Tag Archives: Curd

October 28th, 2017

Quark-Braid

Quarkzopf-33Some time ago I showed this braids already while they cooled down on sunday morning. I promised to post the recipe, if they turned out nicely – and they did! So here it is. It is mainly a “use leftovers” recipe as it contains a bit of left over quark and some sweet starter after refreshing. The Quark adds a nice moistness to the dough and enhances shelf live. But the special turn in this recipe is the tiny bit of rye flour I added. As I learned last year from the Onjeschwedde is a small dose of rye good to enhance the crumb structure to extra soft and pillowy.

Another point I love at weekends too is the fact that the recipe is great for proofing overníght in the fridge. So the next morning the only thing I had to do is placing the baking tray in the oven. Perfect for relaxed sundays!

Continue reading

October 16th, 2017

Backes Bread

Backes-Brot-23October means that its time again for World Bread Day. And as I baked bread in the wood fired community oven of our local history museum,  I have a real “Backes Bread”. The Word “Backes” means community bread baking house in our dialect. And baking bread in such a “Backes” means sharing a great feeling of society. There are not so many other things that creates a sense of community then some loaves of bread made and shared with one another.

And so this bread is a bread meant for sharing. It is baked by placing two small loaves in one proofing basket. The ingredients of the bread is a bit inspired by leftovers: mashed potatoes, some quark and a bit of whole emmer flour. The Quark and Potatoes make the crumb moist while the emmer adds a deep nutty flavour.

The breads left the oven with a real dark crust – something that can happen by this more archaic way of baking. And it fits somehow very well with the bread, it adds a slight smoky flavour – and that goes extremely well with a bread from a wood fired oven.

Continue reading

August 20th, 2016

Wedding cake for Rahel & Stefan

HochzeitstorteSome month ago the sister of my dearest and me agreed to bake a wedding cake for some friends of her. And so we spent a lot of time on pinterest, collecting ideas and inspiration.

Slowly a plan for the decoration emerged and finally we had a plan for the cakes as well: Punch torte, Nussnougat-Quark-Cake and Sacher Torte would be the perfect cakes. We baked some tiny test cakes for the bride and the groom, they tried them and liked them, too. Especially the punch torte was a favourite. And as we changed this recipe quite a lot it deserved its own recipe.

 

Continue reading

November 27th, 2015

Bread baking for beginners XXII: Quark-Streusel-Kolatschen

Quark-Streusel-Gulatschen (1)There is one wish still open for the Bread baking course: yeasted cake! And what would be a better idea to celebrate the seventh blog birthday of “Hefe und mehr” then to make little yeast pastries with a fluffy dough and delicious Quark filling? And as a bonus point this Quark-Streusel-Kolatschen are very variable as well. You can replace the Quarkfilling with a poppy seed filling or make them without quark but with an increased amount of streusel. It is a basic recipe that can changed to meet your own preferences.

When working with doughs containing much sugar and butter you have to take in account that they inhibit gluten development (as described here as well). Due to this fact they are added at the end of the kneading in small portions. And you can feel how the added sugar will change the consistency of the dough and becomes more soft and sticky when the sugar draws away water formerly bound in the dough.

 

Continue reading

October 2nd, 2015

Breadbaking for Beginners: Spelt, Emmer & Quak Rolls

Dinkel-Quark-Wecken mit Emmer (7)In August we spent a weekend in the beautiful Swabia. A part of my family has its roots there and I always enjoy being there. Eating some pretzels is then a “Must” of course. When we stop at a bakerie in Schwäbisch Hall, I spotted a roll made with some Emmer and Quark (Curd). But sadly the last one was already sold when it was my turn. So I bought pretzels and Briegels instead. But the idea was fixed in my head. And soon afterwards I recipe began to form in my head.

As spelt is a typical grain for Swabia, I decided to use a mix of Emmer and Spelt, which adds a nice nutty flavour to the rolls. The Quark makes it moist and if I would not know, that I added 30 % whole grain flour, I would never have guessed it.

