Kaffee Klatsch
I recently hosted a baby shower for a great friend of mine over here in Paris, and as she is German I decided it was a perfect opportunity to celebrate a time-honoured German tradition: the Kaffee Klatsch. Literally translated this means a coffee gossip (as usual the Germans tell it like it is).
You see, growing up in Germany, there would be at least one of these events every week. The hostess would bake a cake, whip up some cream, boil up a pot of coffee and the neighbourhood ladies would perch themselves on the sofa for a slice of cake and a good gossip. Not so different from what my girlfriends and I do now! There is a lot less baking which might be better for our waistlines, but it is a shame as nothing beats a good Käsekuchen, a Streuselkuchen or a Gugelhupf.
I dusted down my old German cookbook for a good Käsekuchen recipe and it was delicious. A Käsekuchen is a cheese cake, but as it is made out of a type of fromage frais called quark, it is lighter and more tangy than the American cheese cake.
Here is the receipe — I would love to hear what you think:
For the shortcrust pastry:
- 250 gr of flour
- 60 gr sugar
- 125 gr cold butter
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
Filling:
- 2 eggs
- 200 gr of sugar
- 1 lemon
- 500 gr of fromage frais (or quark if you can get it)
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 500 ml of single cream
First mix together the ingredients for the crust. Crumble up the flour, sugar and baking power with the butter. Then add in the egg and knead until it turns into a ball. Wrap up in cellophane and put into the fridge for 1 hour.
While the pastry is cooling down heat the oven to 160° C and make the filling.
Beat together the eggs and the sugar for a few minutes until you have a thick cream. Add in the fromage frais, the lemon juice and the oil. Then add in the cream. Mix it together until you have a nice, thick cream.
Roll out the pastry and line a 28 cm baking tin. Fill the pastry with the cake filling and bake for about 60 minutes.
Let it cool down and serve with a good cup of coffee.
(I am also posting this photo of some lovely old ladies enjoying their Kaffee Klatsch that I found online. I simply could not resist this photo!)
5 COMMENTS - Add your own
i love it! i hope to be doing that when i’m their age!! xo
I know! I really hope I will be like them too. They look like they are having the best time ever!
Kaffeeklatsch that is really typical German. And I missed the cakes when I lived abroad. And you are right: German Käsekuchen is very tasty, its the cake my kids like most.
Viele Grüße
Anke
Yum, this looks so good! We have ‘kwark’ in the Netherlands — Im going to try this recipe with that! xxx
I miss Quark. It is the only thing I ever had a craving for when I was pregnant…