The German-American friendship cheesecake, aka: Ze Cheesecake

Dear friends,

A happy and very belated Fourth of July to all of you in the good ol’ U.S. of A.!

I hope you all had lovely picnics and enjoyed the fireworks. I thought I’d start off my backlog (so many recipes to share!) with an American classic – ze cheesecake. But beware! It’s not your regular NY style, densely flavorful, rich cheesecake with a cream cheese base. No no, it’s the German-American Friendship Cheesecake! Which shall, henceforth, be simply referred to as ze cheescake. And German cheesecakes, as the travelers and Germans among you may know, are much lighter than their American cousins. Flavors and thickness vary, there are some wonderful peach/nectarine/cherry variations, and if you are a raisin person, you will be in heaven. The concept is simple: Shortcrust pastry topped with a light Quark* filling, baked until you have a mountain of large, brown bubbles in your oven that will, inevitably, collapse almost as soon as you remove it from the oven. 

[For those readers who are not familiar with American cheesecakes -- think Starbucks cheesecakes.]

Here is my take on U.S. versus German cheesecakes. I love both, and I love them for different reasons. In American cheesecakes, I love the saltiness and the buttery richness of the graham cracker crust which so gently balances the cold sweetness of the cheesecake. But there is something about German cheesecakes that you can’t quite explain… maybe it’s the childhood memories of Saturday afternoon Kaffeetrinken, coffee and cake, usually with grown-up guests. My mom would prepare the cheesecake earlier in the morning or even the day before to then let it chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. I loved watching her in the kitchen, always ready to scrape out the bowl of cheesecake batter (possibly the best part!). But finding the patience to then wait the long hours until the cheesecake was finally cold enough to be eaten in the afternoon was a true challenge! When the guests had arrived and we were all seated around the big dining table, my Mom would then bring the cheesecake in and place it at the center of the table – presenting the true queen of the afternoon.

(I should add that this recipe, from the German cake bible, GU’s Backen, comes with the subtitle: Dafür wird man geheiratet! I wonder if that made it into the 21^st century edition.)

Alas, those times are over! What has remained is an instinct that special company deserves cheesecake. So, with Emily’s birthday upon us, and my roommate’s – how shall we put it, encouragement? – I decided to take a stab at combining my two favorite features in both kinds of cheesecakes; namely, a German cheesecake with an American graham cracker crust! (Frankly, I am not a big fan of the German crust. It is just too boring.) I loosely based it on the ginger cheesecake crust recipe from Rose Berenbaum’s Heavenly Cakes. It is a very basic graham cracker crust with two tablespoons of freshly grated ginger added to it. I loved the combination of the zingyness of the ginger in the crust combined with the slightly salty flavor of the Hobbits that I used to replace graham crackers (a tip I got from my New Zealand friend, and it’s genius!).

And because it is summer and fruit is a must in anything sweet at this time of year, I topped the cake off with some frozen raspberries that I found at the back of my freezer.

Ze Cheesecake

Hobbit ginger crust

1 pack of Hobbits (250g or 1 cup of graham crackers)

60g melted butter (1/2 stick)

30g freshly grated ginger (2 tablespoons)

Quark filling

500g Quark (or 2 ¼ cups cottage cheese)

150g sugar (2/3 cups)

3 teaspoons vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

zest of 1 organic lemon

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

6 egg yolks

7 egg whites

50 g sugar (1/4 cup)

50 g melted butter (1/4 cup)

Prepare the pan.

Butter a springform pan, set aside.

Make the crust:

Place the Hobbits in a plastic bag (Ziploc or similar) and make sure you squeeze the air out and the seal it tightly. Use a glass to smash the Hobbits in the bag. (You may want to do this on a larger plate because there will be some cleaning up to do no matter how tightly you seal the plastic bag.)

In a medium bowl, add the butter and ginger to the crumbs and blend until all the crumbs are moist.

Pour the crumbs in the springform pan until they fill the bottom evenly, then straighten out with your fingers.

Make the filling:

1. Set your oven to 180°C/375°F.
2. Mix quark, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, flour, cornstarch and egg yolks. Blend until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until they form peaks.

4. Gently fold in egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, alternating with the melted butter.

5. Pour filling on the crust and place the pan on a rack in the middle of the oven.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Guten Appetit!!

* Quark is a low-fat type of fromage blanc which I don’t think is widely sold in the U.S. I hear you can get it at Whole Foods, but I think most Germans in the U.S. use cottage cheese instead.