Dieter's crustless Quark cheesecake

 

Whilst on exchange in Germany I decided to bake a cheesecake. It was one of those typical cheesecakes made with lots of sugar and Philadelphia cream cheese. At the time, I thought this kind of cheesecake was something pretty fantastic. Something that you would write home about. A friend tasted it and said it was nice but nothing outstanding. What?! I could not believe it! The key here is that this friend had been brought up on Quark cheesecakes, not Philadelphia cheesecakes. In his opinion, I had not tasted a cheesecake until I had tasted a Quark cheesecake.

Some months later I tasted my very first Quark cheesecake and was amazed. It was something so wonderful and made my cheesecake look like some sort of sugar laden monster that no one should ever go near again! It is true; you have not tasted a cheesecake until you have tried a Quark cheesecake.

What is Quark, some of you may be wondering. No, it is not some kind of duck that goes quark quark instead of quak quak and I am not on the topic of elementary particles. Quark is a type of cottage cheese. I buy the Paris Creek brand for around $6 for 450g. This is the only brand of Quark I have seen on the supermarket shelves. You may also have some luck finding it at Polish and German shops. Quark is used in quite a few European countries for cheesecakes, dumplings, crepes and also for spreading on bread.

When making cheesecake I use the 'German style' Quark. Parks Creek also make a 'Swiss style' Quark which I have never bought. I am not sure what the difference is. I am thinking the Swiss style may be runnier...?

This is a really lovely cheesecake recipe. It is not at all sweet and is so very homely and filling:) I can imagine taking slices of this cake on a long walk and eating it during a drink break. Oh and this cake is also CRUSTLESS, which means no flour. Yay! In my case, that means no stomach ache. I ate so much of this cake and I did not feel sick:)

Dieters Kaesekuchen ohne Boden - Dieter's crustless cheesecake 

(the word for word translation is Dieter's cheesecake without a base)

This recipe is from Chefkoch.de and was submitted by the user pro-vit.

I halved the recipe (hence the very flat looking cheesecake) as I did not want to spend close to $13 on a kilo gram of Quark. This is such a tasty recipe that next time I would use the full portions.

Just to confirm, double the recipe below if you want a higher cheesecake.

What you need

• 450g Quark cheese
• 2 eggs, separated
• 60 g butter, softened
• 1/2 packet vanilla pudding mix (I used the German RUF mix shown above, which I found at an IGA Foodland. You can usually buy this brand at Polish shops and some European delicatessens. Otherwise, use a vanilla pudding mix from the supermarket. Or, you could use a few tablespoons of semolina instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar
• Pinch salt
• Lemon juice and zest (You only need a little bit)

What you need to do

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a spring form tin with baking paper.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.
3. Add the pudding mix and Quark and mix thoroughly.
4. In another bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Add a little lemon juice to the egg whites
5. Mix the egg whites into the Quark mixture (You do not need to be too careful here) and add enough lemon zest so that the mixture is to your taste.
6. Pour the mixture into the spring form tin and bake for around 50 minutes. Please check your oven - your cooking time may vary!
7. Allow the cheesecake to cool in the tin.
8. Once cooled, open the tin and carefully place the cheesecake onto a serving plate.

That's all. Easy? I think so:) The taste is something else. It is so gentle and lemon-ey. I really like the fact this is a crustless cheesecake. It is not too unhealthy either; Quark - fine, butter- meh, I like butter and I am not scared of it, eggs - fine, sugar - well, there is not much in the cake, pudding mix - most likely the 'scariest' thing in the cake, but you do not need much of it.

If you have not tasted a Quark cheesecake, I highly recommend you do. They are just wonderful and I could eat them all day!:)