KDHamptons is thrilled to share another great recipe from one of our favorite readers, self-described “dessertarian” Robert Baier, who provides a delicious new recipe below for German Quark Cheesecake that will be perfect to serve at your next fall dinner party in the Hamptons. For more great recipes, be sure to follow Robert’s baking blog and on Instagram at: The Robbylicious

Robert shares, “A summer-sunny-day in the garden, together with a slice of a fluffy cheesecake and I am happy. At the moment we are here at the edge of fall and the trees begin to change their appearance – the days of Indian summer are numbered.  On a recent trip to Manhattan, I had the opportunity to enjoy a slice of authentic New York Cheesecake. For me, “she” is the Grande Dame of cheesecakes, in my humble opinion. Next to New York, my German Quark Cheesecake looks like the wild little sister. Sometimes a cracked surface, sometimes collapsed, sometimes too brown – but once you had a slice of it you will never forget it.”

German Quark Cheesecake

Ingredients:

For the short pastry:

150 gr. flour (all-purpose)
1 egg
70 gr. butter (hard and cold – right from the fridge)
70 gr. sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar  (2 tsp.)

For the filling:

750 gr. quark (40% fat)
3 eggs (separated egg white and egg yolk)
1 sachet vanilla instant pudding powder (approx. 35 gr.)
120 gr. sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (2 tsp.)
1 pinch of salt

Small amount of butter (and if you like bread crumbs) for the spring form pan
Spring form pan (10” diameter)
Pre-heated oven at 180°C/360°F air circulation

Directions:

The short pastry:

For the short pastry give all ingredients (flour, egg, butter, sugar, vanilla sugar) into a bowl. Knead together with your hands until the batter releases as a whole easy from the bowl. Maybe add a bit of extra flour and incorporate until it releases. Wrap into foil and put it in the fridge.  Grease the pan with butter and put it in the fridge, too. If you like, cover the pan with the bread crumbs, this is optional.

The filling:

For the filling, put the quark, the vanilla pudding powder, the sugar, the sachet vanilla sugar and the egg yolks into a bowl. In another bowl put the egg whites and the pinch of salt. With your electric mixer beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until firm. Then beat the quark mixture until you have a homogenous mixture.

Give half of the beaten egg white into the quark mixture and incorporate softly with a spatula, then add the rest. The batter should keep the fluffy consistence given by the beaten egg whites. Be sure, you don´t have lumps of the beaten egg whites in the filling.

Take out the short pastry and roll out with a rolling pin and a little bit of flour until the pastry is big enough so you can cover the whole spring form pan – raise to the edge.

After covering the pan with the short pastry, fill in the mixture and put it into the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes at 180°C/360°F air circulation. As always, baking time depends on your oven. I always control the temperature with a separate thermometer.

If you don´t like the cheesecake too brown, you can put a tinfoil over it after approx. 30 minutes.

For the cool down turn off the oven and open its door and let the cake inside for another 30 minutes. That prevents that the cake collapses too fast. It will lose some height anyway, but not that much. Although it loses some height, it is still fluffy.

After it cooled down completely enjoy it. I hope you all have fun baking this cheesecake.
Pans up.