Quark is a form which is especially popular in Germany, where a number of dairies produce it. It is often used as an ingredient for sandwiches, salads, and a kind of cake similar to cheesecake, called “Käsekuchen” in Germany and “kwarktaart” in the Netherlands. In these cakes, it is typically mixed with eggs, milk or cream, and sugar, and baked. Quark flavored with vanilla or fruit is used as a dessert in the Netherlands and Germany.
Quark is an easy & creamy curd cheese to make, and a fabulous substitute for cream cheese. It is light, yet thick and creamy, and very slightly tart. That tartness can easily be overcome by sweetening the cheese. Once made, I was impatient to use it. I had waited so long. Narrowed down my choices, being gallantly tweeted along by both Arwen & Meeta, I settled for an Alice Medrich recipe , Quark Souffle. Yes, No,Yes, No…plenty of indecision later, saved the recipe for winter. Don’t fancy a warm souffle in hot & humid times like these. Besides, souffles are meant to be eaten pretty soon, warm & puffy, out of the oven. Hmmm, pure lack of photo opportunity here I’d say, so the blog may have to go hungry!
ALMOND NUT TORTE with QUARK, PEACHES & PLUMS
Ingredients:
1 1/4 caster sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g almonds, with skins
200ml cream
250g quark, recipe follows
1 tsp gelatin
1/4-1/2 cup vanilla sugar/castor sugar, to taste
2 peaches, peeled and sliced
7-8 plums , 4-5 peeled and chopped, 2-3 sliced
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp for glazePeach-rosemary jam/or any preserve
Preparation:
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Preheat the oven to 180C. Line, grease and dust with flour the bottom and sides of an 8″ springform round tin.
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Sift the flour, baking powder & salt. Keep aside.
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Run the almonds in a coffee grinder with 1 tsp of sugar. Do it in short bursts so that it doesn’t turn into paste. Reserve.
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Beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar/vanilla extract for 5-7 minutes, until thick and creamy and the mixture leaves a trail when the beaters are lifted up. An electric whisk works best here.
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Fold in the flour mix lightly with a wooden spoon, followed by the ground nuts. Turn into the prepare tin & bake for about 30 minutes/until done.
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Remove from tin after 5 minutes and cool on rack.
Quark cream
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Take 1/4 cup of cream, sprinkle with 1 tsp gelatin. Place over a bowl of hot water until the mixture becomes clear & the gelatin has blended completely.
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In another big bowl, beat the quark until smooth, about 1/2 a minute. Add the remianing cream & sugar & beat well again. the cream should be rather thick. Taste and adjust sugar if required. Add the gelatin mixture by passing it through a small sieve over the creamed mixture. Whisk well again to incorporate.
To assemble
Homemade Quark (Curd Cheese)
adapted from recipe @ HogletK
Ingredients:
1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
3 1/2 cups full cream milk
Method:
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If your milk is not pasteurised you should bring it to the boil, then allow it to cool to room temperature (covered with a lid).
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Stir the buttermilk into the milk in a container you can cover.
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Put the container in a warm place. Allow the culture to proceed for ~24 hours, or until the curds and whey separate. At first the milk will look grainy, and eventually the curds will float on the whey. The grainy stage is probably sufficient, but might give a lower yield.
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Dampen a clean tea towel and use it to line a sieve. Place the sieve over a basin. Pour the curds and whey into the strainer. Bring the tea towel together so that it covers your quark and do it up with a rubber band. Place the entire draining apparatus in the fridge.
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Allow to drain in the fridge overnight, or for 24 hours. The drained quark should have a consistency similar to sour cream, but it has a more sour taste.
And now it’s time to announce the winner of my 2nd blogiversary giveaway. Thank you all for stopping by, & for your wonderful words. Wish I owned Fedex. Would have picked all of you, or if I were a little rich, at least 3 of you. But sadly, I don’t own Fedex, and sadly I’m not very rich, so one winner it has to be…. DRUMROLLLLLL please…
True Random Number Generator picks result 7 Powered by RANDOM.ORG. The winner of this beautiful Arabian Coffee Pot is S.Stockwell from Jefferson’s Table, Saint Barbara,California.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving these wonderful words. s. stockwell said…
“We just love this post! We did visit Old Delhi last year and your description is perfect. Sorry we missed the dishes at Karim’s…we did not know? Thanks for this great memory for us. Best from Montecito, California”.
Please mail me your address to vindee@airtelmail.in. Hope this pot makes the memory of your India trip even better!
First! This is truly an amazing cake, Deeba, truly luscious! This post has inspired me to try both quark and mascarpone! It's so easy! (or you make it look that way). Your desserts are always breathtakingly gorgeous!
You know, you could have totally fooled me that it's hard to get certain baking ingredients in India. This is absolutely GORGEOUS! These photos are beautiful!
Oh my goodness, I'm literally drooling! YUM! You never cease to amaze me.
That looks so delicious!
And Congratulations to the winner!
What a beautiful cake and your pictures are just perfect…I had not heard of quark before, so I learned something new!
Congrats to the winner!
We also have quark in Switzerland and make a kind of baked cheesecake with it (see my blog)…
Your Torte looks fabulous! So pretty and tempting!
Congrats to the winner!
