German Cheesecake (Käsekuchen)
Classic Quarkkuchen with a pat-in shortcrust, quark-and-cream filling, and a slow bake. Vanilla pudding powder is the structural trick. Translated from blondeangel716 on chefkoch.de.
The original is titled der beste Käsekuchen der Welt — “the best cheesecake in the world.” I’ll leave that for the eater to decide. What I can say is that it’s a clean, classic Quarkkuchen: pat-in shortcrust, quark-and-cream filling, springform pan, slow bake. The little bit of pudding powder is the structural trick — it stabilises the filling without making it stodgy.
A note up front for non-German readers: this is not the American cream-cheese cake. Quark is a fresh, mild, low-fat soft cheese — drier than yogurt, milder than cream cheese, somewhere between ricotta and skyr in feel. Cream cheese is the wrong sub here. If you can’t get quark, use strained Greek yogurt or labneh and drain it well.
From blondeangel716 on chefkoch.de. Translated; quantities unchanged.
Ingredients
For a 26 cm springform pan.
Shortcrust base
- 200 g flour
- 75 g sugar
- 75 g margarine
- 1 egg
- ½ packet baking powder
- Fat for greasing the pan
Filling
- 125 g margarine
- 225 g sugar
- 1 packet vanilla sugar
- 1 packet vanilla pudding powder
- 3 eggs
- 500 g quark
- 200 g sour cream
- 200 g whipping cream
Method
- Tip the shortcrust ingredients into a bowl. Knead together quickly — don’t overwork it — and set aside.
- For the filling, mix margarine, sugar, vanilla sugar, pudding powder, and eggs in a bowl. Mix in the quark and sour cream.
- Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold in gently.
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (top and bottom heat).
- Press the shortcrust into a greased 26 cm springform pan, pulling it 2–3 cm up the sides.
- Pour in the filling and smooth the top. Bake on the second rack from the bottom for 1 hour.
- Important: Let the cake cool completely before unmoulding. The quark filling is still too soft straight out of the oven — release the spring too early and it will sag.
Notes
Quark substitute. Strained Greek yogurt or labneh. Hang it in a cheesecloth-lined sieve over a bowl for a few hours; the wetter it goes in, the wetter the cake.
Pudding powder. German vanilla custard powder (Dr. Oetker or similar). Bird’s Custard Powder works as a swap. If neither is available, use 35 g cornstarch plus 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Vanilla sugar. Standard 8 g sachet. Sub 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Original: blondeangel716 on chefkoch.de.