How to Make Quark

This year was an amazing year in regards to my culinary education.  I usually make New Year's Resolutions and for 2012, most of my resolutions centered around exploring new things and improving upon my limited knowledge of other things. This year, for me, was all about documenting my experiences with the things I personally enjoy the most, which are gardening and cooking.

On the list were things like:

1. Learn how to make cheese.
2. Learn about raw diets and improving health
3. Grow better beets.
4. Improve my techniques for propagating roses.
5. Practice acceptance and tolerance.

So, it's clear some of those items are lifelong ambitions. I'm ok with that. I recognize the importance of learning new things, improving old skills and practicing a wide range of objectives I am neither new to or good at, but one of my passions is food and as such, this gives me quite a wide canvas with which to practice, practice, practice.

I made quark for the first time this year and after seeing how easy it was, it is really hard to imagine why this lovely, creamy, soft cheese isn't available here in the U.S.  At least, I've never seen it in a store and the closest thing I have seen is what the ethnic groceries call "farmer's cheese". No idea yet whether this is the same, but something tells me it is not.

Quark (pronounced just like it looks) is the European's version of  "philly" cream cheese. In fact, when you are in Germany or Austria, they may not know what cream cheese is but if you say "Philly", they know exactly what you mean.  They look similar but they are not at all the same ball of cheese. 

Americans have not been properly introduced to this delicacy, so I am happy to do the honors if this is new to you, too.  Trust me, you will love this cheese if you have any cheese loving qualities in your heart at all. It is not only easy to make at home but it can be eaten sweet or savory, as well.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 gallon of organic cultured Buttermilk (as fresh as possible; check the dates!)
2. 1 gallon of organic whole cow's milk (as fresh as possible; check the dates!)

How to Make Quark:

1. Let milk come to room temperature and then combine the milks into a large stockpot that can hold your milk. You can use more or less of the two milks above. Those ratios don't have to be exact. This ratio is a bit overkill and lazy, however, it works well. Regardless, I try to use at least a 1-4 ratio of buttermilk to milk.  Use a pot with a lid so you can keep it covered while it does its magic.
2. Let milk sit at room temperature overnight or up to 48 hours. It shouldn't take that long but since this is a mesophilic culture, it means that this culture requires "meso" or medium temperatures to culture properly. In cheese language, that means not too hot or cold, so warmish room temperatures are ideal. In the winter in Minnesota, it can take almost two days if my kitchen is on the cool side.
3. Once the whole pot has cultured, it will look almost solid, like a good set jello mold and it is ready.  You are supposed to cut the quark with a long knife or spatula in a grid pattern. This creates the "curd" and allows it to separate from the whey. Curds and whey? Little Miss Muffet was probably making quark... Not entirely necessary but kinda fun in a messy kid sort of way.
4. Strain the quark to drain off excess whey.  Here, you can make it as dry or as soft as you like. The longer you strain it, the dryer in texture. Too dry, it gets a tad crumbly but some Germans like it this way. Too wet and the cheese will weep a bit, pooling whey in the cheese, which some Germans also like. It's up to you so test it along the way to see what you prefer.  And in case you didn't know better, save the whey! It is very nutritious and you can use it to make bread, soup, stock, broth, or feed your plants. Seriously, it is just as valuable as the cheese itself.  You can even drink it.

What to do with it?

1. Make German Cheesecake, duh?!
2. Make Breakfast quark - German equivalent to yogurt with fruit preserves or fresh fruit. They love pineapple. Interesting and true.  This is pineapple, quark and condensed milk for sweetness. Super yummy.
3. Add chives, onions, salt and pepper and serve it with baked potatoes. You won't go back to sour cream... ok, maybe you will want this AND sour cream. :)
4. Spread it on toast with some jelly. By now, you know what to do with this... if not, figure it out because it is some righteous cheese. 
5. Make Stollen!!  oh yea!  one of my all time favorite Christmas classics, unplugged! I will post my recipe for that in my next post hopefully because my first try rocked my world and the secret ingredient was in fact, my homemade quark!  This is even better for Christmas than my Dad's favorite Christmas raisin bread.

If you don't know what any of this is... then open your mouths, your bellies and your minds, American friends because you are about to be blown away by this little cheese with a million purposes. All good eats, no matter who you are. Unless of course you are allergic to dairy then we have to find something goat-y for you... I made a chevre cheesecake last week and that was pretty darn easy and awesome, too, so stay tuned and by all means, let me know how this works for you.

