Eierschecke

Three layers, because the name is a garment that had three parts.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk), dairy (quark).

Ingredients

For the base

• 300 g plain flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 40 g sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 60 g butter, softened
• 150 ml milk, warm
• 1 egg

For the middle

• 500 g quark, drained
• 80 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60 g butter, melted
• 40 g cornflour
• 150 ml milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon

For the top

• 4 eggs, separated
• 80 g sugar
• 100 g butter, softened
• 40 g cornflour
• 200 ml milk

Method

1. THREE LAYERS, BECAUSE THE NAME IS A GARMENT THAT HAD THREE PARTS. The article's etymology is the recipe: the term comes from a 14th-century piece of menswear consisting of A MEDIUM-LENGTH TUNIC WITH A VERY TIGHT WAISTLINE worn with a hip belt, and the cake took its name FOR THE APPEARANCE OF THIS TRIPARTITE GARMENT -- UPPER PART, BELT, LOWER PART.
2. SO THE MIDDLE LAYER IS THE BELT AND IT MUST BE THE THINNEST. The article sets them out in order: the base is EITHER A YEAST DOUGH OR SHORTCRUST PASTRY, the middle is the quark custard, and the upper layer is CREAMY STIRRED EGG YOLK WITH BUTTER, SUGAR, VANILLA PUDDING AND, LASTLY, BEATEN EGG WHITES, WHICH ARE FOLDED INTO THE BATTER.
3. THE WHITES GO IN LAST AND THEY ARE WHY THE TOP RISES ABOVE THE BELT. Folded into the yolk mixture they turn a custard into something nearer a soufflé, and the three layers end up visibly different depths.
4. ALL THREE ARE ASSEMBLED RAW AND BAKED TOGETHER, which the article states -- AFTER THESE THREE LAYERS ARE ASSEMBLED, THE CAKE IS BAKED. That is the hard part: they must be thick enough not to mix.
5. SO THE BASE IS PROVED BUT NOT BAKED FIRST, and the quark layer wants draining until it mounds on a spoon. A wet quark sinks into the dough and there is no belt.
6. DRAIN THE QUARK FOR AN HOUR IN A SIEVE, pressed under a plate. This is the step that decides whether you get three layers or one.
7. SPREAD EACH LAYER FROM THE MIDDLE OUT, with the back of a spoon, never poured. Poured, the next layer breaks through the one below.
8. A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DEGREES FOR FIFTY MINUTES, covered with foil for the last twenty. The top browns long before the quark is set.
9. COOL IT COMPLETELY IN THE TIN AND CUT IT IN RECTANGLES, which is how the article has it served -- CUT INTO RECTANGULAR PIECES AND SERVED WITH COFFEE. Warm, the layers slide apart under the knife.
10. AND THE FREIBERG VERSION HAS NO QUARK AT ALL, which the article explains with a legend it then demolishes: the quark had supposedly gone into the city wall in the 13th century, and THE LEGEND IS DELIBERATELY NONSENSICAL -- DAIRY PRODUCTS LIKE QUARK HAVE NO HISTORY OF BEING USED IN MORTAR.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes