Plum Crumble Cheesecake

Pflaumen-streusel-kasekuchen

When I visited Hamburg with some friends a few years ago I got a tasty treat from the bakery. It was delicious- some sort of cake with fruit and a lovely crunchy topping. What with not knowing any German and being bad at remembering things, I had no idea what it was and has since been know as a blat of yum. Now I live in Berlin, I have seen hundreds of blats of yum! And I now know that they are 'streuselkuchen'. I've come across lots of things with streusel and decided to bake a cheesecake with it on top. It's got more of a cake than a biscuit base. 

I spent a little while translating (thank you google) a cheesecake recipe I found in a magazine. It uses quark....when in Rome-or, rather, Berlin! You can get different types of quark, so I opted for the fattiest, creamiest kind. The recipe was for a massive cake, so I altered it and added in a few extra bits and pieces. I have baked this twice, adjusting it here and there. The first one went well, but there was way too much bready base which made all the cheese topping spill out when it was baked. This second version has a much better balance.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
200g plain flour
25g sugar
30g butter
pinch of salt
10g fresh yeast (or equivalent instant)
300ml lukewarm milk


For the filling:
100g sugar
380g 40% fat quark/sahnequark
20g flour 
3 eggs
3 tblsp milk 
the seeds from a vanilla pod/vanilla extract


For the topping
250g plums, stoned and sliced
25g sugar
50g cold butter
50g plain flour


Method:
-Preheat the over to 185C and line a loose bottomed round tin (21cm) with baking paper. Line the sides too - you want to create extra height all the way around. Set it on a baking tray.
-put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crumble the yeast in to some of the warmed milk and stir to dissolve. Pour this in to the well and sprinkle a little of the flour on top. Cover with a cloth and leave for 10 mins.
-add some of the milk to the butter in a small bowl and mix. They won't mix together properly, but you want the butter to soften without becoming liquid. Add this, the salt and the sugar to the flour and mix. Add more of the milk until the dough starts to come away from the side of the bowl. Roll it out and line the cake tin with it - you will have some left over, it rises as it bakes!
-Put all of the filling ingredients in to a bowl and whisk till smooth. Pour this on to the dough. Scatter the plum slices on the top. Some will sink a bit, but that's ok.
- make a crumble mixture with the sugar, flour and butter by rubbing the ingredients with your fingertips, nice and lightly. Sprinkle this on the top of the plums.
-Bake for 40 mins checking after 30. It should be slightly golden.