Homemade Quark Cake is a healthier dessert choice!
Homemade Quark Cake or Käsekuchen Mit Quark made with Homemade Quark Fresh Cheese and Homemade Cloudberry Jam. Talk about “from scratch”! Well, we will talk more about from scratch, in a minute. Matthias first brought me a sample of this cake in November when we had our Thermomix Team Christmas meeting and luncheon. It is radically different that the dense, velvety cheese laden New York Cheesecake that I am more familiar with, and adore. Yet, I was smitten. This cake is light, barely sweet, and presents an almost guilt free experience when eating it as it tastes to healthy.
What does healthy taste like, you ask? Like a slice of tender delicious almost breakfast-like “good for you and me” food. Not sweet. Not rich. A crunchy crust with a delicate filling.
Cloud Berries are as Canadian as Canadian can be. A Newfoundland delicacy that are rare and only available there, and even hard to find there! Their season is short and they are not easy to find on the land. I bought a jar of the berries with nothing added, brought them home, and made jam.
Now, this is the “from scratch” conversation revisited. The two packages, above, are also in this recipe as this is Matthias’s recipe, and these ingredients are very familiar in the German culture and Europeans, in general. Vanja’s mom and almost everyone in the former Yugoslavia also uses the vanilla sugar instead of pure vanilla. Odd, to us, but definitely to honor the recipe Matthias gave to me, I used both. Next time, I would use my vanilla, and not sure what to do about the pudding. Cornstarch? That may be all as vanilla pudding is just eggs, milk, sugar and cornstarch which are all in this ingredient list, already.
The beauty of this recipe is that it can be entirely made in my Thermomix, so no muss, no fuss. Above, the crust ingredients, mixed together, then kneaded.
Pan is prepared with a skiff of oil and bread crumbs for easy release and added crunch.
All filling ingredients go into the clean bowl. The only ingredient that i was really surprised about was the oil. New York Cheese cake as no added fat, but quark cheese is so low in fat and so high in protein, maybe that is why the extra fat is added? Though it is a lot of oil, I can’t find it in the taste or feel of the filling once baked. Meaning, it does not taste fatty, or rich.
You can see it is a much thinner filling than the New York Cheesecake filling.
Into the unbaked crust it goes, then into the oven for 90 minutes at 355ºF. That is a long time, but that is how long it takes.
Puffy and perfect out of the oven. Smells so fragrant.
Above is Matthias’s cake, below, mine. I did use full fat milk. Mine cracked a bit, which is not so unusual, but also broke a little around the edge, but again, that is really not an issue. The colour difference is likely due to the egg yolks.
The baked New York Cheese cake has a more visible “filling crumb” while the Quark Cake or Käsekuchen Mit Quark has a much finer filling crumb.
One cake yields 12 generous servings, each completely satisfying. No need for seconds.
Without adornment, still delicious. With adornment, not decadent, per se, but most definitely fancy and scrumptious.
The Cloudberries add the perfect compliment as they are also delicate and subtle, but significantly different in flavour than any berry I know.
Homemade Quark Cake
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Crust
- 200 grams organic white flour
- 75 grams sugar
- 125 grams butter
- 1 whole egg
- 1 package vanilla sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Ingredients for the Filling
- 500 grams quark
- 100 grams sugar
- 3 whole eggs
- 1 bag vanilla pudding – dr. oetker
- 500 grams milk
- 110-130 grams sunflower oil
- 1 package vanilla sugar
- Juice of ½ lemon
Instructions
Instructions for the Crust
-
Weight all ingredients into the TM bowl to combine for 15 seconds speed 3; knead for 2 minutes
-
Preheat oven to 355 F
-
Grease spring form pan with melted butter and a dusting of breadcrumbs which creates a crunchy crust
-
Press dough into bottom and up sides of pan
Instructions for the Filling
-
Clean TM bowl; weigh all filling ingredients into TM bowl
-
Mix together for 2.5 minutes at speed 4; pour into crust
-
Bake for 1.5 hour; middle will rise high and collapse when taken out of oven
Recipe Notes
Matthias used a 12 inch spring form pan and I used a 10 inch one. His cake was thinner, but his crust was more even. I prefer 10 inch.
When I was in Mexico a couple of years ago with mom, we had a cheesecake made with Queso Fresco that was similar, but different to this Homemade Quark Cake or Käsekuchen Mit Quark. Again, that cake was not at all rich and dense like the New York Cheesecake, but its dimensions were as notable and as different as this one. I have craved that cake since I tasted it, and search for the recipe. It is a quest I am still engaged in!
Quark recipes? Yes, please. Share your experiences and stories as they bring so much meaning to the work I do and are my reward for sharing this with you.
It would have been slim pickings this year in Newfoundland for bakeapples. We were there for two weeks mid August and there were no ripe ones to be found. We traveled right around the province and everyone (including me) was lamenting that there would be none or precious few this year. The only ones I saw growing were few and far between and they were still reddish pink. You probably know, but others may not, that when they are that colour it is a sign that they are not ripe. They ripen to yellow.
How did you make the topping?
Elsie!
I thought the month for harvesting the berries was July? So to have the ones you found not yet ripe in August is odd… do you think it is possible that they are the late bloomers and the rest were gleaned by others, or it was just a late season over all? My next post is the recipe for the topping, but it is so simple you will likely laugh.