 

Continue reading

February 6th, 2015

Wiener Patzerlgugelhupf

Patzerlgugelhupf (2)

The Patzerlgugelhupf is a speciality from vienna. “Patzerl” means “a little bit” and the cake is called like this because of his different fillings: a little bit nut, a little bit quark, a little bit plum butter, a little bit poppy seeds. A cake which is perfect for people who can not make up their mind and a cake which is perfect to use up left overs. I saw a picture of such a cake in the net some time ago and fell into love with it. And so I had to bake him. And because I always love to use the sweet starter as preferment for pastry, I used him here as well. But for those who do not call this kind of sourdough their own: You can replace him easily with a biga! Continue reading

October 12th, 2014

Apfelkuchen nach Günther Weber

Apfelkuchen nach Günther Weber

When autumn brings the first ripe apples I have to bake apple cake. The best apple for apple cakes is (and will always be) “Jakob Lebel”, a heritage apple with great flavour. My parents grow “Jakob Lebel” in their garden and so I can bake apple cakes with my favourite apple! This year was bad year for apples and so there will be not as much apples as in the last years. And so I have to enjoy and celebrate every apple I get!In Günthers book I found a recipe for apple cake with a sour cream and quark filling which sounded perfectly for me. And so I calculated the recipe down to a standard size spring form (26 cm diameter).

The dough is a yeasted short crust, a kind of crust I learned to love because it is easy in handling. It is made by mixing a yeast dough (for example with some challah dough or some sweet starter) and a short crust pastry. It is a very good crust – not only in handling but although in taste. The filling of apple slices and quark tastes delicious, too. As a little improvement I would blanch the apples the next time I bake this cake to make them really soft but this is only due to my personal preference. The cake is really great and I’m sure that I did not make him the last time!

Continue reading

July 13th, 2014

Quark Blueberry Pastry

Quark-Blaubeer-Teilchen

It’s berry season! After we spent the last weeks with cooking red currant, raspberry and strawberry jam we turned our attention to the blueberries. Beside of cooking jam I set some aside to use them for a little weekend treat. Together with some quark I baked quark blueberry pastries.

For the dough I used my sweet starter which was just freshly feed. But like for this Sonntagszopf you can use Lievito madre or a biga instead. What ever you choose as a preferment, it will be delicious!

Continue reading

February 25th, 2014

Apple Pear Jelly with Vanilla quark

Apfel-Birnen-Grütze mit Vanillequark

Last weekend was the christening of my sweet little nephew. To help my sister I volunteered to prepare the desert and bake a cake. For 18 adults and 9 children I prepared two different desserts (at the end I made about 58 small Glasses with Dessert what was a little bit to much): a creamy chocolate custard and a apple pear jelly with vanilla quark.  I was inspired by a recipe I found at Lecker.de but because I do not like their recipe so much I changed it a lot.

I reduced the amount of sugar and cream and increased the amount of quark, and for the jelly I decided to cook the apple and pear pieces separately and seasoned them with a little bit of Tonka bean which underlines nicely the flavour.

It is a delicious recipe which can easily prepared the day before!

Continue reading

September 29th, 2013

Praline-Quark-Cake

Nugat-Quark-Kuchen

To bake a heart shaped cake for birthday (also called “Birthday-Heart”) is an old family tradition. Which cake is baked on the other hand is highly variable. We already baked Cheesecake-Hearts, Goldknödel-Hearts and or the good old Pound-Cake hearts filled with a layer of jam.

For the 80. Birthday of my Grandmother I volunteered to bake a festively decorated cake and the heart shape was mandatory for me! But what cake should I choose?

At the end I decided to use the Praline-Quark-Cake from Petra. Jutta chose this cake as base of her sons wedding cake and she praised the cake so much that it was clear to me that it would be the perfect cake.

To fill the heart springform completely I multiplied the recipe by 1.5, but reduced the amount of sugar a little bit.

And now I can only repeat what Petra and Jutta already told us: It is a great cake, moist and nutty but at the same time very stable, perfect for fondant covered cakes!

This is for you, dearest Oma. Happy Birthday!

Continue reading