Kaesekuchen (German Cheesecake)

I just love the blogsphere. I received an email from a reader, Lea, who was enquiring after my apprentice pastrychef-ing experience. After a few exchanged emails, she offered me this Kaesekuchen recipe, which is a German Cheesecake (Lea hails from Germany herself). I really love a baked cheesecake, and what I like about this one is that it’s not too rich. Too often cheesecakes are uber rich/sweet, leaving you only able to consume a few mouthfuls (well, that is where one should stop if they were intelligent, but one still manages to eat a whole piece, feeling completely stuffed afterwards!).

This recipe uses Quark as the cheese component, which is basically a European style cottage / cream cheese. It is easily obtainable from the dairy section of most major supermarkets. The quark adds a nice tartness and smooth mouth feel to the cheesecake, and with the slightly sour cherries, it’s a dynamic combination. Very yummy.

This recipe provides for 6 decent serves. Lea’s original recipe was for double the quantity as outlined below, so feel free to make a bigger cake should you have more mouths to feed.

Thanks for the wonderful recipe Lea. And good luck with your pastrycheffing career!

Kaesekuchen (German Cheesecake)
500g quark
3 eggs
125g sugar
3 tablespoons custard powder
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Dark pitted cherries (canned) – or you can used apricots, pears, whatever
Butter and hazelnut meal for the tin

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and butter a 20cm springform tin and coat with hazelnut meal. The traditional recipe called for breadcrumbs in this step – but I didn’t have any, so thought a nut meal might make a great substitution.

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.

Place egg yolks, sugar, custard powder, quark, lemon juice and zest into a separate bowl and mix well. Gently fold in egg whites (in two batches to maintain lightness) and then spread into the prepared tin.

Decorate with the drained pitted cherries in a somewhat attractive pattern and bake for 1 hour.

Now if I were a smart girl who thinks ahead, I would have reserved the canned cherry juice, reduced and perhaps thickened it slightly with some corn starch, and served it alongside the cheesecake. Alas, I didn’t think of this till after I drained the cherries into the sink. So you get the benefit of my lack of foresight on this occasion.

Either way, serve with a good creme fraiche.