Best German Cheesecake I Ever Made

Kasekuchen, I love you.  You are everything I never knew I was missing in American Cheesecake.

Seriously, this cheesecake will rock an American's WORLD!  It's everything we love about a good apple pie, it's pie crust + everything creamy dreamy we love in a good cheesecake. I have to make the distinction between American and German now because, folks, who knew? But there is a difference...

I hate the idea of making pie crust, don't know why, won't analyze it here. My first thought, when I first saw this made, was, "Whatever. Germans. SO perfect." LOL! Just kidding, but the whole pie crust sorta put me off to it. At first.

I got brave. I asked my mother in law for the recipe. Clever lady that she is, she took her iPad to her cookbook and sent me a jpg of the recipe, carefully translating and marking the ingredients in English for my benefit.  I was smitten. She wanted me to try.

The pie crust was the easiest thing I have ever made to date, except perhaps for the filling of this cheesecake, which also makes German cheesecakes quite distinct. At first, I just thought they were being fancy and calling cream cheese by another name, but it is in fact, a distinct and separate cheese culture (flavor) from American cream cheese.

Europeans are as passionate about quark (yep quark) as Americans are about cream cheese. I can absolutely understand why and I'm a total fan now... But the one thing that quark has over cream cheese is it's ridiculously easy to make at home. Cream cheese is also fairly easy, but quark is by far the easiest soft cheese to make in your home kitchen, even easier than yogurt.  Like a brat, I almost don't want to share my cool little secret, but something compels me to do it, you lucky dogs! I will share it in another post. :)

Crust:
Quickest homemade shortcrust on the planet. If using a 9" spring form pan, you will want to double the filling recipe which follows but the crust proportions below work perfectly in a 9" x 3" round pan.

• 50 g sugar
• 100 g cold butter
• 150 g flour
• A pinch of salt

Pulse in food processor until it just forms a ball. Dump dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and using the wrap form the dough into a ball. Seal the dough well in the plastic wrap and refrigerated at least 30 minutes or until ready to roll out.

Butter and dust your spring form pan with flour. You could also use parchment to line the bottom and sides of your pan, but I followed the recipe instructions to grease and flour.

Roll out dough into a large square working fast and loosening dough as you roll with flour so it wont stick.

Use the springform pan as a template to cut a circle from the dough and this is the bottom crust so lay it inside the bottom of the pan. Use the remaining strips of dough to press into the sides. Doesn't have to be perfect nor is it necessary to go all the way up the sides. Germans tend to do a half-side thing, which actually looks quite pretty. If you have holes or tears, just gently press in little bits of dough to form a crust for the sides. In fact, you can really just patch the sides and seal it all together to make it super quick. I've seen it done all kinds of ways and asl long as you've got sides, you have done well.

Filling:

• 500 g quark (cream cheese if you can't make your own quark; not the same but close...)
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g sour cream
• 2 eggs separated/ eggwhites beaten with dash of salt to form stiff peaks tolls added to cheese mixture
• Vanilla
• 1 tbsp corn starch

In a bowl, cream together the quark, sour cream, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and corn starch.  

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites into stiff peaks. You can whip the tar out of it, don't worry, the stiffer the egg whites, the better they will hold up this cheesecake.  Fold in the stiff egg whites to the cheese mixture.

Add this batter to your spring form pan with the crust. 

Bake at 340 degrees F for 1 hr. 

**Note:  Do not use a baking stone or any other pan on your rack or it will affect the rise. If it cracks, who cares? My first one did because I used a baking stone and tried to let it cool down in the oven. Bad idea... It caused a large crack but I didn't let it get me down. It was one of the best cheesecakes I have ever personally made and let's say, I have made a few.

** Another Note: for my 9 inch springform I doubled the filling above and that was perfect.  Otherwise, that might nicely fit into a 6" mini spring form and still give the same tall cheesecake effect Americans (myself included) love.

A word about European measurements:
When you see the measurements above, don't freak out. I was annoyed by it at first but when I actually did it, I thought, Americans are different just to be different but that doesn't mean we always have to do it the hard way... Try it once and you may like using this method even more than measuring cups. All you need is a kitchen scale and if you've ever tried to watch your weight, chances are you already have one. If not, get one. It does make recipes so much more precise and that means, your dishes will come out much better for you too.