How to make a perfect Käsekuchen - German Cheesecake Recipe (2024)

Deliciously creamy, light and fluffy, nothing beats a traditional German cheesecake or ‘Käsekuchen’. Unlike the denser cream cheese-based cheesecakes of North America, a German Käsekuchen is made from a combination of Quark (more on this later), cream and eggs.

This mixture bakes up to be super light and airy, making that second slice completely irresistible! My easy recipe for German Cheesecake is tried and tested and works every time.

About this recipe

If you ask many Germans which cake is their absolute favourite (be prepared for a serious discussion, remember Kaffee und kuchen is practically a national sport), a Käsekuchen pops up time and time again in the top three.

This is the sort of cake that grandmothers and mothers across the country have been serving up for generations, and it is ALWAYS in the display counter of every good baker and Konditorei, so it’s very much part of the national psyche.

There’s a reason German-style cheesecake is so popular. For starters, it is beautifully light and fluffy with a very subtle tang. The cheesecake filling made from Quark is encased in a crumbly short pastry (murbteig), which provides the perfect crunchy contrast to the creamy baked inside.

It’s also a cake that lasts several days in the fridge, so excellent for preparing in advance for parties and special occasions.

What is Quark?

The million-dollar question! Quark, sometimes known as Quark cheese is a local dairy product made from strained, soured milk.

Flavour and texture-wise, Quark is somewhere in the triangle between Greek yoghurt, ricotta and cottage cheese, though it is a local speciality.

It’s believed the Germanic people have been eating Quark for thousands of years – though the Roman historian Tacitus gave it the rather less appealing name of ‘lac concretum’ or thick milk! It’s also sometimes known in Austria and the mountain regions as Topfen.

While quark is readily available (and cheap!) all over Germany, this unique ingredient is a little harder or more expensive to buy abroad, but don’t worry, I’ve got some quark substitutes listed below which will work perfectly.

Ingredients

To make an authentic German cheesecake, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• Flour, butter and sugar: The building blocks of all delicious baked goods. These are the three main ingredients in the shortcrust pastry or murbteig.
• Eggs: Use the freshest free-range eggs you can find
• Lemon zest and juice: the oils in the lemon peel add flavour and bump up the tanginess of the filling
• Cream: I use whipping cream or heavy cream with at least 30% fat content.
• Low-fat Quark: The main ingredient! This can be substituted with a mixture of ricotta and sour cream or Greek yoghurt if you can’t get Quark. Ordinarily, I don’t use low-fat products, but quark is naturally low-fat, so perfect for making this cake a little less of a guilty pleasure.

How to make German Cheesecake

This Käsekuchen recipe is made with what I think of as the Holy Trinity of German baking: a 26cm (10 in.) springform pan, an oven set at 180°C / 350°F and a cooking time of around an hour.

This combination is so common in German recipes that it is sometimes left out of the instructions altogether. Don’t worry, I’ve given plenty of detail in the recipe card to help you along.

1. First, you need to make a simple sweet pastry or murbteig. My super easy pastry can be simply stirred together, so if you’re not confident, don’t worry! This is quite a soft pastry, so I find it easier to press it directly into the cake pan rather than rolling it out. The pastry then needs to be chilled for half an hour.
2. While the pastry is cooling, you can heat the oven and get on with making the filling. First, beat softened butter, eggs and lemon together, then add the Quark and a little flour.
3. Next, fold under stiffly beaten egg whites and cream until you have a light and fluffy quark mixture.
4. Lastly, fill the pastry shell with the quark mixture, then bake in the preheated oven (no water bath necessary!) for 50-60 minutes until puffed and golden brown around the edges. After the cake has rested and cooled, you can slice it and serve it with fresh fruit.

Substitutions

When I am making this cheesecake in Australia or Italy I find that a good substitution for Quark is a combination of two-thirds strained ricotta to one-third sour cream or thick Greek yogurt.

Be sure to use real sour cream or Greek yoghurt, not artificially thickened ones, as the thickener will break down during the baking process. This thickener is often listed as carrageenan, so check the ingredients. Avoid non-fat Greek yogurt as it is held together with starches and thickeners and is unsuitable for baking.

You can also use cottage cheese very successfully to make a German-style cheesecake (though this may come as a shock to my German readers!) Cottage cheese is lumpier than quark, so you’ll need to use a food processor or blender to blend it until smooth.

If you are keen to track down Quark in your country, your best bet is a German deli or bakery, as they may have a local supplier. Aldi or Lidl supermarkets will sometimes stock it overseas too.

Variations

Käsekuchen is usually served just as it is, allowing the simple ingredients to speak for themselves. Occasionally soft fruit like cherries, mandarin oranges or apricots are laid on the pastry case before baking.

The only problem with this is that the fruit has a habit of making the base a bit soggy, so I think it’s nicer to serve them alongside instead.

If you like, you can add a little vanilla to the filling. Either replace some of the sugar with vanilla sugar or add a teaspoon or two of vanilla extract.

Frequently Asked Questions

German Cheesecake (Käsekuchen) Recipe

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