We call it a Klassiker – German Cherry Cheesecake

Phew! The heat waves that reached Germany throughout the last weeks really turned me into a phlegmatic sloth! The days got a new rhythm, I tried to move as little as possible,  and fed mainly on melon and salads. No way to put on the oven in our top floor apartment!

But then for a few days, temperatures sank to a – kind of – normal level. And I had to quickly bake a cake. The cherries on the market had already given me seductive smiles that I couldn’t resist. So I topped this classic German cheesecake, whose base is creamy quark and not cream cheese, with fresh cherries. Yes, absolutely rightly “we call it a Klassiker”, cause it’s just a great moist and refreshing summer cake. Not much more has to be said about it.

I baked this cheesecake in a Ø 20 cm pan. If you want to use a bigger (or smaller) size I can deeply recommend Herr Grüns Umrechen-Tabelle für Backformen – a great help to convert quantities for different sized pans.

Cherry cheesecake (Ø 20 cm)

ingredients
130 g flour, 50 g cold butter, 30 g sugar, 1 egg, dash of salt
70 g butter, 3 tablespoons starch, juice and zest of 1/2 lemon, 450 g quark (40%, don’t use low fat), 3 eggs, 80 g sugar, vanilla
250 g cherries

preparation
In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar and salt. Add egg and butter in flakes and combine to a coherent pastry, working with a fork and finally your hands. Wrap in foil and store in the fridge.
Wash and pit cherries. Preheat oven to 170°C.
Melt butter in a small saucepan and let cool down a bit. In a large bowl mix lemon juice and starch until starch has fully dissolved. Stir in quark, eggs, sugar, butter, lemon zest and vanilla.
Lay out your cake pan with baking paper. Press about 2/3 of the dough into the baking pan. With the rest of the dough form a roll that reaches around the bottom. Lay around the bottom, press flat along the side, about 4-5 cm high. Make sure the “seam” between bottom and side is sealed. Fill crust with quark mixture, distribute cherries on top. Bake for 45 minutes. Then turn off heat, put a spoon into the oven door and let the cake fully cool out in the oven. Remove from oven and store in the fridge. It’s best eaten chilled on the next day.