A good cheesecake is the pride of every German housewife and apart from the famous NewYork Cheesecake (which is made of cream cheese instead of fromage frais) it seems to be a signature cake of Germany.
The recipe in the cookbook requests 7 (SEVEN!?!) eggs for the filling. "No no no, that can't be true" I thought to myself, numbers and exclamation marks filling my head. The perfect cheesecake, one that satisfies the tastebuds and is still kind of healthy, wasn't to be found in the cookbook, but instead on the other end of the phone line (Grandma).
Cheesecake
Short crust
70g sugar
100g butter
200g flour
1 egg
Filling
1kg Quark (fromage frais 10-20% fat content)
150g sugar
3 ts vanilla sugar
1 ts grated lemon peel or a pinch of lemon myrtle
2 tbs flour
4 eggs
Prepare a shortcrust working together the sugar, butter, flour and the egg. Let it sit in the fridge for 1/2 an hour. Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and place it in a buttered springform.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
With an electric mixer whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon peel until white and creamy.
Add quark (fromage frais) and flour and mix again until creamy.
Pour the cheese filling into the shortcrust lined springform. Bake it for 40 minutes at 180°C. It is finished when the surface turns slightly golden.
After ca. 20 minutes of cooling down outside the oven you may turn the cake upside down on a wiring rack with the springform still assembled. Now let it cool completely for at least 2 hours. The imprints of the wiring rack leave the typical "German cheesecake" pattern.
You can't see the pattern in my pictures? YOU ARE RIGHT! Me neither, but I couldn't have turned the cake upside down without ruining the crust!
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| My samples "to go" before and after baking |
Grandma's tricks to prevent the inevitable shrinkage of the filling once out of the oven
1) after 20 minutes of baking open the oven, cut gently with a knife between short crust and filling and continue baking
2) once baked turn off the heat and let cool down for 10 minutes in the open but still warm oven
Looks delicious!
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