The #124's low bath and rest
Citrus flavor faint	Preserve under-dosed or strained	The full measure, peel included
Swirl vanished	Knife passed too often	One drag, then stop

Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations

- Keeps 4 days refrigerated (crown at serving); freezes 1 month plain. The #124's make-ahead format carries. - Variations: the burned-basque version (high heat, the #133's neighborhood), the jar's peel piled thicker. The block's #124 and #4 are this recipe's family.