Baking Through the Alphabet: The Letter Q

The Letter Q:

Letter Q Meal:

• Quiche
• Quince
• (you could also eat quail or get some delicious queso or have a quesadilla) 

For our baking project, we tried Quark Cheesecake.  Did you know that Quark is a German style cheesecake that doesn't even have cream cheese in it?  I've never made quark, nor have I ever made a real cheesecake, like the kind that you bake, before making this.  So I can tell you that it was not too difficult!  It took some planning and some extra time, but it was worth it in the end!

First of all, while my daughter was at school, I made the quark.  The recipe I found only requires two ingredients: buttermilk and heavy cream.  Quark Recipe

You mix the two ingredients together and "bake" them in the oven on 200 degrees F for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Below is a video showing how it separates after baking. 

 Once it is finished, pour the mixture into a cheesecloth and colander and let it drain for 45-60 minutes.

The "curds" leftover after running the quark through the cheesecloth.  And the "liquid separated out as well.  

Beat it until smooth.

Place smooth quark in a clean bowl and put in the fridge.

Once my daughter got home, we started to make a traditional (as closely as possible) Quark Cheesecake.  We used this recipe here:  Isolde's German Cheesecake Recipe.

You'll notice that the recipe calls for "vanilla sugar".  Anyone ever heard of it?  I never had.  Sadly it takes about a week for it to be ready, so I skipped it this time and just put in regular vanilla and didn't even add a bit more sugar.  But it turned out beautifully anyway.  Here's a recipe for vanilla sugar just in case you ever want to give it a go for your next baking needs (sounds fun!).  Vanilla Sugar  Apparently, you can use it as regular, granulated sugar, to enhance the flavor of you baked goods.  Sounds like another baking project in the near future!

Apparently, I forgot pictures of the cheesecake making progress, but here is the cake in the springform pan.  

Little hands ready for a bite!

(Sorry about the yellow lighting at nighttime for this picture - it tasted better than it looks here!)

Letter Q Musicals: (* = ones that are , in my opinion, decent or fun to watch; ** = kid friendly; *** = the one we watched for our alphabet musical)

• We couldn't find any musicals that start with Q, but it gave us time to watch a favorite of mine that starts with "S" (since there are so many, I was happy to split it up a bit).