German quark cheesecake
(VOVworld) - Do you know that Germans, popularly known for their hardworking, efficient and disciplined characters, have quite a history in baking? Although not as famous as France in terms of pastries, Germany is home to several sweet treats that have been adopted by bakers from around the world. In today’s Cultural Rendezvous, Kitty Krause, from Schwerin, Germany, will talk about some delicious German-style cakes for dessert.
Q: Hello Kittie, thank you so much for joining us today on VOV24/7’s Cultural Rendezvous! Talking about Germany, many would think of bratwurst or grilled sausages. But what about German desserts with delicious cakes as we all know that Germany has a quite a developed baking industry?
A: We have a lot of dessert that I can’t decide. And about the dessert in Germany - I am sorry French people, you can’t help it - but if it’s fruit cake, like something pied with fruits, we German make the best pie. I am not saying the French pastry is horrible. Macarons is my favourite one and I love choux. I’ve been in Paris 5 times and every morning I bought choux. That little pastry was so nice.
But you should try all the pie in Germany. It’s really good, really delicious, especially the apple pie because we use the kind of apples that is sour. The dough is sweet and the apple is kind of mixed with sourness and sweetness. Usually I feel the pastry in Vietnam is too sweet and in Western countries, we like mixing up with plain sour and sweet. That’s why I like it. There are different kinds of apple pies in Germany but you should at least try the normal apple pie - the traditional one. You’re going to feel like it’s much better than the American ones.
Q: Wow! That sounds delicious! Any other cakes that you think Germany is superior of?
A: We also have the best cheesecake. Our cheesecake is made from quark. Quark means the step between yoghurt becomes cheese. It’s heavier than the yoghurt but fluffier than the cream cheese. The New York cheesecake is really heavy and you feel heavy in your stomach after only 1 piece. But German cheesecake you can have two pieces.
Q: Really? I never heard of cheesecake using quark before!
A: You should try the German cheesecake. I tried to find quark here because I wanted to make a cheesecake to tell our Vietnamese friends and also foreign friends that German cheesecake is the best. The American use more cream cheese, they use the one called Philadelphia and it’s really heavy. You eat one piece and you feel like: oh I am so full, may be I need a nap. But with German cheesecake, it’s fluffier and really light.
Q: What about the base? I sometimes see people using grinded Oreos as the base.
A: The base of the cheesecake is more like the cookie dough. We put quark on top. And we sometimes put fruits in it. And then we are going bake it. On the top it’s going to be crispy brown. If you go with a fork through, it’s going to be really light. It doesn’t have the heavy consistency like the American cheesecakes.
Q: And there is one more delicious made-in-Germany dessert that I know: the black forest.
A: Yes, the black forest is the cake with a lot of whipped cream. It’s really delicious and the cherries are really nice. You have to use the black cherries that are dark red. It’s really complicated to make the black forest and it takes a lot of time. First, it has a base and whipped cream, then the cherries and then another layer, and whipped cream again so it’s kind of difficult to do.
A piece of German black-forest cake. Photo: germanculture.com.ua
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Q: Do you always have dessert at the end of a three-coursed meal?
A: No no, we never have three-coursed meals. Sometimes in special events like for Christmas or Easter or for birthday, my mom will do three courses but usually not. We just had one meal and then sometimes you have a dessert. I think what is really common in Germany is in the afternoon you have a coffee and a small cake. After you have the first lunch, about three pm we are going to have coffee and a little bit cookies or a small cake – it’s like the English people have the tea time. I don’t know if Vietnamese people have this…
Q: No we don’t. I think in Vietnam we only have snacks to eat at any time of the day. Hey, why don’t we remind VOV’s listeners of our German must-eat dessert list?
A: German cheesecake is the number one dish that you should try. The second would be apple pie. Those are from the North so not many people notice those dishes. People usually think about schnitzel or the currywust but I live near Hamburg. Different areas have different types of food, like in Vietnam.
Thank you so much, Kittie, for joining us on this week’s Cultural Rendezvous on VOV24/7.