Cheers and have a great weekend,
Rosa
Congrats to stockwell….The cake made with lots of effort,sure makes the status..The Quark recipe method is awesome.I do hang amul curd in my filter 24 hrs in fridge to make cheese cake..Fresh cream sure needs a stabiliser to show it peeks
Congrats to the winner! Lucky fish =). Oh my, now I'm running out of time to try all these homemade delicacies – homemade ricotta, now quark. So little time….. Your pics are AMAZING – such a professional feel to them!
looks fab! love the way you take an inspiration and run with it. a baking goddess is what you are!
deeba! your the greatest backer ive ever met!! keep it up!! vat a lovely baked cake!! loving the pics nd already craving for it! yummm!!
cheers!!
You waited overnight for this cake? I don't know how I'll be able to do that? It's so beautiful and I want a slice now. I haven't heard of quark either, but now you have me planning a trip to my favorite cheese shop tomorrow!
Cake looks scrumptous deeba! we do get quark here but never tried, you are inspiring me to do!
congratulations to the winner
have a nice weekend!
Wow! I would never have thought to make a quark cheese cake, but now you've inspired me! Looks amazing.
The torte looks delicious! I love peaches, and love the way you've arranged them!
Congratulations to the winner
A great prize!!
How perfectly delicious! Gorgeous cake! This is the first time I'm learning about Quark, very intriguing!
My friend from the Netherlands talks so fondly of Quark. There are a few substitute recipes available online. She was able to find one that she likes very much.
At any rate, your photos are amazing, and Happy Anniversary!!!
Congratulations to the winner!
Love your recipe Deeba.
Cata
Happy blogiversary ,deeba.Another gorgeous creation,love the fruity decoration
Once again you have out done yourself! I must try this Quark stuff!
Deeba,Deeba this is absolutely beautiful my dear, I love peaches and these ook awesome, beauty pics!!! huggs!! gloria
All you make is belle!!!
i shouldn't come here when am still fasting hehehe… mouthwatering photos there, deeba.
Exquisite! Just beautiful. And I'm sure it's as delicious as it looks.
that dessert looks incredible and congrat's Jefferson's Table – what a great reminder of a wonderful trip.
This looks so deliciously light, rich and creamy all at the same time. Delicious, as always. You've inspired me to try Quark. I've never used it before, either.
What a wonderful combo of flavours – looking forward to trying this when our summer rolls round – I've never made any soft cheese before thanks for the info (but I live almost next door to a COntinental deli, so I'm lazy).
I'm so pleased you found some buttermilk – your quark cake is a beauty! It's a great idea adding almond meal to the cake. It would make it moister, and it tastes good too.
Deeba, have I told you how amazing you are? That cake is TRULY stunning! I am so impressed!
Deeba, I really dontknow wht I love most in your blog, the wonderful stuff you come up with, the pics, or the recipes…your site is a treat to my senses. Congrats on your 2nd Blogiversary…may WE enjoy many more years of your passion (about baking!!)
It's so pretty! I saw quark at my local supermarket and was wondering what it was.Would try this cheesecake next time, sounds like a much healthier option doesn't it.
You've convinced me I need to make my own cheeses! Your torte looks delicious, and the fruit and glaze on top are perfect!
Congratulations to the winner Deeba and for creating such aye candy with those juicy peaches.
Congrats to the lucky winner!!!
I love quark cheese – a little different texturally but so low fat and your torte is to die for.
I have a friend who is nuts about peaches, she would love this!
I can't say it any better than everyone else, but this cake looks wonderful.
Oh my word that cake is beautiful! Congratulations to the winner!
Stunning cake Deebs!! My oh my! Can I have TWO slices please!! And what this… you let SOMEONE ELSE win??!! LOL!
Wow Deeba what a beautiful cake almond, peaches, plums practically impossible to not turn out delish
Never tasted this Quark cheese interesting if I can find it here. Congratulations to the winner!
Cheers for you!
Gera
What a gorgeous tart, it looks delicious!
Licking my screen clean Vindee, that is wonderful. Good to see you making the most of the summer fruits.
Such a beautiful and delicious-looking torte! I love all the flavors and I'm so intrigued by quark. It sounds like something out of a science textbook! 8-P
More people should use quark, it's yummy.
This looks nice and refreshing.
Hi, Deeba!
Your cake is wonderful!
I would like to share with you a simple method making quark if I may.
Here in Hungary we make quark traditionally (in Hungarian "túró") as we leave the fresh (not pasteurised!) milk "to sleep" for 1-2 days, it depends on the temperature of the kitchen. After that the milk becomes sour and the consistency kefir-ish. If you take the cream off the surface, that is sour cream. If you would like more creamy your quark, leave the sour cream and begin to heat very gently, do not stir. When you see little curds in it and it begins to boil, take off the heat, leave cool a bit and drain in a tee towel, lace it tightly and leave come out all the whey, it takes about a night. Then you get a rather curdy thing, but don't worry if you use it, it will be creamy.
From 3 liters milk you get cca. 300-350 g quark.
Mmmmmmmmm. I love Quark and this cake looks so delicious and fresh… I must give it a chance.
Congrats to the winner and cheers from Spain.
I usually go for chocolate flavored desserts, but I would definitely say yes to a slice of this cake! Such great summer flavors. And of course your photos are great as always!
This looks fabulous! I first stumbled upon quark in Germany and thought to myself, "I have to find this in the US and incorporate it into my cooking!" Thank you so much for this recipe and educating everyone about quark!
May I blog your photos and recipe, certainly by linking back?
Thank you and I will let you know how mine turned out!