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.
Yes, you must have perfected your baking skills. Wow!! And your previous lemon tarts (I haven’t had a chance to visit for a while!)… hmmm.
PS Thanks for the post about Brunetti creperia!
Hey there Belinda! Thank you for the feedback. I really do enjoy the whole process of baking. The only difficulty is finding an excuse to make something. I reckon I’d bake every day if I had a hungry hoard to feed. It is too much temptation to cook and have it sitting around the house, taunting you constantly
This looks fantastic, I grew up on home made baked cheesecake from my nanna, sadly she never would give us the proper receipt thus it is lost forever, I will try this & see how it compares
Hey there Ange! Keep me posted on how this compares with your food memories. Would be interesting to hear.
now this is a cheesecake to put all the other cheesecakes to shame. Wonderful!
Thanks for that jenjen! All kudos to Lea for providing the recipe!
What is custard powder? I am looking and looking for a recipe for a German cheesecake that a family bakery in Illinois made in the 1950s…this might be similar but am baffled by the ingredient “custard powder.”
Thanks.
Hi there Catherine! Custard Powder is basically a corn starch mix, that contains a few extras such as vanilla, annatto (for colour). You could substitute corn starch in the recipe, perhaps with a teaspoon of vanilla added.
Alternatively, I believe you have a brand in the US called Birds, or you can definitely find custard powder in most Asian or Indian Grocers.
It’s a very UK thing, and I guess something that is also readily available here in Australia too.
Good luck with your search. This recipe is worth it.
I recently made a Quark cheesecake which was similar to yours. It was fairy large but good. It had a short crust.
My original question had been whether or not quark and bakers cheese (as was called at the Cheese shop) were one and the same. It seems the answer is yes but perhaps you know?
Would the Quark (or bakers cheese) be what is put into Cheese blintz’s? I’ve tried for a long time to make them like I get in the polish deli, but haven’t come up with the right cheese. Maybe quark is it!
thanks for posting your recipe. I’d be happy to send mine if you’d like it.
susie
Hi Susie – from what I understand bakers cheese and quark are the same thing. And yes, it is quark that is used in blintzes as well. I’ve used this recipe for a sweeter blintz, which is just lovely. I’d love to have your recipe – can you send it to mellie AT tummyrumbles dot com ? Thanks!