Sächsische Quarkkeulchen

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Potato ricer
• •Fine sieve or clean cloth for draining quark
• •Wide heavy frying pan

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook ahead

   Boil the potatoes in their skins the day before until a knife goes in cleanly, then drain them well, peel them, and chill them overnight. Floury potatoes dry as they cool, and that dryness is what lets the cakes hold without turning them into flour dumplings.

2. 2

   Drain the quark

   Set the quark in a fine sieve or cloth for at least 30 minutes if it looks loose. Wet quark thins the dough and makes the Keulchen spread before the crust sets, and no amount of panic-flour fixes that without making them heavy.

3. 3

   Rice the potatoes

   Rice the cold potatoes into a wide bowl, then add the drained quark, flour, egg, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, salt, and raisins if you're using them. Mix only until the dough comes together. Work it too hard and the potato starch turns elastic, which is good for wallpaper paste and bad for supper.

   Fry one small test cake first. If it cracks badly, add a spoon of flour; if it tastes dull, add a pinch more salt. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.
4. 4

   Shape the cakes

   Dust your hands and board lightly with flour, roll the dough into a thick log, and cut it into 10 to 12 pieces. Pat each piece into a squat oval about 2cm thick. Keep the flour outside, not worked into the dough, because a dry surface fries crisp while a flour-heavy middle eats like paste.

5. 5

   Fry gently

   Heat the clarified butter with the oil in a wide pan over medium heat, then fry the cakes in batches for 3 to 4 minutes per side until deep golden. Do not crowd the pan; crowded cakes cool the fat and soak it up. If the crust colours before the centre firms, runter mit der Temperatur, down with the temperature.

6. 6

   Serve at once

   Drain the Quarkkeulchen briefly on kitchen paper, then serve them warm with apple sauce and cinnamon sugar. The apple gives the sour note the quark wants, and the sugar belongs outside where it sparkles and crunches a little, not buried in the dough.

Chef Tips

• •Use a floury potato, the kind that falls apart when boiled. Waxy potatoes hold too much water and make a dough that slides around the pan.
• •If your quark is very wet, drain it longer. The dish is cheap and simple, but it is not careless. Dry potato and dry quark decide the result.
• •Raisins are a house argument in Saxony. Add them if you like the sweet bite; leave them out if you want the potato and quark cleaner. Both tables exist.
• •Leftover cakes reheat best in a dry pan over low heat. A microwave makes the crust soft, and the crust is half the point.

Advance Preparation

• •Boil, peel, and chill the potatoes the day before. This is not decoration in the method; the cold potato rices dry and holds the dough together.
• •Drain the quark up to a day ahead in the refrigerator, covered. Stir it before mixing so it folds evenly through the potato.
• •Shape the cakes up to 2 hours ahead and keep them covered on a floured tray in the refrigerator.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 325g)