The Best German Cheesecake Recipe | Käsekuchen
With its light and fresh flavor and fluffy texture, German cheesecake is a dessert that everyone enjoys. The best news is, this German dessert recipe is incredibly easy to make!
Have you ever had German cheesecake, also called Käsekuchen?
If you like a good American cheesecake, I am sure you will love its German cousin. This is actually an old family recipe that I am excited to share with you today. Mostly because I know that this cake disappears quickly whenever we serve it.
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How is German cheesecake different from American cheesecake?
American cheesecake is traditionally rich, heavy, and thick, made with plenty of eggs and cream cheese. In comparison, German cheesecake is made with quark, a soft fresh cheese, similar to ricotta or cottage cheese.
Additionally, German cheesecake typically has a shortbread crust, while the American dessert has a graham cracker crust.
My family’s German cheesecake recipe is crustless, which is the way I always make it, but you can definitely make a crust if you’d like.
Ingredients and notes
There are some ingredient substitutions noted in the next section of this post.
- Quark: This is an essential ingredient in a German cheesecake recipe. If you can’t find it at your local grocery store, you can very easily use homemade quark.
- Eggs: The recipe calls for 4-6 eggs. If they are rather small, use 6.
- Oil: I prefer using avocado oil since it has a very neutral flavor.
- Sugar: I use regular organic cane sugar for this recipe.
- Lemon: For this recipe, you will want both the juice and the lemon peel. I highly recommend using organic lemons – or lemons from your backyard if you happen to grow them.
- Vanilla This recipe calls for vanilla pudding powder. If you don’t have it, you can learn how to make vanilla sugar or substitute vanilla extract for vanilla sugar. If you do, use only 1 ½ tsp of vanilla extract versus the 3 tsp of vanilla sugar.
- Cornstarch: This thickener helps to hold the cheesecake filling together.
- Baking powder: This ingredient gives the dessert some of its fluffy consistency.
Substitutions and recipe variations
This basic Käsekuchen recipe is perfect as is or with different ingredients and additions:
- Quark: As a substitute for quark, you can use unflavored full-fat Greek yogurt. I recommend draining it through a cheesecloth overnight to get even closer to the consistency of quark. I have also thought about using cottage cheese. The biggest challenge with that is that most if not all cottage cheeses contain a lot of salt. Some people like to combine 9 parts of ricotta cheese with 1 part of sour cream. If you’re doing that, I still recommend putting the ricotta in your food processor to give it a smooth consistency.
- egg whites If you don’t have an electric mixer to whip the egg whites, you can skip beating the egg whites. I have made this recipe both ways, and while the consistency of the filling may be less fluffy, it still tastes delicious.
- Sour cherries: Many Germans like to add cherries to their cheesecake. If you can find them, simply place them in the springform pan before adding the cheesecake filling.
- Mandarin orange slices: Oftentimes you will find Käsekuchen in Germany with mandarin slices in it. You can either use fresh segments or canned ones.
- Crust: If you would like to add a crust, you can easily make a shortcrust pastry or use a graham cracker crust.
Useful tools and equipment
These tools will help you make a delicious German cheesecake:
- Large mixing bowl: Apart from whipping the egg whites, everything for the German cheesecake is mixed in one bowl. For this reason, I recommend using the largest mixing bowl you have.
- Electric mixer: For the best results, I recommend using a handheld electric mixer for this recipe. However, either a stand mixer or a large food processor will also work.
- 10-inch springform pan: Using a springform pan makes it much easier to remove the cake, and to cut clean slices as well.
- Parchment paper: While you can grease the springform pan, using parchment paper makes transferring the cake to a pretty cake stand and clean-up so much easier.
- Silicone spatula: This will help you to get every bit of cheesecake batter out of your bowl.
How to make the German cheesecake
- Separate the eggs. Set the bowl of egg whites aside- you’ll whip them later.
- Combine the egg yolks, quark, and remaining ingredients in a very large bowl.
- Beat the egg whites until they have very stiff peaks.
- Gently fold the beaten whites into the quark cheesecake batter.
- Bake the German cheesecake in a well-oiled, 10-inch springform pan lined with parchment paper.
- Allow the cake to cool before serving. For the best flavor, chill the cheesecake in the refrigerator.
Baking cheesecake ahead
After a lot of testing, I think that this cheesecake tastes best the next day.
You can easily keep it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. I recommend covering it with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
If you’d like to keep it for longer, you can also freeze your cheesecake. It is best to cut your cheesecake into individual slices and place them in an airtight container. You can easily keep it in the freezer for 4 months before it starts losing some of its flavor.
