Travelling via Cooking: Käsekuchen - German Cheese Cake

Kitchenfoxtales likes to make food-related travelling - and of course travel via food and cooking. This time the road is leading to Germany. Grab your seats, notebooks and whisks - let's go!

German cheese cake, Käsekuchen, is actually made from quark (or rahka, as we Finns call it) and not from cream cheese as its American cousin. The structure is also lighter because of the whipped eggwhites folded into the batter.

Quark is a soured milk product containing a lot of protein (just that you know I'm not talking about that elementary particle and fundamental constituent of matter with those funny names like up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom. Ok, no more digressing...). Quark is mostly used in northern and eastern Europe (plus Germany!). I've seen it been credited as a type of soft cheese, but I'd refer to it being closer to a very thick yogurt and the sort. If you can't find it, I'd suggest trying either fromage blanc, curd cheese, cottage cheese or even strained yoghurt and mix it with cream cheese in order to get the right consistency. According to my insider source, in Germany one would, for baking purposes, choose quark containing at least (10-)20 % fat (in dry weight). I had only low-fat quark this time, so I added in some cream cheese. If you choose a fattier quark, you could substitute that for the cream cheese.

P.S. Happy Father's Day!

(By the way, I find fat percents by dry weight so irritating. It's nearly impossible to count the fat percents by total weight if you don't also have the nutritional values. Luckily, we have a couple German cookbooks, which explained the usual water contents of quarks. It's around 80 %, so 20 % fat in dry weight would mean 4 % fat in total weight. With my kitchen math I counted: 500 g quark and 200 g cream cheese contain 49 g fat in total, so it's 7 % fat in total weight.)

The pie crust recipe is the one I'm always using. It's from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and it's perfect: easy to handle, crumbly but durable once baked and so tasty.

N.B. I don't always use margarine as in the recipe (I replace it with butter), as I think the purpose of it here is to add hydrogenated fats to make the crust flakier. Nowadays margarines are trans-fat reduced and quite soft, so if I don't have margarine for baking or shortening, I use only butter.

Käsekuchen - German quark cake (or cheese cake)

Pie crust: Pâte brisée sucrée (for a 24 cm springform)
200 g all-purpose or cake flour, sieved
30 g sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
60 g butter
2 Tbsp (~25 g) margarine (for baking)/shortening/butter (read N.B. above)
1 egg
(1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional)
(+ 1 Tbsp cold water, if needed)

Quark filling
50 g butter
80-100 g sugar
3 egg yolks
500 g low-fat quark (if you can't find it, see note above)
200 g cream cheese
2 tl vanilla sugar
4 egg whites

For brushing:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp cream or milk

Prepare the crust: mix the flour, sugar and baking powder. Add cold butter+margarine cut into small cubes and mix it with the dry ingredients by pinching with fingertips until the mixture is grainy. Add the egg (and vanilla extract) and mix it quickly together. If the dough is too dry, add cold water. Place the dough in plastic wrap and let it cool in the freezer for 15-30 minutes (don't overchill it as then the dough will tear apart while rolling it).

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Roll the dough into a round (appr. 3 mm in thickness) and place it onto a prepared springform pan. Make the crust high enough because the filling will rise in the oven. Put a baking paper and your "baking beans" on top of the crust and prebake it for 5-6 minutes. Remove the beans and the paper and continue to bake for 2-3 minutes. After prebaking the crust, raise the oven temperature to 210°C.

Whip soft butter, sugar and egg yolks together. Add quark, cream cheese and vanilla sugar and stir until even. Whip the egg whites until hard and shiny. Stir a third of the egg whites into the filling carefully, to not break the foam. Add the rest of the egg whites and stir again carefully. Pour the filling on the prebaked crust. Mix egg yolk with sugar and milk/cream. Pour it as drops onto the filling and brush it carefully on it. (You won't need to use all of the egg wash.)

Bake in 210°C for 45-50 minutes. The filling will rise high during the baking and some tears might happen. They will mostly disappear after the baking. If the kuchen starts to get too much colour, lower the temperature (it really depends on your oven). When it is ready, turn off the heat and leave it in the oven, with the door slightly open for, for 15-20 minutes. If you want to prevent tears, separate the edges carefully from the springform with a thin spatula 5-10 minutes after you turned the oven off. You can serve it warm or chilled. (I prefer it chilled. It tastes more egg-y when warm.)

Käsekuchen - Saksalainen rahkakakku

Pohja (n. 24 cm vuokaan)
Pâte brisée sucrée
200 g vehnäjauhoa
30 g sokeria
1/2 tl leivinjauhetta
60 g voita
2 rkl (~25 g) leivontamargariinia tai voita
1 muna
(1/2 tl vaniljauutetta)
(+ 1 rkl kylmää vettä, jos tarpeen)

Rahkatäyte
50 g voita
80-100 g sokeria
3 keltuaista
500 g rasvatonta rahkaa
200 g tuorejuustoa
2 tl vaniljasokeria (tai 0,5 tl vaniljauutetta)
4 valkuaista

Voiteluun:
1 keltuainen
1 tl sokeria
1 rkl kermaa tai maitoa

Aloita pohjasta: Sekoita jauhot, sokeri ja leivinjauhe. Lisää jääkaappikylmä voi+margariini kuutioina ja nypi se jauhojen sekaan, kunnes seos on ryynimäistä. Lisää muna (ja vaniljauute halutessasi) ja sekoita taikina nopeasti yhteen. Jos se jää kovin murustuvaksi ja kuivaksi, lisää vähän kylmää vettä. Kääri taikina tuorekelmuun ja laita se pakastimeen noin jäähtymään noin puoleksi tunniksi (ei liian pitkään, koska taikinasta tulee silloin liian kovaa ja lohkeilevaa).

Esilämmitä uuni 190-200 asteeseen. Kauli taikina n. 3 mm paksuksi pyöreäksi levyksi ja painele se voidellun irtopohjavuo'an pohjalle ja reunoille. Tee reunoista riittävän korkeat, koska rahkatäyte kohoaa uunissa. Laita pohjan päälle leivinpaperi ja "leivontahelmet" tai kuivia herneitä ja esipaista n. 5-6 minuuttia. Poista pavut ja paperi ja jatka paistamista vielä 2-3 minuuttia. Nosta esikypsennetty pohja pois uunista ja laita uuni lämpiämään (200-)210 asteeseen.

Vatkaa pehmeä voi, sokeri ja keltuaiset vaaleaksi vaahdoksi. Sekoita rahka, tuorejuusto ja vaniljasokeri (tai uute) keskenään ja lisää keltuaisseokseen. Vaahdota valkuaiset kiiltäväksi, kovaksi vaahdoksi. Kääntele noin 1/3 vaahdosta varovasti keltuais-rahkaseokseen. Lisää loput vaahdosta edelleen varovasti käännellen ja kaada täyte sitten esipaistetulle piirakkapohjalle.

Sekoita keltuainen sokerin ja maidon/kerman kanssa. Pudota sitä tipoittain rahkatäytteen päälle ja levitä varovasti täytteen pinnalle (et tarvitse kaikkea keltuaisseosta tähän).

Paista 200-210 asteessa 45-50 minuuttia. Täyte nousee paiston aikana ja se saattaa myös repeillä pinnastaan. Kun kakku jäähtyy, repeämät kuitenkin häviävät osittain. Jos pinta uhkaa tummua liikaa, alenna hieman lämpötilaa ja laita tarvittaessa pala leivinpaperia kakun päälle.

Kun kakku on valmis, sammuta uuninlämpö ja jätä kakku vielä hetkeksi uuniin, uuninluukku raollaan, noin 15-20 minuutiksi. 5-10 minuutin kuluttua uunin sammuttamisen jälkeen irrottele kakku reunoista esim. ohuella lastalla. Kakun voi tarjota lämpimänä tai jäähtyneenä (itse tykkään siitä jäähtyneenä. Lämpimänä se maistuu aika kananmunaiselta.)

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