Lovely to hear from you again!
Valerie
The weather did not co-operate. It seems that July was just about the worst July they ever had. According to the locals, it rained most days and it was cold as well. They said they had never seen a July like it. I was there one other August and the bakeapples were at their peak. I remember carefully bringing back several quarts of them back with me. I love those things and one of the reasons we had elected to go when we did was because they are normally then in season. So, I had to settle for bringing back lots of bakeapple jam, no doubt made from the previous years’ crops.
Elsie!
How does the recipe I used compare to yours – and, how would you describe the flavour of a bakeapple?
Dying to hear your opinion.
🙂
V
PS – how did the chocolate caramels arrive at Christmas?
I was just thinking of making a cheesecake (for the second time) with labneh,, and this morning was eating labneh with dry cookies. This cheesecake looks great and to me is 1000 times better than the New York style one, because lighter and less dense and sweet. I love how you topped it and everything about it!
I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to how much cornstarch to use if I don’t use the pudding mix? I am in the US, so if I wanted to use the pudding mix, would I use instant instead of the type you have to cook on the stove top? Also, how big should the package of pudding be – you have to weight?
Thanks!
Hi Kathy,
You know, this brand is sold everywhere in Canada and is also easily accessible in the US. I had the same initial reaction as you. I don’t want to use a “pudding mix”!!! But, I just went to my German grocer and bought it, then found it almost everywhere after – and honestly, I couldn’t tell you want to do without it as I haven’t experimented with the recipe to a great extent. Of course, I can offer this kind of advice with many other of my recipes – especially the ones I develop myself – but this is not one of those.
Hope this helps.
It was really delicious.
Hugs,
Valerie
Thank you for the quick reply! Can’t wait to try it!
When you say to use 1 bag of the vanilla pudding powder, do you mean just one of the packets? I have 3 packets that came in one package. Also, what size springform pan do you use? Thank you!
Yes, just one packet – I used a 10 inch
🙂
Let me know how it goes!
🙂
V
Hi Valerie!
I just decided to look at your recipe for the German Cheese Cake that you have and I noticed that our recipes are very similar, but just enough different that I thought I’d let you know what mine is… Here you go:
Crust:
– 250g flour
– 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
– 1 Egg
– 100g Sugar
– 125g Butter/Margerine
Filling:
– 750g Quark (the homemade Quark yields about 575-600g and that worked too)
– 200g Sugar
– 1 Pkg Dr. Oetker Vanilla Pudding
– 1 Pkg Dr. Oetker Vanilla Sugar
– 2 Eggs
– 500 ml Milk
– 125 ml Oil
Also… Rather than using butter and breadcrumbs to line my spring-form pan, I simply grease it with Tenderflake Pure Lard.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Cheers!
Chris
How long do you bake it, what temperature and what size springform? Thanks.
Hi Connie,
Can you not see the instructions in the recipe? I just checked and they are there: Preheat oven to 355 F and bake 1.5 hours. 10-12 inch spring form. Can you see the information, Connie?
Let me know how it goes if you make it. We love it!
🙂
V
So I tried the other recipe and it worked splendid as well. For both recipes, I have to use a lower temperature with my oven. I bake them at 345 F. Thanks. Now I’m trying to find a Quarkkuchen recipe with fruit.
For my recipe above, I use a 12″ spring form pan and bake it at 400F for an hour to an hour and 15 mins.
Thank you, Chris!
I have made this recipe a few times. My husband is from Germany and makes Quark every week. However when the Quark is not quite to his liking I make Quark Küchen. This takes just like when we are in Germany. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for letting me know, Twila!
Yeah!!
🙂
Valerie
Hi There,
I just want to ensure I have the right sizes of packages for recipe.
Can you please confirm the package size for the Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla Pudding.
I don’t wanna mess it up and it’s same brand but one of the pictures is different on packing so just check
I have Dr. Oetker Vanialla Sugar package of 9 grams & Pudding- Dr. Oetker of 43 grams
Thanks!
I believe you do, Danielle
Sorry about that – there is only one size in any of the stores I buy in.
🙂
Valerie
I have just made my mother in law’s recipe for quark cake. She always made it with raisins.
Elizabeth Holst’s Quark Kuchen
Crust:
Butter and flour a 12 inch spring form pan
Soak a generous handful (about 3/4 cup of golden raisins in boiling water for the filling.
1 pckg Oetker Baking powder
1/4 cup butter
200 gm or 2 cups flour
100 gms or 1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 envelope Oetker vanilla sugar
5 tbsp or 1/3 cup mils
Mix all ingredients together by hand until dough is formed.
Press in to bottom and up the sides of pan. Poke with a fork-DO NOT BAKE
May be put in fridge overnight.
Filling:
1/3 cup flour
2 packges x 500 gm quark cheese (Elizabeth always used Blue Bell brand. not available now-I used Organic Meadows)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup table cream (18%)
2 eggs separated-put yolks in
Mix until smooth
Beat egg whites together with second half of vanilla sugar package until stiff peaks form
Fold egg whites in to cheese mixture along with raisins (which have been well drained)
Spread over Crust
Bake at 325 degrees F for one hour to one hour and 15 minutes
(until toothpick comes out clean)
Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe with us here, Donna!
milk not mils above in Quark Kuchen forElizabeth Holst recipe 🙂
Thank you, Donna!