Here's the first real recipe we made in Hamburg……….And the recipe was from Ollie's sister and this photo was actually the cake made by Ollie's niece. Yum!

Russischer Zupfkuchen

It’s called a Russian cake, but really it’s
a traditional German recipe. It’s a rich cheesecake that has a crumbly,
chocolate crust that is also dotted over the top of it.

Directly translated the name means: "Russian Plucking
Cake". In this case you pluck the cocoa dough in little pieces and
sprinkle it onto the top of the cake. 

See below for recipe.

Chloe also did a presentation of how to make this cake at school!

And so…..

We landed in Hamburg Jan 4, greeted by an enormous amount of snow that has ebbed and flowed but continued to linger with vigilance. It brings a quiet, graceful beauty that I can appreciate most of the time but after a solid month I am about ready to see it melt once and for all.

Although there is a lot of English spoken in here, I am anxious to be able to communicate with people in German. And trust me, not everybody speaks English. I've started classes and am up to hello, how are you, I'm from the USA. So it may be a while before I'm having a conversation but I have a lot of motivation and remind myself I learned French from scratch and can do it again. 

So far my work ideas are writing to Sur La Table and seeing if they would like to move into the European market and writing a German/English culinary dictionary.

RECIPE:

 For the dough:

300 g flour

180 g sugar

 200g butter at room
temperature

 2 eggs

40 g cocoa powder (not the instant sweet schocolat for drinks etc.)

1 packet baking powder

 For the filling you need:

150 g sugar

70g butter at room temperature

3 eggs

500g Quark

200 g sweet cream (if unsweetened add 45g powdered sugar)

1 packet vanilla sugar

 a little pinch of salt

 First mix the flour with the baking powder then add sugar and cocoa. Make a
well and add soft butter and eggs. Knead until you get a nice chocolat-dough.

  *Put 1/4 of it aside,

  *Put the rest in a round
springformg pan and form a pretty high edge.

 For the filling :

Beat the sugar and butter till light. Add the eggs one at a time beating 1
min after each. Then add quark, cream and vanilla sugar and salt. Beat all
ingredients till mixed and pour on the dough

 Finally pull the other piece of dough into small parts and spread it over
the filling.

 Bake in the oven at about 180 C for an hour. Cover for 1st half of cooking with foil. Good luck!

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