How to serve
While you might love to have this German cheesecake still warm, I highly recommend you wait at least one day. Then the flavors will really come together. We simply dust it with some powdered sugar.
Either way, you can simply serve this German cheesecake as is or add some fresh berries on top. You can enjoy a slice or two of this for breakfast or have it in the afternoon with a cup of coffee – just like Germans do it. It also makes the perfect after-dinner dessert.
Fluffy German Cheesecake (with Video Tutorial)
Ingredients
- 4-6 whole eggs
- ½ cup avocado oil or other neutral flavor oil
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 whole lemon juiced and zested, use organic if possible
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar or 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 4 TBSP cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 cups quark
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
- Line a 10" springform pan with parchment paper. Using a brush, oil the sides of the springform pan. Set aside.
- Separate the eggs, keeping the eggs whites separate and adding the egg yolks to a large mixing bowl.
- To the large bowl with egg yolks, add the oil, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice, vanilla powder/sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, and quark. Whisk well to combine.
- Using a handheld mixer (or your KitchenAid) beat the egg whites very stiff.
- Gently fold the eggs whites into the bowl of batter.
- Pour the entire cheesecake batter into the oiled and lined springform pan. You can shake the pan gently from side to side to flatten the batter.
- Bake the cheesecake in preheated oven for 90 minutes, until gold-brown and until an inserted knife comes out clean.
- Let the dessert cool in the springform pan on a wire cooling rack. While you can enjoy this cheesecake warm, I highly recommend letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight for a better flavor and consistency.
Notes
- if you can’t find quark you can make your own: https://www.ourgabledhome.com/how-to-make-german-quark/
- the original German recipe calls for vanilla pudding mix which you can often find online or in the international section at your grocery store (if you use, omit cornstarch)
Video
Nutrition
German cheesecake recipe FAQs
You can either use small curd cottage cheese (just know that most store brands have a lot of salt in it), mix ricotta with sour cream, or use strained Greek yogurt.
Technically, you don’t. You can use another baking dish, but the first slice might not come out quite as pretty.
I personally don’t mind it, and it doesn’t affect how the dessert tastes. Sudden temperature changes can cause cracking. To try and prevent this, turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside so it cools down more slowly.
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Here are some of the tools that I used to make this recipe:
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Just made this cheesecake. Sooooo good. I used drained kefir for the quark and I didn’t have any cornstarch so I used spelt flour instead. It was (is) amazing.
I’m loving all your recipes that I’ve tried so far. Earlier this year I (re)added cultured foods to my diet, including making sourdough. I am have a lovely time trying your recipes – must be my (1/4) German heritage.
I am so happy to hear that and good for you to experiment with the ingredients ~ Anja
Can this recipe be halved?
Yes, absolutely ~ Anja
How different is German vanilla sugar powder from a box of instant or cook type vanilla pudding mix ?
The main difference is that most pre-mixed stuff contains synthetic vanilla aka “Vanillin” ~ Anja
Hmm, I always love German cheesecake. I live near the border with Germany so have had it many times but never made it myself. Thank you for this excellent recipe!
Nice! Hope you’ll like it as much as we do ~ Anja
Two tours of Germany during my military days and yeah the Germans make a delicious cheesecake. While stationed at Ft. Gordon, now Ft. Eisenhower in the 90’s a friend of mine German grandmother made one, delicious, and that’s the last time I’ve had one. Yeah, I like it better than American made cheesecake!
Hope you’ll give this one a try!
This is awesome! Can’t wait to try it. Cheesecake is my go to for my birthday every year 🙂
Yay! Happy baking ~ Anja
I make homemade buttermilk cheese that calls for gently heating heating the buttermilk on top of the stove until the curd begins to solidify and separate from the whey. Would that cheese be suitable for for using in the cheesecake recipe?
I also make a type of American Neufchatel, which is just homade buttermilk left at room temperature to fully ripen until it coagulates into a solid mass, and then drained for several hours.
Would either of those cheeses be suitable for for using in the cheesecake recipe?
Cheesecake is my favorite too! This recipe looks so fluffy and decadent – it’s making me wish I had some right now! Can’t wait to give this a try.
Oh my gosh, this looks mouthwatering – wholesome and decadent at the same time.
Thank you!! I am so glad you like this cheesecake recipe!
This looks amazing. Cheesecake is my all time favorite desert.
*DESSERT! Oops! I’m not a big fan of deserts. Haha!
LOl!! If I have a choice between the two, I always prefer dessert 😬
Thank you so much, fellow cheesecake lover 😃