German cheesecake

Hi to you all. Hope you had a nice weekend and a good start into the new week. Today I am finally posting the recipe for the German cheesecake. The difference between German cheesecake and the one you get here in the US is curd. In the US mostly cream cheese is used for the filling, which I find makes the cake very heavy. I was hardly able to finish half of a piece the first time I tried it here and have since then never liked to eat it again. Using curd instead, makes the cake very light and fluffy. S. who also doesn’t like the cheesecake here, liked the German version so much that he couldn’t stop eating. :-) As I said in earlier posts it is almost impossible to find curd in stores here, so I again used 2 lb of yogurt, lined a mesh with thin cloth and drained the whey over night. This works very well and can be substituted in all recipes which call for curd.

Ingredients:

For the dough:
- 1 ½ cups unbleached white flour
- 1 Tsp. Baking powder
- Pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp. Lemon zest
- 1/3 cup sugar
- ½ cup cold butter, cubed
- 1 Tsp. Vanilla essence

For the filling:
- 6 Tbsp. Butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 Tsp. vanilla essence
- 3 eggs, separated
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 lb yogurt ( drain the whey over-night to get 2 cups curd) or use 2 cups store-bought curd
- 2 Tbsp. corn starch
- Pinch salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Method:

For the dough combine flour, baking powder and salt. Sift in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle. Add the egg, lemon zest and vanilla essence. Sprinkle the sugar over it and add the butter cubes. Knead everything to a smooth dough and shape into a ball. Wrap in a wet cloth and keep in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a spring form.
Roll out the dough on a flour dusted surface and place into the form. Cover bottom and sides. With a fork make small holes into the bottom.
For the filling combine butter and sugar and beat till fluffy. Add the egg yolks, vanilla essence and whipping cream. Mix, add the curd and sift the corn starch on top. Mix well and make sure there are no lumps. In another bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch salt until stiff. Fold carefully into the filling. Pour the filling over the dough and spread evenly. In a small bowl mix the egg yolk with 2 Tbsp. whipping cream and brush on top of the filling.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. Let cool in form for about 10 minutes and the flip over onto a wire rack. Let completely cool before taking off the form. Dust some powdered sugar on top.
The cake will sink in while cooling.

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