Cheesecake Recipes - Central European Cheese Cake Recipe

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Cheese Cake

Food Recipies: Cheesecake

A cheesecake is a fast, simple and very tasty cake, with lots of regional variations across Central Europe.

Basic Recipe

Dough: 250 g (8.8 oz) flour, 125 g (4.4 oz) butter - cut to small pieces - (or margarine, butter tends to taste much nicer), a pinch of salt, 1 egg, add sugar depending on the amount of sweetness you prefer (approx. 60 g /2.1 oz are considered ok by most recipies).

Knead well, put the dough into the fridge to cool for 30 minutes, then roll out and put into a 9 or 10 inch (24 or 26 cm) spring form (availabe e.g. via amazon.com or amazon.co.uk) greased with butter. Press part of the dough around the inside of the rim, so the dough forms a kind of bowl for the topping. Prick the dough several times with a fork to prevent bubbling.

Bake the dough for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit).

Topping: You may experiment successfully with cottage cheese and ricotta, for the real Central European continental cheesecake taste, however, you need quark (curd cheese, baker's cheese). If you do not find it in your supermarket or health food shop: You can order Vermont Butter & Cheese Quark via amazon.com or make it yourself from buttermilk. The quark should be creamy: Add sweet cream to low fat or home made dry quark.

You mix 750 g (26.5 oz) creamy quark, a sachet of vanilla sugar or 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, 3 egg yolks, two tablespoons of starch, add sugar according to the amount of sweetness you prefer (100 g /3.5 oz - 200 g /7 oz are considered adequate by most recipes), use a few tablespoons of milk to smooth the topping, add the beaten egg white and pour the mix over the dough in the spring form.

Bake for 45-60 minutes in the center of the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit). The top should be golden brown not burnt.

After 15 minutes, to prevent the surface from tearing, run a blade along the inside of the spring form rim to loosen the crust. Repeat 10 minutes after you have taken the spring form out of the oven, let the cake cool off in the spring form.

Variation 1

Use lemon juice instead of milk to smooth the topping.

Variation 2

Add raisins you soaked in rum the night before when you mix the cheese topping.

Variation 3

Put sliced fruit on the dough before you add the topping: traditionally apricots, tangerines or cherries are used, the slightly sour taste of rhubarb blends extremely well with the sweet cheese topping.

Variation 4

Put streusel (crumble) on top before you put the cake into the oven: Knead 150 g (5.3 oz) flour, 150 g (5.3 oz) granulated sugar and 100 g (3.5 oz) - 120 g (4.2) butter to a crumble topping.