Käsekuchen mit Quark

Käsekuchen belongs to Kaffee und Kuchen, the afternoon table with coffee, good plates, and no apology for a second slice. It is strongest wherever quark is ordinary, which means most of Germany, though the arguments start at once. Saxony pulls the idea toward Eierschecke, with a custard cap. The south knows its Topfenkuchen cousins. Some bake it with raisins, some would rather eat the tablecloth. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders.

I make the plain quark version in a Mürbeteig, a short pastry shell, because the shell holds the soft filling and gives you a clean slice. The filling is quark, eggs, sugar, lemon, vanilla, butter, and a little semolina. Not cream cheese. Cream cheese makes a heavy American cake. Quark gives you the clean dairy tang and the light crumb that German Käsekuchen is built on.

The technique that decides it is water. Drain the quark before you mix, because wet quark bakes late, weeps into the base, and forces the eggs to overcook before the centre sets. Then bake gently and cool slowly in the switched-off oven, because a hot, sudden drop makes the filling pull tight and crack. Runter mit der Temperatur. This is a cake, not a brick.

Use the crumbs from trimming the pastry to patch the shell. Weggeworfen wird nichts. The cake wants a night in the refrigerator after baking, not because it is fussy, but because the quark sets cleanly when cold and the lemon comes forward. Das braucht seine Zeit.